"Originality is the best form of rebellion"
All About Me
This journalism journey strangely starts in an HMV on the King's Road in Chelsea. As a youngster I would peruse the CD racks repeatedly, intrigued by the covers of the CDs. One day, as I was browsing through the CD rack I saw a man I recognised and this is where my journey began. It was Ice Cube and I recognised him from a music video I had seen on 'B4' an early morning music program that used to air before 'The Hoobs' on Channel 4. Even though I was only about 7 or 8 at the time I managed to coerce my mother into buying the CD I had spotted and it would end up being a deluxe edition of 'War and Peace' featuring both volumes 1 and 2. I gifted it to my father for his birthday thinking he would like it (although to this day he has never listened to it) but from this moment on I remained curious about hip-hop and R'n'B as it was something I had never heard before and I quickly grew to love its energy.
For years I would go to the basement of the HMV where the CD's were and collect compilation albums and mixtapes. 'The Definitive Electro & Hip-hop Collection', 'The R'n'B Yearbook', 'Twice as Nice Presents: Urban Music Festival'. You name it, I HAD IT!!! Moreover, my dad would hand me pirated copies of the latest Hip-hop albums from the likes of Missy Elliot, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg. This culmination quickly cultivated a deep love for American rap music within me, but my journey was merely beginning.
It's the year 2010 and I am in the car with my father riding through South London. For an unknown reason, I had decided to bring with me one of my old compilation albums from 4 years prior, this was one called 'Urban Weekend' hosted by DJ Shortee Blitz. BUT. . . . . (and this is critical), this time I decide to hear out disc one all the way until the end. Usually, the biggest artists open the mix CD and the worst tracks are at the end but this time I listened to it and came across a song that would change my taste in music for life. The song was 'Babylon Burner' by Roll Deep and it was phenomenal. It was rap but seemed to have more energy and more excitement than anything I had ever heard before and furthermore it was English, just like me. I heard myself in the song. It wasn't American, it wasn't foreign. The creators of it came from the same city as me, had families similar to mine and this connection is why from that moment I became Grime kid.
From 2011 I studied Wiley, I studied Dizzee, I studied what they had created and how, and began to want to produce music myself following in their footsteps as a producer and rapper and so began to do so. I began mastering Garageband and then progressed onto Logic Pro X, all the while still trying to rap and release a project. I wore what they wore, developed new tastes in fashion and set out to be an icon.
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For years I tried to be an artist and hit recording studios across London rapping my heart out but by 2018, I reluctantly realised that I did not fit the mould necessary to be a rapper. I had never seen a gun, used a knife, smoked cannabis or worn diamonds and I never intended to.
That wasn't me and would never be.
With this in mind, I decided to pack it in and after years of trying realised that being an artist is not the only available role for a music lover in the music industry. I came to realise, there were managers, stylists, promoters, A&R's, radio hosts, and a plethora of other roles in the business that meant I could get up close and personal with music without being an artist.
With my love for English having achieved an A at A-level and, of course, knowing my skill with words, it didn't take me long to figure out that my place within music was undoubtedly as a music journalist. To listen to music, to critique it, to turn my feelings into words and to place the art into its wider cultural context. That was to be my job.
Now it is my job.
Join me as I fulfil my dream as a music, fashion and arts journalist, having already acquired bylines from The Indie Scene, Music Is To Blame, PopSins and Soundwave Mag, I am thrilled to have you who is reading this as part of my journey. Below I have answered the essential FAQ's!
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Who's your favourite music artist?
"My Favourite artist right now would have to be Novelist. He is very true to our UK sound and is very experimental with his music which is something I like, his sound is very unproccessed and quite raw, some major label rappers play it way too safe for my liking. I don't like artists whose entire portfolio sounds like one long song. Novelist definitely pulls off a lot of different styles and well which is why he is at the top for me right now."
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Best Band?
"Ooooooohh that's a good one, I would have to say Gorillaz, 'Demon Days' is just a classic. A song like 'Feel Good Inc.' doesn't just write itself, that's an earworm that has been crafted to hook you from the moment you listen to it. Aside from the songs, the way that Damon Albarn made the band a visual experience as well as a sonic experience is genius. I actually have all the different band members plotted around my house, if you love the band you really buy into the characters."
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Who's your favourite Painter or Sculptor?
"I always say the same thing but my favourite artist is and will always be Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. When I stumbled upon one of her exhibitions in the Serpentine Gallery I was truly stunned. Not only do you rarely see black people in paintings but rarely do you see them presented with such grandeur. Her painting 'A Passion Like No Other' is just breathtaking and I truly adore it. It's grandiose, it's flamboyant and it's unapolegitcally black".
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Who Is Your Favourite Designer?
"I like a lot of different designers but I would have to say my favourite is Ozwald Boateng he is truly a legend in the world of fashion and rightly so. At the same time I do like Virgil Abloh. He very much pushes the boundaries with his work and 'Off-White' has definitely had some audacious collections to say the least".
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