Nathanael Lessore was born in Camberwell, South East London, as one of eight children to French and Madagascan parents. Despite spending most of his life in Peckham, Nathanael has also lived in Paris, Strasbourg, and Singapore. Nathanael became a marketing executive after graduating from the University of East London, believing at the time that a creative writing degree destined him for a career in marketing. Dropping Beats is his debut and writing it gave him the opportunity to show his South East London childhood as the funny, warm, adventurous world that wasn't always represented as such.