So I’ve been very fortunate to have a had a two decade relationship with this here corporate music industry, always a DJ and an avid record collector. In the mid 90’s whilst working at Wyldpytch Rekords I was asked to do club/radio promo by ZTT‘s Head Of A&R, Simon Aldridge for his new girl band named ‘All Saints’.
In 1996 I was brought into the A&R world of Universal Music by Simon Goffe, and after a 5 year stint, Music Week wrote about my departure. I moved onto pastures new and set up www.2RYPE.com on Nov 27th 2000.
The time spent in the USA secured many relationships, after working on several projects with J Dilla whilst at Universal Music, I travelled to Detroit to continue working with arguably Hip Hop’s greatest beat maker J Dilla :-
Click the link below to hear about my life with J Dilla.
And working with a blossoming Rapper/Producer named Kanye West while on A&R duties for Edel/Island UK :-
Click the picture below :-
and a young DJ/Producer named Mark Ronson who gave my UMA winning producer Baby J the parts to remix his Amy Winehouse collab ‘Valerie’ from his ‘Version’ album.
Click the photo below to watch video :-
After working with the great visionary Chris Lighty as A&R for Violator/Primary Wave, the BBC contacted me to help them with their documentary soon after his death :-
Radio 1Xtra Stories: The Story Of Chris Lighty – Hip Hop’s Money Man
Click photo :-
Now in a contemporary age of the internet, social media, blogs and the likes, it’s with great admiration that today many UK ‘black music’ artists are flying the flag as independent artists and achieving chart positions in the 20s and top 10s in both singles and albums. Bugzy Malone, JME, Skepta, Kano, Ocean Wisdom, Krept n Konan, Stormzy etc etc.
Jamal Edwards and his SBTV empire achieving an MBE from her majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd, and from headlining my Camden Crawl event in 2012, now doing an SBTV showcase highlighting British talent at SXSW, Texas.
From an international spectrum, Skepta being endorsed by and performing with Drake. Media sensation Kanye West acknowledging the UK Rap scene and getting them to join him on stage at his 2015 Brit Awards performance.
To north London rapper Little Simz being endorsed by Grammy winning rapper Kendrick Lamar, headlining my Camden Crawl event in 2014 and now being featured in Forbes Magazine ’30 Under 30‘ faces to watch.
Chris Price the new Head Of BBC Radio 1 / 1Xtra stating ” the talent of black British artists and said the recent Brit awards could have done a better job of reflecting the diversity of UK music ”
and this is Music Week’s recent front page, not ONE person of colour !!!!
Perplexing and contradictory somewhat ????
Socials :-
@thadboogie
@littlesimz
@kanyewest
@musicweek
@chrispricey
@primarywave
