Amplify Dot

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Ashley Charles, better known as Amplify Dot, A.Dot or Dotty, is an English rapper, DJ and broadcaster from South London. Born on 9 April 1988, her breakthrough came at age 13 when she freestyled at Missy Elliott’s Brixton Academy concert after Elliott invited the audience to rap. This moment set her on a path in the UK grime and hip-hop scenes.

She built her name with releases like the Born Ready mixtape (2011) and the Short Back and Sides EP (2012), which made the iTunes Hip Hop chart. In 2012 she signed with Virgin Records and Sony ATV, becoming the first UK female rapper in over a decade to secure a major-label deal. She followed with the Spare Parts mixtape and Spare Parts II (2013) and collaborated with artists such as Busta Rhymes, Emeli Sandé, Kano, Ms Dynamite and more. As part of the all-female crew 367 with Lioness and Lady Leshurr, she also contributed to the remix of Ms Dynamite’s “Neva Soft” (2011).

Dotty moved into radio and TV, presenting her own slot on BBC Radio 1Xtra from 2013 and becoming the weekday breakfast show host in 2016. She co-presented BBC One’s Sounds Like Friday Night with Greg James (2017–2018) and appeared on BBC Two’s I’ll Get This and Impossible Celebrities in 2018. She narrated 2 Chainz’s TV show Most Expensivest. Her debut book, Outraged: Why Everyone is Shouting and No-One is Talking, was published in July 2020 and became a Times bestseller.

During the COVID-19 era she launched Too Rude for Radio, a frank BBC Sounds podcast with her producer Robby. In August 2020 she was named Apple Music’s Lead Cultural Curator and Beats 1 radio presenter. Dotty lives in Kingston upon Thames with her two sons and is a Manchester United supporter.