Million Stylez

Kenshin Iryo more known as Million Stylez was born June first 1981 in Stockholm, Sweden. He grew up in a working class part of town called Sollentuna with his french mother and Japanese father. Most of his friends came from foreign backgrounds due to the very immigrant-dense neighbourhood.

He started experimenting with Hip Hop at the tender age of nine, recording rap in Swedish on his cassette deck player. After a couple of years he started to write lyrics in English but it wasn’t until he turned 18 that he moved on to Dancehall and Reggae. It was only a natural step for him due to the fact that reggae always been there as he was growing up. He is one out of a few out there that can master so many different styles such as singing, deejaying and rapping. He was self-taught and never had any schooling but he still doesn’t see any musical boundaries.

In the summer of 2005 he went to the “Big Break” finals arranged by Irie FM (Jamaica’s nr 1 radio station). It is an annual talent competition for upcoming artists in Jamaica with more than 1200 talented applicants. After live performances in St. Elizabeth, Montego Bay and Kingston, TV and radio-interviews he ended up in a honourable fourth place. He was also the first non-Jamaican that ever had participated in the competition.

2006 march first, saw the release of his breakthrough smash hit “Miss Fatty”. It was distributed by German Soundquake and was their number one selling song for weeks. It was also received very well by radio stations like Hot97, Shade 45, BBC1 Xtra, Kiss FM, NRJ, Voice, P3 etc. It has also been the number one track/video on Trace TV/radio that covers over 50 countries around the world. Dj´s of all genres from all around the world start playing it in the clubs and they still do frequently up to this day. It was the biggest dancehall song worldwide for 2006 and you can actually say that its a timeless classic today. The video was shot in Cuba and has over 15 million views on youtube so far and its increasing rapidly.

Million Stylez released his debut album “From A Far” 2007 with KBC music and it included everything from roots, dancehall and Hip Hop to even some R&B influenced songs. Just to mention a couple of songs that made this launcher was of course “Miss Fatty”, “Brighter Day”, “Give me the strength” and “Fade away” that also became number one on the german reggae-charts.

It wasn’t until three years after in may 2010 that he released his second album entitled “Everyday” and this time through his own label Adonai Music. This musical masterpiece feature hits like “Everyday, “Love we deal with” and the cross-over smash hit “Supastar”. This time around he decided to have a couple of guest appearances, but not just any artists. He linked up with none other than Gentleman and recorded a song called “Help Is On The Way”. He says that it was an honour for him to do “World crisis” with the living legend Don Carlos for this album. From the old to the new, “As mi forward” is a massive street anthem alongside the dancehall superstar Busy Signal. “Everyday” is more of a compilation of the latest and greatest songs he recorded at the time. He says that there is no thought behind his music making, just feeling and emotions. Overall its a more mature and evolved album than his first one.

2013 he released an EP called ”Songs about you” through the french label Special Delivery. This smooth compilation consists of strictly love songs about different relationships he had in the past. He says that these are all true stories otherwise he could never record them with so much feeling. He always wants to show his versatility so you will hear everything from smooth lovers rock to dancehall to a more crossover hiphop vibe on this project.

Just to mention a few of the artists that Million has worked with over the years, there are big stars like Beyoncé, Gentleman, Peetah Morgan (Morgan Heritage), Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Don Carlos, Smif N Wessun, Mr Vegas, Busy Signal, Bunji Garlin and the list goes on and on. In the beginning of his career he also got to open up shows for Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Ne-Yo, Fabolous, Ryan Leslie among others.

Million Stylez has now been performing in every continent independently with his team Adonai Movementz and the touring continues frequently. He is constantly working on new material. What more is there to say? Million has a million things going on.