Month: September 2010

So the manic month that I’ve been dreading all year has finally arrived. I knew months ago that I was spreading myself a little thinly by agreeing to do 5 jobs simultaneously but did that stop me from accepting them all? Oh no. I’m the queen of multi tasking I thought-I can do this. And readers-I can, and I am, but I wont lie, its taken all my organisational and professional skills to stay absolutely focused and on my A game so as not to drop any balls.

Sometimes work takes priority over pleasure and so this week I have forgone a very fabulous moment in la with Mariah (working) that I had been looking forwards to for weeks. But she understands. And I just did my KanyeWestshouldershrug and told myself there will be more fabulous moments.

London town is the place to be right now. In the past few days the Cash money crew threw a party here, Kanye and Rihanna are here, I have spent no less than 12 days filming and editing with Ne Yo, Pixie Lott and the scissor sisters for their ITV music shows ONE NIGHT STAND- (look out for them starting in November).

An event that I produced recently was the 20th year anniversary of The word. For those of you too young to remember, THE WORD was channel 4’s flagship outrageous youth show in the nineties hosted by myself, Dani Behr, Mark Lamarr, Terry Christian, Alan Connor and Michelle Collins. It was the original wild Friday night viewing must filled with stars and public. We had every big iconic music star including nirvana, Mary J Blige,  MC Hammer, Janet Jackson,  Cypress Hill, Oasis, En Vogue, Salt & Pepa, I even did a dance duet with Alliyah RIP. We had every Hollywood icon ever from Arnie, to Sylvester, to Sharon Stone, to Halle Berry, to Sean Penn, to Billy Zane, I even did a ballet duet with Jean Claude Van Damme opposite the Eiffel Tower!. We offered TV viewers the original 15 minutes of fame when they did ‘’anything to be on TV’’ in a segment called The Hopefuls where Joe Bloggs from down the road would sit in a bath of cow dung, poke skewers through his face, pull a wheelbarrow by his man parts, drink a pint of his own vomit, snog a granny, and so on. Honestly watching back the old shows I was in stitches at the thought that this content was EVER ALLOWED TO AIR. In today’s OFCOM dominated world that could never happen now. We threw a party for every staff member and presenter that ever worked on the show and had 2 live bands perform on the night. Every staffer that began with TV genius’  Charlie Parsons, Waheed Ali and Bob Geldof at their TV company Planet 24 became ‘’someone’’. Band booker Jo Wiley is now a DJ, and nearly everyone else runs their own successful TV company. Between the guests in that room on the night, the power players of all British TV, print press, radio and celebrity were in attendance. So whilst I should’ve been a nervous wreck, I was actually amped at the challenge of proving to them that years down the line I had graduated from my runner/presenter days!.

Next I was invited to An audience with Angie le mar at the Barbican Theatre which is a stunning, very modern, Manhattan esque venue. Angie performed in front of a celeb audience which included actors Chucky Venice, Jason Barret, Michelle Gayle and many others. The show was in word amazing. A really professional, very diverse, fun evening. Angie is a very charismatic, gifted comedian with unique material and an abundance of hilarious characteristics. The audience which was full to the rafters were roaring from start to finish.

Before the show began I rummaged around in my handbag for money at the bar to buy a drink and lo and behold pulled out a pattie that had been in there all day that I’d taken to work for lunch and then forgotten to eat. About to throw it away a giant hand reached down and grabbed it stating ‘’never throw away a pattie’’ and with that my mate Richie popped it safely into his jacket pocket and proceeded to embarrass me all night by asking the theatre ushers if there was a microwave he could warm it up in . Shame.

Hilariously at the after party soiree drinks in the restaurant next door a waiter heated it up for him and a table of ladies including Michelle Gayle flocked to the pattie and helped eat it. Hilarity.

I finished my week by attending a party thrown by designers D&G for their good friend model Naomi Campbell –celebrating 25 years of her career.

The bond street store was a sea of flashing, popping light bulbs every few minutes as celebs and friends of Naomi arrived to show their support of her. As we arrived the paparazzi were like crawling ants outside and luckily as I went to take my place in the never-ending queue, the dolce celeb team Ruth and Chandni spotted me and ushered me in straight away. Phew!

Olly Murs was being chased by paps outside with a desperate female grabbed him,hugging and kissing him for the now de-rigor kiss and tell fake story, Inside Alexandra Burke was holding court in a fitting purple ensemble, a gaggle of Naomi-etttes were strutting around the store looking like they just stepped out of a Samuel L Jackson Pulp fiction movie , Sinitta was no doubt spilling a few of her mate Simon Cowells secrets to eager journos wanting to catch a tit bit, , looking lovely as always Jamelia stroke through the crowd with her entourage like a whirlwind, Janice Dickinson apparently so merry hat she was trying to steal t shirts lol ,designers  Wale Adyemi , Romero Bryan and friends were being courted by us common folk for fashionista tips, promoter Mr Play was hustling and conversing , boxer David Haye had most of the ladies eye balls on lock down, model Claudia Schiffer was posing for endless pics. Naomi had designed t shirts for D&G that they were selling at £200 for the Pakistan disaster fund. If they had been around £40 I might have donated some cash but £200 for tee I will never wear seemed a little steep queen Naomi meanwhile seemed oblivious to all the fuss around her and like the calm eye in the midst of a storm was obediently doing press interviews and posing nicely for pics.So all in all, A LISTER after A LISTER, model after model and never ending cocktails. A pretty boring night. LOL.

In a month it will be time for the annual MOBO AWARDS in association with Lebara Mobile. The biggest urban music event in Europe and unlike the show in past years of old where it may have been overrun and dominated by American stars from the black music world, now it’s a new day! Us Brits are the stars of our own scene and the MOBO AWARDs last year proved that point beautifully!.

Last week it was the MOBO AWARDS  launch party at the plush Mayfair hotel where as you can expect, anyone who is anyone in the industry was in attendance. This year I am part of the MOBO team alongside my old mate founder kanya king and so when they asked me to conduct the press room interviews on behalf of MOBO TV. I only had one stipulation ‘’only if I am the first interview that the talent come to’’ I demanded. Kanya laughed. Yep. Nothing changes. At MTV I always insisted to press teams that we would only cover an event if MTV were the first crew on the red carpet too. It’s business-nothing personal.
So there I was on the night having just run across from my full time day time TV job across town arriving to meet my MOBO TV producer Chris who was awaiting me with sheafs of paper that I was told were the all important MOBO nominations for this year-that no one had seen yet! How exciting!

Mobo Awards founder Kanya King turned up in a blood red dress in a number 15 red double decker route master bus with N Dubz as the paparazzi flashed away to capture the moment. Number 15 obviously reflected that this year marks the 15th year anniversary of the show -what an amazing achievement! Until you’ve been in the industry and attempted to organise events and moments its impossible to imagine the struggle, obstacles and tenacity that’s needed to have longevity in this game.

I dragged my 47 bags up to the MOBO suite to get freshened up and no sooner had I had a quick wash than Chris was on the Dotiwala batphone instructing ‘’we need you down here NOW-Chipmunks just arrived!’’. So with no time to pop on a cute outfit or get made up, I sprinted back into the press room where my crew were ready and the manic marathon run of interviewing this years big nominees began.

First up to get the Dotiwala treatment was best UK HIP HOP/ GRIME nominee Akala who was very happy with his nomination as were the whole of the articulate hip-hop fans he was representing.

Roll deep caused excitement on their entrance as they came full crew 8 people deep and told me they were worried about any of their competition as they were in a league of their own. Sexy ladies former Mis-Teeq member Su Elise and artist Egypt were happy to speak to me together. Su Elise reminisced about her history with the MOBO’s where she and her fellow Mis-Teeq ladies took over the stage and awards at the height of their fame. A girl group that no one knew posed and pouted for a minute but quickly moved on as no one knew who they were. There were whispering that they might be wags or page 3 girls so most of the press were pretty sneery about not wanting to speak with them. It was only later that someone mentioned they were a new girl group. Oops.

Actress and singer Preeya Kalidas arrived with her musical partner in rhyme skepta who is nominated for BEST UK HIP-HOP/GRIME and he also revealed he was one of the MOBO tour headliners.
Aggros Santos looked pleased to be on the red carpet especially after his track has dominated the urban radio airwaves most of this summer.

Magician Damian O Brien impressed me with some devilry trickery slight of the hand magic. I also had a nice chat with relative newcomers to the mainstream Devlin and Fugitive. Jazz musician Yolanda Brown and Guvna B were in high spirits as they celebrated Guvna’s best gospel nomination whilst heartthrob of the grime scene-Scorcher was doing his best to bat the ladies off.

My favourite moment was revealing to Tinie Tempah that he was the lead nominee with 4 nominations for best newcomer, best UK act, best song and best video. He was expectedly shocked and delighted. He genuinely had no idea about his nominations and for the rest of the night was beaming from ear to ear.

Comedian Kojo was mingling with his crew backstage and the sweet mannered DJ Ironik and Kanya King were bantering together about the success of the UK scene this year.

MOBO host 2009 and 2010 Mr Reg Yates was on top form and threatened to present part of this years show in a mankini.
One time MTV character Andre Spence was running around grabbing twitpics on behalf on the MOBO twitter page.
After all the interviews the crew and I ran downstairs to the main public lounge where cocktails were flowing, free

Caribbean food courtesy of Cottons restaurant was being munched, a lot of networking (or was it flirting) was going on and Reggie Yates was the master of ceremonies inviting music stars to unveil various category nominations. Chipmunk was as articulate as ever, as was Akala. It was impressive to see how far our perception of cool has come. Just a few years ago music stars tried tom play down their intelligence under the false assumption that being stupid somehow helped their street cred. Acts like Chippy and Akala have really spun this myth around 180 degrees and I thank them for helping the younger generation see the light.

I did have one gripe whilst the nominee announcements were being made though. Annually the attending guests talk all the way through it not paying attention or hearing what’s being announced! Why? If this were a Brits, MTV, Mercury press announcement you wouldn’t be able to hear a pin drop so serious are the journos and talent about hearing what’s being said. In the MOBO room it was so noisy its pretty pointless having Reg and the rest trying to remain professional onstage whilst all around them are ignorant noisy attitudes.

I told Kanya next year to forget the food and drink that makes the guests think they’re here just to party. Open the doors at 7pm. Make the announcements at 7.30pm. Kick everyone out my 8.30pm. Lets see how attentive they are then. Its about manners and respect people. There is plenty of time to socialise afterwards. Can you not give 20 minutes of your attention to the main point of the evening!?. What nonsense!. Ok rant over. Smile. We’ll get there. One day. Yes we can.
Straight afterwards we all piled into the elevator to crash the gifting suite en masse where every artist and celeb in attendance was walking away with free goodies. I spotted the gifters trying to convince vertically challenged KissFM presenter Melvin to try on some stack heels that add inches to your height. Apparently they’re very common in Japan. Not sure if he went for them but he did leave laden down with girly stuff like handbags for the women in his life. Su Elise and Lisa Maffia walked away with GHD tongs and twinkly costume jewellery. Tim Westwood accepted some clothing, N Dubz had enough to need a people carrier to help them home , Donaeo was eyeing up some nice jackets whilst I settled for the coolest looking sneakers by new hot on the block brand cr8tive creation and a pink manicure. This years awards are on October 20th in Liverpool- if the launch party was any indication of how big the awards night will be-I suggest you book tickets, bikes, planes, trains and automobiles now to make it!

I started this week juggling projects for Channel 4, ITV , MOBO and the BBC which even for me is a major feat-im a great multi tasker but even I have limits! I caught up over dinner with lovely BET News anchor woman Sharon Carpenter as well as worked the MOBO LAUNCH press run (more on that next week!)

Late summer always brings about a whirlwind of urban event excitement in the UK. For the past few years urban comedy and young street style comics have really come through and made their presence felt within the inner city youth circuit. One of these that have gone above and beyond just a weekly show, an appearance here and there and a few small venues is Congo’s most famous export- Mr Eddie Kadi!
Last fortnight Eddie actually made history my performing at the 02 Arena. Not one of the small clubs in the 02 Arena, but the main venue where superstar music acts play. The only comic I recall on this level are is Chris Rock. Edie actually had the scene excited months ago when he first announced the gig, then a few days before the show his PR machine went into overdrive as he staged a sit in at the venue and actually slept on site setting off alarm bells and everything when he mistook a door for the toilet!.
Eddie informed me that after he had performed at the Indigo 02 in the past, his team knew they could sell the arena gig. And from the 16,000 capacity Eddie sold 8,000-a great achievement. ITV’s London Tonight picked up on the show as did Channel 5 and thereafter Channel 4 and the Lenny Henry spot.

The week of his show twitter was popping off with celebrities, fans and friends all talking about the show so it was no surprise to then turn up and find a mile radius in all directions around the 02 were gridlocked. I mean really badly. There were cars honking, people excited, girls abandoning cars with heels in their hands running barefoot into the arena, couples arguing in the standstill traffic, billboard lights flashing car parking directions to help people get in, it was like Armageddon!
The neon lights screaming Eddies name were making me panic that I wouldn’t get inside in time and I through all caution to the wind and instructed my mate to pull into the nearest car park. ‘’but that’s £25’’ he glared. ‘’I don’t care-I am not missing eddies start!’’ I spat back. So notes were exchanged with the lip licking parking attendant before we sprinted from the car to the venue. We got to the entrance to find it looking like a scene from carnival with people collecting tickets, mingling and having photos taken in front of the press boards. PR girls were juggling guests and tickets, wannabee celebs were show boating and last minute ticket buying were all blocking up the area. The VIP entrance was full of celeb’s having their pictures taken against the branding board and small TV crews were conducting quick red carpet style interviews.
I picked up my 4 tickets and legged it hell for leather into the venue and DJ Twin B was entertaining the crowd on the decks.
I had great seats a few rows from the front with comedian Kojo and actor/ muscle man Tiny behind me-so the jokes were flying thick and fast between us.
The show began predictable late. We saw a set that resembled Eddies bedroom (bed sheets courtesy of show sponsor Adidas LOL), there was also a living room set up. And when it did start there were audible sound problems and at one stage some visual technical errors too which had me holding my breath in concern for a few minutes but clearly Eddie and his team were back there kicking some serious ass cos once it got going again it was flawless until the end.
Eddie entered the stage in his pyjama’s as if to prepare for his big night changing out of his PJ’s into his slick suit and tie get up.He re emerged in a very well cut, fitted suit and from here on in the show was a blast.

The evening took on the formula of ITV’s ‘’An Audience With’’ by Eddie telling a few personal stories and then picking up on celeb’s in the crowd and focusing his cameras on them to speak with. First up it was lil Tinchy Stryder who had his stunners on all throughout the show-very unnecessary but I understand that artists become very insecure as they get bigger and eye contact with us mere commoners isn’t desired. Tinchy was challenged to speak Ghanaian. Also in the crowd was the ultra articulate Chipmunk who for once sounded shy as Eddie bantered about using ‘’Chip diddy chip’’ as a nursery rhyme. Eddie swore blind to me that none of the acts knew he would be focusing so closely on them!  Kano was teased about his footie career which Eddie stated couldn’t have been very good forcing him into music! And he joked that Kano needed to learn the whole alphabet not just his P’s and Q’s. Mclean meanwhile looked really nervous.
Lethal B laughed hard as Eddie performed his own version of ‘’Pow’’. A running theme through out the show was that Eddie had written most of the artists hit songs and not been repaid for his input.
Next Eddie donned a Dappy-esque hat and N Dubz members Fazer and Tulisa joined him onstage- Dappy was unavailable as he was with family in Greece. Eddie played on the joke that he could be part of the band and take Dappys place with a few well thrown in ‘’Na na nai’s’’. Eddie told me later that they hadn’t rehearsed the set with Fazer and Tulisa which was very good if it was really all free styled.
Eddie also had Nigerian personality ‘’Vocal Slender’’ who appeared on BBC2’s ‘’Welcome to Lagos’, and paid for him to fly him to London…
A lot of celebs had all turned out to support Eddie from Radio 1’s Reg Yates ,Chucky Venice the actor, DJ Abrantee, Su Elise, Billy from Eastenders, footballers, Eastenders actor Rudolf walker and female boxing star Lesley Sackey proving just how liked Eddie is by the scene.
The finale showed 4 times MOBO 2010 nominee Tinnie Tempah who sounded strong and fearless performing his smash hit  ‘’Pass out’’ in his dynamic as ever way.
Eddie revealed post show that his favourite part of the night was performing the medley of comedy songs the most.
Next on this go getters to-do-list he tells me confidently is ‘’Chasing TV, presenting and combining his comedy genius with TV’’. Watch him fly! (but not via AIR KENYA whom he has issues with!-you had to be there LOL!)

August and September are notoriously busy months what with summer parties and events galore. I have been working harder than I ever have in my life this past few months with projects from Channel 4, ITV, MOBO and the BBC so I decided that I deserved at least one night out to let my hair down and shake a leg. This was done at the BBC staff carnival party, which never fails to please. It was a full house by 9pm and people weren’t backward in coming forwards with their soca bottom action and beverages were flowing heavily, luckily not all into my throat. Genesis carnival band ladies were in full costume in the house and entertained us with their pre-carnival jubilation. DJ’s Seanie B and Simply Jus Music sound system had us all two stepping and doing the cameo dance with full screaming and step it up gusto.

The next morning my Godson and his mum popped over early in the morning just in time to polish off all the fresh pancakes I’d just made-much to the held back amused vexation of the boy friend who had assumed he was going to guzzle them all down all by himself. Hilariously the godson returned the following week unannounced after his early morning football game by which point the boy friend was one step ahead of him and had put his batch of pancakes aside in advance!

My girls and I hit the hip-hop karaoke to fuel our never going to be Mariah passions. Even though I’m tone deaf I couldn’t keep off the mic and at one point they all had to sit on me to stop me dominating the set. My bad behaviour didn’t last for long as I had to summon up my best manners for the UK’s number 1 Hip-hop photographer Paul H’s baby son’s christening which was attended by his nearest and dearest which also included the cream of our hip-hop community.
On Saturday night I dragged my West-London-for-life butt down to comedian Eddie Kadi’s one- man show at the 02 Arena and then it was time for the MOBO Nomination Launch Party where anyone who is anyone in the urban music scene was seen. (More on that next week).
Even with all that social butterfly action I still was most excited about Sunday morning when my brand new silver, ‘A Grade washing machine with maximum crease free spins ‘was delivered- a true sign I am getting old.

A young man that’s had the scene buzzing with his presence is Tayo Jarret AKA young MC Scorcher. I love hearing stories of how artists got their names and Scorchers is a cute one. He revealed that he was sitting in a room in the 1990s, playing a football video game, when he made a goal and the computer flashed up the words ‘’that was a scorcher!’’ and from there on in his crew called him a scorcher!.
24 year old scorcher has the industry excited this quarter by getting signed to major record label Geffen- which is a big deal as his stable mates include snoop, Keisha Cole and Nadine Coyle. (Scorcher was recently snoops only support act at his Shepherds Bush gig)  Scorcher decided to sign with them as ‘’they were up on what was going on…they seemed to understand where I was going, when people want to sign you, you have your fears as an artist, but geffens colin Barlow says he likes ‘’’gangsta’’…I couldn’t believe that a man I hadn’t spoken to much before totally understood what I was trying to be. Geffen can get me from a to b. and with global plans for more than one territory’’.
In a year where P Diddy is acknowledging UK act Skepta and Jay Sean and Estelle are still working in the USA Scorcher understands that the UK sound is slowly but surely going global. ‘’I think the Americans are finally sitting up and listening. They realise there’s money to be made and I hope we can elevate it past the money and focus into music, I hope Jay Sean, Estelle and Tinchy end up being more about the music and their potential as opposed to the amount of cash they can make their American sponsors and I take off my hat to sway for pioneering that stuff.
If I were aligned with any American act I’d love my USA partner in music to be Dr Dre –just look what he did for Eminem, The Game, his many empires. I also respect Akon with his vision for Lady Gaga’’.
Bu don’t get it twisted, scorchers true hero’s are far closer to home with him admitting that his real life hero is his uncle André- cos he was born in St Vincent, was a poor man, came to uk, studied, hustled, became a solicitor, and now owns cars and goods that your average rap star owns and has shown me that hard work pays off. Uncle André would take me on holiday and talk to me, all young kids need adults to talk to them’’.
As a child scorcher reluctantly revealed he wanted to be a fireman and played piano at his grandmas house and even too real piano lessons at grade 5 and 6, but inevitably the bedroom sets, turntables, spitting lyrics, and peer pressure meant that he started taking street music more seriously until he got onto pirate radio. He never entered talent competitions at school as he thought they were sad. Scorcher was more eager to get onto local raves at Eros, Zenon and Castles,
Scorcher adds that he was in a group from his local area (Tottenham) , but the man who  ran the local radio station didn’t like him so he wasn’t offered radio spots until a local gangsta noted his talent and ‘’sorted it out for us’’.
His youthful peers included wretch32 who was in the same boat as scorcher  ‘’we came together, wretch was into writing songs, we took focus from what each other were doing then Logan got the first real grime show on radio, he started playing us then I got to know Ghetts. What I think made us different was we were the first set of people that did rap and grime, rappers respected us, back then rap and grime were separate, one day we would be doing a song with Bashy, then sincere, the lines between both were really blurred and we brought a different element to grime’’.
I had to try and embarrass scorcher by mentioning that he and Skepta were often referred to as the ‘’Heart throbs of the grime scene’’ he laughed and smoothly replied ‘’I’m grateful for the tag, Skepta and I were having a joke saying every time we put out a single we take more female followers back from each other!’’.
Scorchers look is very distinctive with his love of motorbikes and a bunch of tattoos gracing his body. As he shows me them all he reminds me that ‘’the pen is mightier than the sword’’. His tats include musical notes, ‘’scorcher’’ on his right hand  ‘’Skywalker’’ on left on his hand, on one inner arm the script ‘’”I stand alone because I choose not to follow the path but create my own and leave a trail . . . . . . CONCRETE JUNGLE”. A star on one elbow, he’s thinking of getting the sun on his other arm and states that he ‘’needs to earn the tats’’. The 1 tat he wont talk about is his
Very prominent lighting bolt under his eye which he insists has personal meaning.
This act is not to be confused with your average UK urban act done good however as he see’s his extended empire not just as his clothing line Skywalker (which most average acts now have 1 of), but he also runs his own video production house called  ‘’Staple House’’ which came about as
‘’the first video I made I paid the director to do the video, the director asked for my creative input, so I gave it to him, after the video was edited ,I had paid him all the money upfront, he sent back the cut but all the he scenes he used were my ideas, my lighting, my choreography, it made me realise that I had practically directed it all myself. I did some research, saved up some money, my friends have similar interests. one that’s good with cameras, an animator, and the label trusts me totally to do my videos after I directed ‘its my time’. They took a risk and I didn’t let them down so it’s a good place to be in’’.
Scorchers single- its my time-is out this week. its a very empowering, positive, feel good, inspiring track that reminds me of Nas’ ‘’I can’’ song. Scorcher revealed that he wrote it in protest after feeling down as a few broadcasters weren’t play listing him and he had been feeling down but ‘’despite all the badness, I knew I was getting love from the street and net , and it made me feel unstoppable. I wanted to relay that idea and make other people feel positive and empowered too.
Scorcher leaves me with more wisdom as he tells me ‘’ I always say ‘’Be all u can be instead of be all that you can see’’.
Wise words from one so young with a life of obstacles that he’s had to overcome.
To see him in action catch the MOBO TOUR where he says you can expect him to ‘’go crazy and shut it down, I’ve been looking at some of the locations, Glasgow in particular sounds exciting!’’. Good luck with the single Scorcher! Readers-Watch out- I feel there’s a global takeover coming!.