Unknown T
Daniel Lena (born August 17th, 1999), otherwise known as Unknown T is a rapper and model of Ugandan descent hailing from Homerton, Hackney in East London. Sporting a rare diversity within the genre of UK Drill, Unknown T’s deep and gritty voice accompanied with his wavy flow and wordplay makes him stand out above the rest of the scene.
T is often associated with the UK Drill collective 98’s, which consists of MC’s deriving from East London areas of Homerton in E9 and Holly Street in E8. This consists of counterparts KO, V9, Hitman, DA, Jimmy, Stally, AlChubbino, Billy Billions and Mazza.
Under the moniker “T.Sterling”, he uploaded a couple songs on Soundcloud in 2016. In 2017, he released his debut single “Bop With Smoke”, a UK drill song that gained him much notoriety in the scene. His viral hit single “Homerton B” set the stage for Unknown T to become a rising name, wildly blowing up and garnering large amounts of attention towards the end of 2018.
He was arrested for murder in July 2019 after a man was stabbed to death at a party in London; however he was acquitted of the charges in February of 2020.
5 months removed of his release, Unknown T dropped his debut mixtape Rise Above Hate in July 2020 to commercial and critical success and he narrated through his experiences growing up in a tough and poverty deprived environment, his gang affiliations, and the 7-months he spent in prison on trail for a murder.
When speaking to CRACK Magazine, he said:
I’m trying man, I’m out my cocoon now. Rise Above Hate to me simply is a message for the youths to ignore the negativity going on in the world today. So when people listen to my music and come to the end of my project, [they] can erase that negative mentality. I want to enlighten people to do better.
In July 2022, Unknown T released his sophomore mixtape Adolescence, which peaked at #8 on the UK Album Charts marking it as his highest charting project to-date. He also branched out into modelling in mid-2021, being co-signed by the late-great fashion designer Virgil Alboh himself to feature in the campaign for the 2021 Louis Vuitton Mens' Winter collection.