Education
Stryder relocated to the United Kingdom from Ghana in 1995, and lived in Bow, East London and attended St Bonaventure's Catholic Comprehensive School in Forest Gate, Newham
he gained a B.A. (Hons) in Digital arts, Moving image and Animation at the University of East London.
Career
Stryder's recordings date back to 1997, he started at the age of 13 in 2000 on UK pirate radio in East London along with Dizzee Rascal and Wiley. Stryder went on to join the grime collective Ruff Sqwad in 2001 consisting of 5-grime artists, before the group expanded to six in 2004, then finally settling at 7, in 2006. His pseudonym Tinchy Stryder derives from the arcade game Strider which he played when he was young and from the nickname "Tinchy" given to him due to his short stature: his height at 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m) in 2009 then 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) in 2012 making him in 2009 the shortest male artist ever to top the UK Top 40. In 2002, the well-known grime collective Roll Deep of 13-grime artists was formed, and included Stryder and Dizzee Rascal as MCs (Master of Ceremonies). They were making music that was a derivative of UK Garage. For a while there was not even a name for it. The label "grime" was the one that stuck. While Stryder was a member of Roll Deep, he performed some songs including, "U Were Always" in 2002, which was released years later on Roll Deep's compilations album, Street Anthems in 2009. He also performed on Roll Deep's 2004 mixtape, Creeper Vol. 2. Back then he had a high pitched voice. Stryder's music videos made a number of appearances on the Sky (UK & Ireland), Channel U (now Channel AKA) between 2004–2006 and he also made a number of appearances on BBC Radio 1Xtra taking part in freestyle rap, sometimes joined by his rap crew, (Ruff Sqwad), with whom he released with the studio albums Guns and Roses Volume. 1 in March 2005 and Guns and Roses Volume. 2 in October 2006.