Born on January 1, 1992, in Lewisham, South East London, British grime MC and rapper Ian Koromah is better known by his stage name Maxsta. Growing up in East Ham, he attended Langdon School. While in school, he became heavily interested in music, learning to play guitar, piano, and cello. He started telling people his name was Maxwell, which evolved into his Maxsta nickname. At the age of 14, heavily inspired by the grime scene, he started rapping. Fellow rapper God’s Gift was impressed enough to ask him to join his grime crew Mucky Wolfpack. Not long after, he chose to go solo, releasing his first track, 2009’s “East London Is Back”. The song received a lot of attention, airing on BBC1. Maxsta released his first mixtape – Maxtape – in 2010, which quickly sold out. After several physical assaults – including a stabbing – Maxsta reassessed his lyrical and musical approach. The first song to signify the new direction was 2011’s “Average Kid”. His popularity began to grow even more with the release of the 2012 singles “I Wanna Rock” and “Pop Off”. His 2013 single “Wanna Go” (featuring Little Nikki) was his most successful single yet, reaching Number 46 on the singles chart. Maxsta has continued to release new tracks digitally, leading up to Maxtape 2, the sequel to his 2010 debut mixtape. In 2019, he issued the digital EP On the Buttons.
