Malcolm McLaren is the most arguably cutting edge musical prodigies of the last 40 years. Lending attribute to launching what most people consider the most influential music/fashion scene of the 20^th century; McLaren is an international icon. A symbolic figure in the artistic climate for politics and rebellion, McLaren and his striking opinions, decisiveness and eccentricity has brought him world wide acclaim.

In 1971 McLaren and his partner, the designer Vivienne Westwood, opened a London clothing shop called ‘Let It Rock’ on the Kings Road. The establishment proved a success for selling Teddy boy clothes. However, McLaren became unhappy with the style of shop, disillusioned by the typical ‘Teddy boy’ customers. Resisting against the clientele, 1975 saw McLaren rename the store simply ‘SEX’, in which he began selling taboo fetish wear. 

A musical conceptualist,  by 1975 McLaren had started to manage The Strand, a band which include STEVE JONES and PAUL COOK amongst its ranks; a group that would later become The Sex Pistols. His printer at the time, Bernie Rhodes (soon to be manager of The Clash), helped out wherever he could in managing the group. John Lyndon, (later to be renamed “Johnny Rotten by McLaren) was spotted by McLaren in his store, SEX. His appearance and attitude impressed McLaren and Rotten was brought in to audition with the other band members as a new front man. Rotten joined, and the band was renamed The Sex Pistols. In May 1977, the band released ‘‘God Save the Queen’’ during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. McLaren organised a boat trip down the Thames where The Sex Pistols would perform their music outside Houses of Parliament, however, the boat was raided by the police and McLaren was arrested, nevertheless achieving the goal to attain publicity for the group. 

The band released their album ‘‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols’’ in October 1977 and played their last UK gig before embarking upon an American tour in January 1978 this time with their new bass player, Sid Vicious. McLaren has later stated that he had ‘planned out the entire path of the Sex Pistols’ which was later portrayed in the film ”The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle”. 

In 1983, McLaren released “Duck Rock”, an album which mixed up influences from Africa and the Americas, including mainly hip-hop. The album proved to be highly influential in bringing hip-hop and the dance craze “body popping” to a wider audience in the UK. Two of the singles from the album ("Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch") became major chart hits on both sides of the Atlantic. 

McLaren then turned his focus to electronic music and opera in the 1984 single “Madame Butterfly”, based on the opera. The track is arranged with drum machines, atmospheric synthesizers and spoken verses. It was an unlikely hit, reaching 13 in the UK. The producer of the single, Stephen Hague, became a much sought after producer in the techno pop genre following his work with McLaren.

In 1989, he returned with the album “Waltz Darling”, a funk/disco/vogueing inspired album. "Waltz Darling" and "Something's Jumpin' in Your Shirt" became top-20 radio hits across Europe. While for once McLaren's instincts failed him (there was no sudden interest in Waltz music) it still helped to spread the news about the previously underground practice of vogueing. Indeed McLaren introduced this musical genre a year before Madonna took the single “Vogue” to number one on the US & UK charts in 1990.

In 1998 he released "Buffalo Gals Back 2 Skool" (Virgin Records), an album featuring important hip hop artists like Rakim, KRS-One, De La Soul and producer Henri Scars Struck revisiting tracks from the original “Duck Rock” album. 

His song "About Her", a musical cut-up that features a slowed down version of the Zombie’s "She's Not There" combined with Bessie Smith’s 1929 recording of “St. Louis Blues” became the hit of director Quentin Tarantino’s movie Kill Bill Vol. 2. McLaren's solo work, particularly from the Duck Rock period, has also been sampled by other artists. In 1999, a group called Dope Smugglaz had a UK top twenty hit with the track "Double Double Dutch" which made extensive use of samples from McLaren's original "Double Dutch". In 1997, Mariah Carey's "Honey" and "Honey (Bad boy remix)" sampled "Hey DJ” (Buffalo Girls). In 2002, Eminem released a track called "Without Me", which sampled McLaren's song “Buffalo Gals” and in 2007 McLaren's song "World's Famous" was sampled by R&B singer Amerie on the song titled "Some Like It" from her album “Because I Love It”. 

It was announced on 7 November 2007 that McLaren would be one of the contestants in the seventh series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. McLaren was set to jet off to the outback of Australia, which would premier on British television on Monday 12 November 2007, but he pulled out on the day he had flown to Australia. He told press 'it is fake' and that ‘he didn't know any of the other celebrities’ and quite frankly, 'he didn't have the time'. In January 2008 McLaren featured as one of the "celebrity hijackers" in the UK TV series Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, which was broadcast on E4. In his hijack, he charismatically encouraged the housemates to remove their clothes, daub themselves in paint and produce an artwork using only their bodies and a bicycle. 

Winner of two consecutive Sony Gold Awards in 2007 and 2008 for his brilliant and unique radio features on London and Los Angeles, McLaren recently agreed to create his own weekly Radio 2 show on the BBC commencing this Fall. 

McLaren presently lives between Paris and New York and is developing a stage musical about fashion which he has conceived.  McLaren will write the music and lyrics. 

He recently premiered a new work of film projections and musical cut ups that he composed as part of the GSK Contemporary Collision Course exhibition curated by David Thorp at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.  The show ran from December 2008 to January 2009.  The work has now been acquired by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, USA as well as the Musée D’art Moderne in Paris, France.  McLaren continues to work as an artist and will unveil new work at Art Basel in June. 

With reference to Live and Unsigned McLaren states "We live in a karaoke world of entertainment where there is an undeniable thirst to find the authentic.  To find it is like looking for a ruby in a field of tin.  It requires you to have not just intelligence and bundles of energy, but integrity.  That's why I'm the judge!"