Tulisa shocked I’m A Celeb viewers on Monday night as she opened up about the origins of her band N-Dubz. 

Chatting to her campmates, the singer, 36, revealed the true meaning behind the group’s name, explaining it was after the postcode for North West London.

She also revealed that originally her cousin Dappy had set out wanting to be a solo star but her Uncle B said they should be in a group, bringing in herself and their friend N-Dubz.  

It’s a decision that paid off, with N-Dubz enjoying chart success and winning four MOBO Awards before they split in 2011. 

After an 11-year hiatus the trio reformed in 2022, releasing the single Charmer and performing in a sold-out UK arena tour – yet Dappy later claimed he hadn’t been paid for the tour and vowed to never perform with the group again. 

While Fazer has kept a low profile in recent years, No Regrets singer Dappy – real name – Costadinos Contostavlos has been embroiled in a number of controversies. 

Now as Tulisa reflects on N-Dubz’s heyday in the Jungle, MailOnline takes a look at the rapper’s highs and lows. 

How N-Dubz rapper Dappy (pictured in 2011) become famed for his foulmouthed outbursts and brushes with the law after bursting onto the scene with his cousin Tulisa 

Tulisa shocked I’m A Celeb viewers on Monday night as she opened up about the origins of her band N-Dubz and revealed Dappy initially wanted to perform as a solo singer 

Dappy, Tulisa and Fazer formed N-Dubz in 2007, enjoying chart success and winning four MOBO Awards before they split in 2011 (pictured in 2023) 

While Dappy enjoyed the highs of finding fame with N-Dubz in 2007, it occurred the same year he was given 40 hours of community service for battery after a scuffle with a taxi driver who he allegedly pushed in Camden, north London.  

The following year, Dappy had another brush with the law as he pleaded guilty to two accounts of ᴀssault at Chelmsford Magistrates Court, EsSєx, after spitting in a girl’s face while drunk on a night out. 

He was given a suspended sentence for 12 months, 100 hours community service, £50 compensation to the girl and her friend and £300 costs.

More troubles occurred in January 2009 when he was arrested and bailed after he was accused of making death threats with a gun, but denied the allegation. 

Three days later he was removed from an Edinburgh to London flight by police after appearing to be acting disorderly.

In 2010, Dappy appeared on The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 1 with N-Dubz bandmates Fazer and Tulisa. 

A woman in Boston, Lincolnshire, sent a text to the show complaining Dappy was ‘vile’ and ‘a little boy with a silly hat’. He secretly copied her phone number and the following day sent threatening messages. 

His management apologised and offered her free concert tickets but the band was subsequently dropped from the Government’s anti-bullying ‘R U Cyber Safe?’ campaign.

In 2008, Dappy had a brush with the law as he pleaded guilty to two accounts of ᴀssault after spitting in a girl’s face while drunk on a night out (pictured with Tulisa and Fazer that year) 

That same year, CCTV pictures surfaced of Dappy taking the illegal drug Mephedrone in a nightclub and he appeared on GMTV to apologise.

Shortly after the incident he was asked to leave Alton Towers theme park H๏τel in Staffordshire for allegedly smoking cannabis.

That year, Dappy and his bandmates filmed Channel Four documentary, Being N-Dubz, where he admitted that he still gives officers a fake name when ever he is stopped.

He confessed: ‘Up to this day, we still give the wrong name and address.’

In October 2011, Dappy was arrested on suspicion of ᴀssaulting the mother of his two children, Kaye Vᴀssell, and was later released without charge. 

She went on to get engaged to US triple-murderer she had never met and moved to Missouri to be closer to him. Prisoner Deandra Buchanan was jailed for life after shooting and killing his stepfather, aunt and girlfriend at a party in November 2000.

Meanwhile, Dappy was arrested and bailed on suspicion of affray, in February 2012 along with another man, after he was alleged to have spat at two women at a petrol station in Guildford, Surrey.

He had been celebrating the release of his single Rockstar at the Casino nightclub and was on the way to the recording studios in Godalming when they stopped at a Shell garage where a brawl broke out and was found guilty of affray one ᴀssault offence in January 2013.

He was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

In October 2011, Dappy was arrested on suspicion of ᴀssaulting the mother of his two children, Kaye Vᴀssell, and was later released without charge (pictured with their son) 

On 6 October 2013, Dappy hit a man on his nose at a nightclub in Reading, Berkshire and was convicted of ᴀssault at Reading Magistrates’ Court.

A judge handed him a two-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, a four-month curfew with an electronic tag keeping him at home between the hours of 10pm and 5am and ordered him to pay a fine and compensation.

In February 2014 he was convicted of common ᴀssault and fined £800 after he hit at man at a nightclub in Chelmsford, EsSєx. The incident, which was captured on CCTV, erupted at Chicago Rock Cafe after clubber George Chittock called him ‘a mug’. 

That same year he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where he had several high profile rows with The Apprentice star Luisa Zissman. 

In one exchange, he criticised her personal life saying: ‘Tell me how many men you have slept with in one night. That’s dirty, that’s disgusting’. 

Luisa then said Dappy’s mother would be ashamed of him, which only made him more irate and belligerent and prompted him to bring up Luisa’s daughter.

‘Imagine your poor little daughter what’s she going to think, if she knew the men you slept with,’ Dappy said.

‘My mum told me that men can’t do certain things that men do, and women can’t do certain things that men can do.’

On 6 October 2013, Dappy hit a man on his nose at a nightclub in Reading, Berkshire and was convicted of ᴀssault at Reading Magistrates’ Court (pictured outside court) 

In 2015 he breached his suspended sentence after he reportedly failed to turn up to a probation appointment and arrived late for a workshop aimed at improving his self-control. He admitted the breach and was fined £1,000. 

Dappy was also subject to a four-month curfew with an electronic tag keeping him at home between 10pm and 5am and ordered him to pay a fine and compensation. 

A judge ordered the rapper to behave but said he would not go back to jail. 

Dappy was back in court in 2017 after he admitted carrying a kitchen knife during a confrontation with his partner Imani Campbell outside their home.

The rapper, who shares a daughter with Imani admitted carrying the knife and pointing it at neighbours.

Yet he walked free from court after his partner said he was not responsible for the row. 

Addressing the judge from the witness box, she said: ‘I think when a male and a female are in a relationship and an argument occurs, the male may come across as the bad one, and that’s not always the case.’

Asked to describe how he supported the family, his partner of three years said: ‘He takes care of me and my daughter. I couldn’t ask for a better father for my daughter or a partner for me.’

In 2020, Dappy became subject to fan ridicule after a string of social media outbursts. 

In 2014,  appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where he had several high profile rows with The Apprentice star Luisa Zissman (left, with Casey Batchelor) 

The rapper – who previously revealed his management had locked him out of his Twitter account to keep him out of trouble – berated and insulted fans in tirade. 

He sent one fan a foul-mouthed recorded message after she told him his music is her ‘guilty pleasure’. 

The fan was Ellana Prior and he ranted to her in the voice note: ‘Do you know what guilty pleasure means you little b***h? It means something that you like that you’re embarrᴀssed about.

‘I don’t make music for it to be called that, do you understand? So f*** off man, you stupid little cow man.’

Ellana sent the message to Dappy back in September but he only replied in January, two days before Splash was released.

The recording was released after four-time MOBO Award winner Dappy wrote on Twitter: ‘New music on Thursday.’

While the singer has legions of fans, he was soon Trending on social media after people called him out for his bad behaviour.

The following month, Dappy attacked one of his fans by direct messaging her to brand her a ‘fat ugly pig’, a ‘tramp’ and a ‘b***h’.

The mother-of-one, Jade Easthope from Doncaster, tweeted that she liked the star’s latest song Splash, posting: ‘#Guiltypleasure #Nananiiiii [Dappy’s catchphrase]’

This, however, prompted Dappy to slide into Jade’s DMs and launch into a bizarre attack on her, demanding she ‘stop taunting him’ and pelting her with unkind remarks.

The following week, Dappy and his girlfriend sent savage messages to a fan on Instagram branding her a ‘h*e’ and a ‘s**g’ – after she sent the rapper a heart emoji.

Fan Chloe Thomas said she believed she was ‘misunderstood’ after reacting to a story by the Oh My hitmaker with the heart emoji – because she is a fan of his music.

The mother-of-one said she was left horrified after the singer then responded with a slew of insults two days later, taking umbrage with the fact she messaged him when she had a boyfriend.

Dappy branded her message ‘vile and wrong’ and labelled her a ‘h*e’ in messages to her Instagram inbox – the star then posted Chloe’s pH๏τos with her boyfriend on his Instagram stories for his nearly 300,000 fans to see.

His post featured pH๏τos of Chloe and her partner, and the caption: ‘Imagine if I asked her to come link me?? What do you think she would have done??’

Dappy followed this with posted screensH๏τs of their messages and warned men to ‘pick wisely’ before blocking Chloe on Instagram.

Then Dappy’s girlfriend Imanie waded in and called Chloe a ‘silly cow’ and an ‘ugly s**t’.

The following year, he used his fame for good and was able to talk down a suicidal man from Tower Bridge. 

He is thought to have been filming a music video when he was recognised by the man and invited under a police cordon to try and help.

In 2020, Dappy became subject to fan ridicule after a string of social media outbursts that saw him take aim at fans who had DM’d him 

Speaking with The Sun, a source said: ‘Dappy told him life was beautiful, and that things would get better basically… He’s been an absolute hero.’

The source said: ‘As he was walking away, Dappy heard this young guy shouting his name and waving frantically as he was perched precariously in an arch directly over the Thames.

‘After telling a constable he was a fan, Dappy was invited under the cordon to try.’

They then spent around 10 minutes talking, with Dappy thought to have told the man that ‘life is beautiful’ before medics were able to get the man down.

The source added that after being released from hospital the man and his grateful sister sent their thanks to the star in a message.  

Dappy then retreated from the limelight before delighting fans by announcing N-Dubz’s comeback tour in 2022. 

They also released their first new single in a decade, Charmer.  

Yet while their sell-out tour delighted their hardcore fans, the gigs were marred by tales of in-crowd fights and a cancellation due to Dappy losing his voice. 

Those hoping it would lead to another tour were then left disappointed when Dappy vowed not to perform with the group again. 

In a social media outburst he threatened to ‘twist the head off’ his management and ‘slap’ his accountants over unpaid money from the reunion tour.

Dappy then retreated from the limelight before delighting fans by announcing N-Dubz’s comeback tour in 2022. They also released their first new single in a decade, Charmer

In a now deleted post, seen by The Sun, he wrote: ‘Since N-Dubz comeback, I wasn’t paid a penny in any way, form or shape! I’ll never write another song or bar with N-Dubz again.

‘F**k N-Dubz and f**k everyone who helped manage them. I’ll never write another song or bar with N-Dubz again.

‘I’m gonna twist your head off your shoulders when I catch you. I’m slapping you sooo hard too you little f**k boy. I want my breaddddd.’

Dappy also shared a document which said spending on the tour budget was ‘way over what we expected’ and there were no funds to pay him.

It read: ‘There are currently no funds currently available to Dappy from the N-Dubz money.

‘We are still yet to receive everything from (the manager) but from what he has provided so far, the level of his spending on behalf of Dappy from the tour money is way over what we expected.

‘It’s not a case of Dappy not being paid for the tour, it’s a case of the money earnt by Dappy already being spent without his or our knowledge.

‘This spending has eaten in to the other band members’ pots. Again, we did not know this was happening.’

The dispute is said to be about cash allegedly sent in error to a manager but all parties are now trying to resolve it.

While Dappy has kept a low-profile this year, he had yet more brushes with the law in 2023. 

In July, Dappy (left, with Yung Filly) was filmed in an altercation with Spanish police outside an Ibiza nightclub where his friends appeared to have been struck with truncheons 

In July, Dappy was filmed in an altercation with Spanish police outside an Ibiza nightclub where his friends appeared to have been struck with truncheons.

Three months later, he was landed in a H๏τ water over an Instagram rant allegedly threatening to shoot his business ᴀssociates over a £580,000 cash row.

He claimed he had been left more more than half-a-million pounds out of pocket and named an agent and management firm ostensibly responsible, according to The Mirror.

The paper reported that Dappy posted a gun emoji and wrote: ‘If anyone owed me even just a pinky [£50] on da roads I’d bunnn dem.’ Bun refers to shooting a gun.

‘These funny looking fed c***s think they can just rob me like this and that’s mad. Watch [when] I actually see one of you.’