Career
Quaye made a solo recording contract with Polydor Records and moved to New York. He began working with Epic/Sony when Polydor let him out of contract, and in late 1997 he reached the UK Top 20 twice, with "Sunday Shining" and "Even After All". His reputation was established by Maverick A Strike, released in September 1997. It went gold in less than three weeks later, and led directly to the BRIT Award victory. The album is now certified multi platinum. In 1998, Quaye performed George Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. Two more albums were released on Epic, Vanguard (2000) and Much More Than Much Love (2004). "Spiritualized" became his last single to score a top 40 landing in the UK charts when it was released in September 2000, reaching number 26. In 2004 the single "Dice" was released in collaboration with William Orbit and featuring Beth Orton.
Quaye has been living and working in Berlin since 2005. He released the EP "Pound for Pound" with Intune Records in 2008 with Norman Grant of the Twinkle Brothers featuring Sly Dunbar and Lloyd Parks. He is currently working on a new album with A Guy Called Gerald and The Stereo MCs.
Quaye has also worked with Osibisa, both on stage and in the recording studio, as well as Iggy Pop, Tricky, Randy Savage, Primal Scream, Lee Scratch Perry and Buju Banton. He has supported James Brown, Luciano, Weller, The Verve, Ben Harper, Fun Loving Criminals, Robbie Williams and The Stereo MCs, and has been supported by Amy Winehouse, Natty, Ken Boothe and Cath Coffey of the Stereo MCs.
In October 2012, Quaye was sentenced to 225 hours of community service and given a supervision order for racially-aggravated assault after he punched and spat in a woman's face in Edinburgh in October 2011. Quaye has a previous conviction for assault after he pushed his ex-girlfriend and kicked her friend in the chest in front of a four-year-old child in 2003. On that occasion he was given a community rehabilitation order, and was ordered to pay compensation to the two women and to attend anger management classes. After the sentence was passed Quaye told the press, "It’s the women who need anger management, not me. That’s all I have to say."
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