On a surprisingly warm October evening in the heart of Camden Town, on the penultimate day of October (30th) was the setting for On Beat at the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse being the historic north London venue which hosts the annual ITunes Festival. The focus of the On Beat/Tuned On team is a series of music business seminars that brings light and discussion on some of the contemporary issues we face within the music business. These sessions offer accessibility and first hand knowledge from some of the most successful and influential figures across the music scene. The event curated between Birmingham independent record label Punch Records and Itch FM as media partners.
Your boy Thadboogie was on DJ duties reppin www.itch.fm and of course waxing lyrical and imparting knowledge on the panel. Holding down the hosting duties in his professional capacity was none other than Fusion.
Panellists included Rodney P, Paul H, Spin Doctor, DJ 279 & Phoebe One (All individuals picked for their long standing contribution to the UK Hip Hop culture)
Topics discussed included;
- The birth of UK Hip Hop
- The Evolvement
- Future Direction
The venue was busy with a knowledgeable music audience interacting and firing intelligent questions to spark conversations, of course some issues were discussed more boisterously and the passion was definitely over flowing in the room. It was a welcoming sight to see many enthusiastic bloggers and emerging new artists both male and female exercising their hunger to gain knowledge from us tastemakers. Much was learned about the rise of the UK Grime scene as a business model and its independency amongst an ever changing volatile music industry. The pioneers applauded today’s business savvy social media pioneers and generally encouraged more unity in an era where the embryonic authentic ‘black music’ artists appear to be sidelined by major record labels. Contrastingly, as many argued ‘it’s just the awakening of black music culture to a wider audience of the internet generation’ who understandably are taking an active role as artists, rappers, singers, producers etc. Fusion did an excellent job curtailing heated and humorous dialogues and kept the whole evening interesting. I’m honest in saying the audience didn’t want the event to end !!!!
Fear not it was both filmed and the audio recorded, the Hip Hop community hopes the event acts as a catalyst for similar future events.
For more info follow @thadboogie @itchfm @itsfusion @Rodney_P @DJ279 @paulhiphop @SpinDoctorUK @PhoebeOneMusic
