MEO

Dennis Romeo van Leeuwen, aka "MEO" was born in Schiedam, The Netherlands, on the 10th of June 1984. As his father was a musician, music has always played an important role in MEO's life. From the age of twelve, MEO was already being influenced by the musical talents of many Hiphop greats, such as Tupac, NAS, and Biggie. These rappers inspired the young boy to rap, and by early 2002 MEO organized his own Hiphop group, "Rataliation". By this time MEO was already broadening his musical skills, creating vibey rap texts as well as writing song lyrics. As he progressed as a performer, it wasn't long before he broke away from "Retaliation" in order to continue on as a solo artist. The power of American Hiphop and the use of 'street-language' or 'slang' is phenomenal, and MEO had begun to strengthen his own understanding and command of this language in order to reinforce his own skills as a rapper and performer. His talent was finally recognized by the music industry and in 2003 MEO submitted demos to the record label Toptrax. The cooperation was a success. Toptrax offered MEO a contract in within 6 months 2 very promising singles were produced. The artist was flown to Los Angeles for a video recording, and the whole project has received positive and enthousiastic feedback.