Jasmine’s Juice- THE EMANICIPATION OF UK DIVERSITY, CHANNEL 4 NEWS AND NAUGHTY BOY!

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JASMINE AND NAUGHTY BOY IN HIS EALING STUDIO.

There have been a lot of seminars, conferences and features about diversity in media this year. People often talk about the fact that nothings changed over the past few decades in the UK, when it comes to sharing the love with diverse communities.
I disagree. If you’ve been in the game as long as I have you can acknowledge change when it’s there.

There was a time that the youth of today couldn’t even imagine existed in the past, when young ethnic Brits couldn’t dream of making it in the UK music charts or becoming household names in daily tabloids. Nowadays names like Dizzee Rascal, Tinie Tempeh, Leona Lewis, Ms Dynamite, Wretch32 and more are given a nearly equal playing field as their paler counterpart peers.

Only a decade ago we in the media and music industries were up in arms that the British media didn’t take black and Asian British talent seriously. Radio wouldn’t playlist them, tabloids weren’t interested, but on the street of the UK, thousands in urban areas and beyond were bubbling to their tracks.

If I wrote a book and exposed which famous gate keepers and faces a decade ago, refused to support or play this talent back then, but quickly jumped on the band wagon once they saw this British urban music train was speeding ahead to success with or without them, you’d never believe me.

Some of these names swore to me point blank, that they’d never play or support our homegrown talent- most of these DJ’s and tastemakers are now out of a job.
The ones that saw the future, clung onto their jobs for a while longer but now it’s the true champions of our scene that are moving ahead as a part of an extended movement to (as my mate Mariah once said-) ‘make it happen’.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still miles to go before we have a totally fair entry-level system and routes for true high progression within these areas, but it is improving.

A few years ago international music star Jay Sean- an Asian male from Hounslow just couldn’t get a break in the British music game. He had hits, was popular and articulate but there always seemed to be a problem with accepting him as a music star. He was tenacious and pushed ahead through different record labels, managers and teams until finally American behemoth black music label Cash Money spotted and picked him up. Cash Money looks after Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne amongst others and is beyond powerful. As soon as they scooped up Jay Sean he became an international star with hits in numerous entries internationally- now he’s gone clear. The British press may not focus on him much but why should he care- he’s a global face elsewhere.

Someone that hasn’t had the same problem in the UK is Asian male music super producer and artist Naughty Boy. Born Shahid Khan to Muslim Pakistani parents in Watford, he has made hits for other stars, made stars out of nobodies and is now appearing in British press as well as international talk shows and festivals.
This week the UK’s most ground breaking news show- Channel 4 News- also ran a feature about him.

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NB ON CHANNEL 4 NEWS.

My mum religiously watches all the daily news shows and so it’s been ingrained in my family to know what’s going on across the world. It also means we are all passive observers to news shows between 6-10pm nightly and critique them all the time.
Whilst most of the other big news names tend to make ‘’cut and paste’’ bulletins using news footage from Reuters and APTN style news hubs, Channel 4 produce their own content.

They send their main news anchors like Jon Snow out to international war zones or lighter news locations across the UK. They find new faces to report on news and reflect the country I live in most accurately. They also change what’s been seen as the norm in news for so many decades. Their news reporters are a truly diverse mix of British residents. It’s like a United Colours of Benetton advert nightly at 7pm! It’s inclusive and doesn’t make me shudder thinking ‘’oh no another ethnic face on TV- what negative crime have they committed?’’

When the Woolwich atrocity happened, one of the first witnesses on the scene that tweeted was a rapper called Boyadee who had had minimal mainstream success. Channel 4 spotted his potential and now he is one of their regular reporters. That’s risky but brilliant TV.

In the same way when Channel 4 News ran the Naughty Boy feature this week, it wasn’t to make a huge deal of his ethnicity, but to celebrate a young British mans success in the music scene. A man that entered Deal Or No Deal and won £44k to start his own music studio fro his parents back garden shed.

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NB ON DEAL OR NO DEAL.

Shahid Khan became Naughty Boy- (he saw it as his superhero pseudonym and thinks it sounds very British) after music became such a big influence in his young life. Watching Bollywood movies, playing with his dad’s cassette recorder of cassette tapes from Southall and playing piano at school are his earliest musical memories.

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NB AND HIS FAMILY.

There are millions of bedroom music producers all across the UK now so what was it about Shahid that made him stand out and make it? Answer- his luck is what happened when his preparation met opportunity!

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NB AS A BABY.

This son of a taxi driver applied and won a grant in 2006 from the Prince’s Trust. Speaking to the Watford Observer in 2009 about the opportunity, Khan said “The Prince’s Trust has a scheme where they want to help people who they feel can set up their own business. I wanted to make music but I didn’t have any equipment. They said they wanted to help me’’. The same year he went on Deal or no Deal and won 44,000 on it!

This is a man that is reaching for every opportunity available to him. No chip on his shoulder. Not passively wondering when his time will come. He’s making things happen for himself.

He then met a then yet unknown Emile Sande in 2009 at a singers showcase and loved her voice so much, persuaded her to listen to his tracks in his beaten up car outside the venue and asked if they could work together. He paid for her in bed & breakfasts whilst recording and now both their journeys have progressed from unknowns to international stars.

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NB AND HIS PARTNER IN RYHME-EMILE SANDE.

Most young Asians are encouraged to go down traditional white-collar routes like doctor/lawyer/solicitor- Shahid was studying Business and Marketing before dropping out to pursue his musical interests.

There have been countless debates about being young and Muslim in Britain in the past few years, especially with the recent radicalization of young Muslims. Naughty boy has loads of opinions about the media portrayal about Muslims. ‘’I’ve never had a problem with the UK press, they’ve always been very supportive but I do think they don’t always get the balance on stories right. For example I was recently working at a fund raiser for Palestine with Jemima Khan, Russell Brand and Elton John but there wasn’t one bit of media about it the next day’’.

Naughty Boy is living proof that many young British Muslims are well integrated into British society – there are so many successful stores about young Muslims that aren’t told. He says ‘’Life is not about having money. It’s more about inner struggle and trying to understand your real purpose.”

One thing he’s passionate about is being an ambassador for the British Asian Trust, where he recently dined with Prince Charles and gave him his album. Apparently Charles took it home and Prince Harry declared it was the coolest music Charles had ever brought back!

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NB AT THE BRITISH ASIAN TRUST DINNER WHERE HE MET PRINCE CHARLES.

The great thing about this producer is I never get the vibe that he’s chasing stars. In fact it seems to be the other way around. My record label contacts regularly confide in me, that superstar managers are re routing their artist’s schedules, so they can spend some time working in Naughty Boys studio in the leafy suburb of Ealing in west London, where he’s usually hanging out with his best mate Zayn from One Direction. Britney, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Mary J Blige and more are all examples of names keen to collaborate.

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NB AND BEST MATE ZAYN MALIK FROM ONE DIRECTION.

The studio is a small, black painted room akin to a young boy’s bedroom. Containing a fish tank, a fitness machine, rails of clothes and Adidas sneakers, a medicine cabinet and toiletries for overnight stays, random gifts he’s been given from goody bags like champagne bottles, boxes of chocolates and amongst all this his beloved cat Barry (yes-really), who is leaping about sticking his nose into everything. Ultimate chaos!

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A CORNER OF NB’S STUDIO-HOTEL CABANNA.

He has the Midas touch and really enjoys making stars out of unknowns like Emile, Sam Smith, Sam Romans and more. This former pizza delivery boy now has Simon Cowell on speed dial and is bessie mates with 1D’s Zayn Malik- I sat with them both on NB’s table at the recent Asian Awards.

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NB with Zayn Malik, Preeya Kalidas and Jasmine at this years Asain Awards.

Recently 1D were all over the press in after smoking weed and this past week both NB and Zayn were all over the papers internationally for jumping into the Israel/ Gaza debate after tweeting ‘’#freePalestine’’. NB is very passionate about the subject and distraught about the children that are being maimed and killed everyday ‘’I am not about sides, I’m about peace’’.

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His solo album HOTEL CABANNA was visionary in that he saw it as a piece of music and a movie with NB playing producer and director. The album is a morality tale about the trappings of success. NB’s role, as manager of the hotel, is “making sure everyone’s learning their lesson”. He thinks for too long the pop and urban music scene has focused to heavily on the trappings of success.

Another trapping and path that many music acts and videos go down is imagery with an over-sexualisation of women – there is always huge debate across the industry about this- the most recent example being Pharrell/Robin Thicke/ Miley Cyrus when it comes to objectification and over-sexualisation, NB’s managed to steer clear of this and let his music do the talking. ‘’ I think sex sells, it’s easy and based on insecurity, but I think it should be more about…soul?’’ It is so refreshing and important to have a man say that there is no need for music videos to be all about sex. When female artists say it, they are dismissed as prudes.

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His hit song La la la has been in the top ten in 83 countries and just hit one million UK sales, it’s the 148th song to ever make it. It also has over 330 million views on YouTube. British music acts are responsible for generating a huge deal of business for the UK economy and NB should get personal letter of thanks from David Cameron for the amount of UK music export finance generated via his productions!

He’s said ‘’I want to bring the sound back to the UK and prove that the US sound has become somewhat stale, the same sound is being recycled over and over again for the same acts. I want to show that in Britain we make vital, innovative sounds that are as, if not more, valid than the big American producers.”
It was never in his plan to be famous- the TODAY SHOW and TONIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN are American sows he’s been on (check them out on YouTube), so clearly he is very famous now and enjoying it.

NB’s brand new single ‘Home’ features SAM ROMANS, and is released 21 July and will no doubt be flying high in the charts this weekend!

Lets all salute him- the boy’s done well!

Jasmine’s Juice Featuring adidas Originals Summer Hiphop Karaoke Party- with DJ Target- Under The Bridge

The key influencers and movers and shakers of the music industry were out in full force last night for the annual adidas summer hip-hop karaoke summer party, this time in conjunction with DJ Target, celebrating adidas classics.
(MORE EXCLUSIVE PICS FROM THE NIGHT COMING LATER ODAY!-KEEP CHECKING!)

Held at the West London Chelsea football club location -Under the Bridge (Stamford Bridge) nightclub, the venue was packed and heaving with ballers and b girls by 8pm, and people were throwing names on the list to grab the mic later in the night and show-off their verbal flow skills.

The walls around the venue were dramatic with hundreds of huge,framed and mounted pieces of artwork showcasing both British and international actsover the years who Adidas have supported rocked their fly-ass 3-stripe looks.(and make no mistake, acts that get clothing brand support at this level can get global profile in fashion campaigns and this catapaults their music profile’s higher!).

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SUPER MUSIC PRODUCER DREADY (BUSTA RHYMES ETC) AND ADIDAS HEAD HONCHO PAOLA LUCKTUNG TAKE A SELFIE AVEC MOI!

Music faces in the crowd included Wretch32, Bashy, J2K, Boy Better Know’s JME, Princess Nyah, Dready, Capital Xtra’s Kojo, Only Way Is Essex reaity show cast member Jasmin Walia, Clement Marfo, DJ Manny Norte, Radio1Xtra Head Austin, onstage host and compere DJ Seani B, and of course DJ Target who was running the night.

The party pack looked like the best Adidas ad shoot ever, all rocking their three stripe classics, and I have to say….and I will let Wretch finish his moment on the mic,…. but I reckon I rocked my look hardest.

In an especially bespoke fresh to death white tracksuit, with blinged out sleeves, and monogrammed initialled bling on the reverse, I lost count of the number of compliments and photos our matching tracksuits received.

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track backs

A giant photo booth that fitted up to six people, captured all the frolics, and had us all acting out our hip-hop star fantasies with passion lol.

These regular three stripe functions always bring out a very cool happy hip-hop family crowd and this night was no different. Talent that are all ages either Adidas sponsored or recognise its long history of supporting black music culture, from music, TV and sports all mingle and get their thrill of trying each others day jobs out.

Olympic athlete Jeanette Kwakye is not afraid of the track or the mic and on arrival stepped straight onstage to duet with her rhyming partner-musician Jacob Banks for a rendition of Drunk In Love.

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Jeanette and Jacob- athletics and music comes together!

Radio 1 Newsbeat’s reporter Nestor McGregor showed off the face behind the nations showbiz reporting voice, by being an early mic handler!

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Newsbeat’s Nestor pon de mic!

Another couple attempted Hov and Bey’s Bonnie and Clyde and Wretch32 jumped onstage to join in with the end of yet another group of friends who were doing a great job on his hit single Traktor.

Actor Jay Brown, fresh from his recent Channel 4 mini doc screening, physced himself up (with a lil pep talk from me,- to go kill Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby LOL.

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ACTOR JAY BROWN GETS DOWN WITH ICE ICE BABY!.

However, my favourite set of the night were the female Radio1/1Xtra female staff who took on, and smashed So Solid Crew’s 21 Seconds with menace and vigour. Spittng the lyrics as comfortably as if they were born reciting them, they had the whole room hyped and cheering alongside them.

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RADIO1XTRA/RADIO1 FEMALE STAFF SMASH 21 SECONDS- (HOW MUCH FUN MUST IT BE TO WORK WITH THEM!)

Other peeps that jumped onstage for their moment-included comedienne Miss London, media princess Remel London and their crew.

Compere Seani B put myself and Adidas brand leader Paola Lucktung on blast a few times, by urging us to take the mic, but after my horrific experience a few years ago at a ChoiceFM function where I couldn’t name the tune after the intro 5 seconds being played and being heckled, I decided to play it safe and not expose to all, the fact that I am tone deaf and couldn’t sing to save my life!

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CAPITAL XTRA’S BREAKFAST SHOW HOST AND COMEDY POWER PLAYER KOJO KNOWS WHO’S THE BOSS.

Nearer the end of the night a merry gent picked me up and carried me to the stage in a fireman’s lift, and dropped me on it, to encourage my usual show-off tactics, but alas in room full of my peers, I know when to hold it down and politely declined.

If it’s a business social function, however merry and intimate the crowd is, you have to maintain a status of professionalism. In a parallel universe it’s the same advice as Biggie gave when he said ‘never get high on your own supply’.

JASMINE’S JUICE- Hip-hop master Nas performs his masterpiece Illmatic at Lovebox.

As music festivals go, Lovebox isn’t really about hard-core music and fans- it’s a party, where music is just one of the main players, alongside try-hard arty visuals, semi-naked stunts and top class food merriment.

PHOTOS COURTESY JASMINE DOTIWALA AND Victor Frankowski.

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JASMINE WITH NASIR JONES AKA NAS.

The festival is deep in the heart of east London and a long walk from the station. At the entrance of Victoria Park huge queues, with a very well behaved crowd are fast moving, and flanked by blatant dudes selling most kinds of drugs like market traders. Balloon sellers yelling ‘‘laughing gas- three for a fiver!’’ (That you can pay for via cred card- a real WTF? moment!). The grounds inside are testament to their hustling abilities as balloon canisters looking like giant silver bullet pellets are left discarded everywhere.

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Everywhere you look there are great visuals like multi-coloured tutus high up sitting in tree trunks, fluorescent cushions and sofas to lounge on, and harem-like set ups across the main grounds as well as the VIP. Look one way you’ll see semi naked, fetish wearing men, fighting in boxing rings. On another side are, deck chairs, spray-painted cars, magicians doing card tricks and sequin painted ladies doing impressive stunts with huge hoola hoops.

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The food stalls are impressive. From gourmet hotdogs, Nando’s, cupcakes, burgers, paella, salad shacks, bagels and BBQ- alcohol and fresh juices, a totally thought out 360 degree culinary experience! Special shout out to the jerk chicken stall which had queues 50 deep, all weekend long, awaiting their generous plates of curry goat and rice and peas- there was even a Rasta plate option for vegetarians. Also, not sure how they managed to organize schedules for everyone’s bladders, but it’s the only festival where I’ve been with no lengthy queuing for toilets.

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JASMINE WITH MODEL RACHEL RITFELD AT LOVEBOX

Lovebox fashion is young and fast forward moving. The girls are cute in their predictable festival fashion garms of wellies, fake flower garlands, shorts so short they may well have just worn g strings and lots of quirky takes on Rock&roll chic and hip-hop street fabulosity. The fresh to death looks are accompanied by lots of sunburnt skin. Slightly unfairly, the weather on Saturday had been widely predicted to be stormy and wet, so many were rocking sensible footwear, which made for amusing viewing in the relentless dry heat. Whilst there may have been numerous sunburnt sunstroke victims, their Twitter feeds the next day would tell you they had a brilliant party and that’s all that really matters.

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JASMINE WITH RAPPER RODNEY P AND FRIENDS IN THE VVIP AT LOVEBOX.

To give you a sense of how young the Lovebox demographic is, at some point in the past few years, its become de rigour for men at London based music festivals, to be totally topless showing off their baby smooth torso skin, (either men have stopped growing hair on their chests or they’re all waxing and shaving!), the waistband of their designer underpants must be showing under their baggy knee length shorts as they flex and posture their way around the festival chatting up anyone that catches their eye.

Not comfortable catching their eye of or ogling men young enough to be my sons, I ran for refuge into the VIP. Like most festivals, the VIP isn’t really the best area in the place to be at. There are always more maze-like internal VVIP and VVVIP areas inside this area, akin to the Russian dolls where as you get closer to the epicentre you actually stand shoulder to shoulder with the main performing acts and their management teams.
It was this area that I was lucky enough to chill out in alongside my music industry peers (and Where M.I.A’s manager later stormed out of at end of her acts set muttering something about never coming to Lovebox again after there was a mishap with her technical staging, which looked to me like it was M.I.A’s fault but was later blamed on the crew- •shrug-shoulders* what do I know!)

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JASMINE WITH MI.A’S MUSIC PRODUCTION CREW AND FRIENDS.

Most festivals have a type of music or genre they stick to. You tend to know what you’re getting with Glastonbury –mostly rock and indie, Wireless caters to the urban crowd, but Lovebox is a true reflection of the current all-inclusive, multi-genre-loving youth. It’s the new generation music festivals cooler London younger sibling. With a really mixed up line-up of music acts of all ages, genres and success levels that’s very brave in booking a huge cross section of music acts.

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Much of the hip-hop community were ecstatic when it was announced that Nas was set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his seminal 1994 album ‘Illmatic’ by reissuing the record as ‘Illmatic XX’, but when we heard he would also perform the classic material at Lovebox, it was a no brainer, I’d have to venture out of my west London comfort zone and make the pilgrimage to Lovebox for Nasir Jones – known to the 25 million people who have bought his albums worldwide to date as simply Nas. I’ve seen him numerous times, the time at Kentish Towns Forum, when fans were standing on seats screaming alongside his every lyric from the rafters to the stalls, the time at Brixton where a fan actually popped off a real gunshot on his classic ‘’made to look’’ lol.

NEW DISC LINE UP;

Disc One:
‘The Genesis’
‘NY State Of Mind’
‘Life’s A Bitch’
‘The World Is Yours’
‘Halftime’
‘Memory Lane (Sittin’ In Da Park)’
‘One Love’
‘One Time 4 Your Mind’
‘Represent’
‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/75290#9hbIhyHd1U3zuCcQ.99

Disc Two:
‘I’m a Villain’ (previously unreleased)
The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show on WKCR October 28, 1993 (previously unreleased freestyle)
‘Halftime’ (Butcher Remix)
‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ (Remix) (promo single)
‘One Love’ (LG Main Mix)
‘Life’s A Bitch’ (Arsenal Mix) (promo single)
‘One Love’ (One L Main Mix)
‘The World Is Yours’ (Tip Mix)
‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ (The Stink Mix) (UK single)
‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ (The Laidback Remix) (UK single)

A film about the making of the album was also released this year, called Time Is Illmatic, but watching Nas perform and talk through his work was as good as a movie being played out live in front of our eyes. I wont lie, so many older acts have performed such poor renditions in recent years and been ridiculed back to their homelands – shout out Jodeci!- that I did have misgivings, but I needn’t have worried, the show was incredible!

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Illmatic- (meaning “beyond ill” or “the ultimate”), when it was released in 1994 was given a 5 mic rating by The Source- hip-hops then print press bible. It was their highest rating and very controversial at the time.
During my time at MTV I don’t think we ever had a best albums list that Illmatic didn’t feature on. It was one of the quintessential hip hop recordings of the 1990s and I recall during my numerous interviews with many hip-hop stars of the time, many from Common to Jay Z cited Illmatic as an early inspiration for them.

This album uses samples galore in the best example of hip hoppers honoring banging beats. Nas wrote it in a small room, in his small apartment in Queensbridge and it went on to achieve pantheon status for its poetic and cinematic depiction of inner-city blight. On the album, Nas used intricate lyrical patterns to describe his unsafe surroundings, an environment that proved risky for the young rapper, although it provided a great canvas for his narrative skills. With producers DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock and Q-Tip, Nas created a singularly evocative album. You didn’t have to be from New York to see the dilapidated buildings, cracked sidewalks and rusty basketball rims. Back then and even now it could be a parallel borough of inner city England. Queensbridge. Queens Park. One and the same. This Lovebox set was clearly a proud moment for him and fans like us who recall, reflect and acknowledged their loyalty from the start of his career.

During Nas Lovebox set a stage design depicting the urban landscape of Queensbridge, with graffiti-lined streets, a subway entrance. Nas rocked a three-piece suit and performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center when he did the same gig earlier this year. For Lovebox a simple ‘’world is yours’’ t-shirt, long shorts and trainers.

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DJ Green Lantern was on the decks as Nas hit the stage, and from his first bars on the first track I was able to exhale as I took in that his vocals sounded as strong and crisp as they were decades ago. The lyrics sound just as relevant today and it was incredulous to think that he wrote them as a teenager. Spoken word genius about racial segregation, educational inequality, public housing, and the prison system, he was just 20 when the album was released.

Back then I remember growing up in Harlesden and Southall and he seemed to speak of similar stories that happened around me but that the mainstream media seemed oblivious to. Being a street soldier, selling drugs to make ends meet, having to deal with the dangers that come along with that lifestyle. No wonder he was compared to the God-Rakim.

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LOVEBOX AT NIGHT!

Nas has written some of the most quotable lyrics in the history of rap….

“Life’s a bitch and then you die/ That’s why we get high/ ‘Cause you never know when you’re gonna go”…..’’you can hate me now/ but I won’t stop now’’…’’all I need is one mic’’…

…and the Lovebox crowd in the first few rows flowed with him word for word, although a lot of the kids much further back clearly hadn’t even heard of Nas let alone his songs. They were carried by the hype of us hard-core aging B Girls and Boys though and joined in choruses with their drunken joy. However, the irony is not lost on the fact that our communities haven’t become safer over two decades and that the UK’s youth can relate now more than ever to many of his lyrics.

In a 1994 interview Nas spoke about Illmatic, saying that “this feels like a big project that’s gonna affect the world’’ but who would’ve thought he’d be performing it to a passionate crowd at Lovebox twenty years later. Hip-hop critics and journos are often dismissed when they speak on content and thoughts about music but so many of us said this was a classic album back then and it’s proved the test of time.

Could Nas have imagined that Hollywood legend Robert de Niro would be singing its praises at the Tribeca film festival earlier this year? Or those British kids who weren’t even born in 1994 and that equate great hip-hop with Drake and Jay Z would acknowledge his masterpiece in 2014?

Nas explained at the time…

‘’When my rap generation started, it was about bringing you inside my apartment. It wasn’t about being a rap star; it was about anything other than. I want you to know who I am: what the streets taste like, feel like, and smell like. What the cops talk like, walk like, and think like. What crackheads do — I wanted you to smell it, feel it. It was important to me that I told the story that way because I thought that it wouldn’t be told if I didn’t tell it. I thought this was a great point in time in the 1990s in [New York City] that needed to be documented and my life needed to be told. “While it’s sad that there’s so much frontin’ in the rap world today, this should only make us sit up and pay attention when a rapper comes along who’s not about milking the latest trend and running off with the loot’’

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LOVEBOX NIGHT TIME FUN.

Nas has said he was trying to make a flawless album when he made llmatic- and he did. With his lyrics that depicted a lifestyle that drew in fans globally, in his raspy deep voice for one still young had us hooked at London’s clubs like Subterainia and Hanover Grand week in-week out. Whole thesis and university courses could be set-and have been- on Illmatic. Nas made the type of music that helped hip-hop become a respected and dissected art form where critics could discuss lyrical content, album artwork, iconic production values and helped birth a whole back pack wearing hip hop geek.

I won’t say I wasn’t surprised that young Lovebox fans were able to join in with Nas call and responses to his hit songs, I was. Its always hard to admit you’re an aging B-girl but there is pride looking back and knowing this man made some of the soundtrack to an important part of my life and was now influencing those that come after us.

Nas’ set was smooth and flowed, as he’s been performing this tour all across the USA this year. Earlier this year at the New York show he said ‘’ Twenty years ago, “I felt like my words had to be harsh, but I’m a little more refined now, don’t get it twisted. I’m still hood, though.”

At Victoria Park he recognised that not everyone in attendance was a Nas fan and many weren’t even born when the album was released. Here he said ‘’I’m Nas for those that done know me, I’m the one that said hip-hop was dead! ‘’Half of you weren’t even born when I made this album!” the 40-year-old rapper shouted to the crowd, but last year he was named the best rapper of all time in a poll voted for by NME.COM readers, so clearly young music fans do research for great music.

Nas’ prowled around the Lovebox stage with the confidence and regal stance of a lion king. He ran through his classics like a marathon runner. Firstly One love, then Streetdreams. When he introduced ‘’ I can’’ he urged the crowd ‘’you guys are the new world leaders!’’ When he performed his classic hit Got yourself a gun I couldn’t help laugh and recall THAT Brixton show a few years ago at the same moment a Brixton man had popped a real shot off into the crowd!

This set was good but lower energy than when I’ve seen him in the past- he knew the crowd wasn’t all die-hard, ride or die legacy fans. This album represents me, us our youth. Unlike people who pass and hope their legacies will remain someplace, Illmatic will be played when my generation are octogenarians. To be able to perform your album after 20 years and it still sound fresh is dope beyond belief.

To see a hip-hop legend perform a classic album front to back live is a true fans dream and I think Nas has set a new blueprint and all music acts should celebrate seminal milestones in this way. At Lovebox he reminded us that he’s still one of the best, a hip-hop icon that has always kept it 100% real and for this set alone for me, Lovebox really is a music festival in a league of its own!

JASMINE’S JUICE FEATURING LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL, TIM WADE’S BIRTHDAY, MELVIN ODOOM’S YOMO!

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ONE OF THIS WEEK MOVERS & SHAKERS- MY OLD PAL MELVIN ODOOM!

Its been a hectic, yet fun week, that epitomises a typical summer in London. I kick started it with the premier launch night of the London Indian Film Festival where actress Emma Thompson had produced the opening night gala film SOLD, about a 13 year old Nepalese girl sold into sex slavery in Kolkata before Gillian Anderson (X Files)- who plays an American photographer, helps rescue her.

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GILLIAN ANDERSON IN SOLD.

Gillian was part of an interesting Q&A session with the audience straight after the movie, which really focused on just how many millions of children globally are trafficked annually.

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GILLIAN ANDERSON AT THE LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL- SOLD MOVIE PREMIER.

LONDON FABULOSITY

Then there were a myriad of commitments from my regular Friday breakfast slot on London Live talking you through the days Daily Grind stories, to engagement parties for music industry colleagues.
Watch The Daily Grind again here:
http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/jasmine-dotiwala-takes-a-loot-at-the-headlines#play

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JASMINE ON LONDON LIVE EVERY FRIDAY AT 6.20/7.20/8.20AM.

All this was followed by brunches with my ladies in the private members club at The Electric in Portobello Road, and a triple birthday celebration for man about town, creative lifestyle consultant and Will I Am’s communications manager Tim Wade and his 3 year old twin boys with his gorgeous lady TV goddess Lisa Snowden which included drinks, nibbles, cake and loads of friends and family who also just happened to be over achievers like BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Feltz and her TV agent beau Ben and more.

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MAN ABOUT TOWN TIM WADE CELEBRATES HIS BITHDAY AND HIS THREE YEAR OLD TWINS BIG DAY TOO!

Next the LONDON360 reporters attended the Jack Petchy Speak Out Challenge where hundreds of young people are mentored and trained to speak to a public audience of hundreds. The BBC’s Brenda Emmanus, AJ from KISSFM and Baroness Sloss, judged the final competition. Supporters in the house included Apprentice winner and business entrepreneur Tim Campbell and more. Next they attended the National Diversity Awards pre-awards celebration dinner, before running along to capture some amazing V Inspired and Evening Standard Frontline campaign stories of young achievers who have overcome obstacles in their lives!

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JASMINE WITH HER OLD MTV COMPADRE-MELVIN ODOOM- PRODUCER OF YOMO: YOU ONLY MARRY ONCE” WEBSERIES

Something that continues to frustrate many of us in the industry are the media’s laziness in only plucking out and promoting the same young talent over and over again as if only one exists out there. There are literally hundreds of diverse young talented people doing exceptionally well out there so please look further than the same old ones you catapulted to fame 4 years ago. One young man that’s making his moves both in front of the airwaves as behind is my old MTV presenter Melvin Odoom.
One half of the KISSFM radio breakfast duo- Melvin has just produced a new online web series titled YOMO – a pun of YOLO- which stands for You Only Marry Once. So many young people globally are only accessing TV content online and many online series get picked up by mainstream broadcasters for a TV transmission too.

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Following a private screening of the pilot episode of YOMO at Channel 4 headquarters last week, industry professionals had the opportunity to ask questions and give comments. The general consensus was that YOMO was a breath of fresh air that succinctly captured the essence of Britain’s rich diverse communities and that this story would most certainly make easy and essential viewing.

Typical quotes on the night were similar to ”As creatives we had become frustrated at the lack of diversity on our screens, so rather than moan and wait for someone else to provide the opportunities, we wanted to do something about it. We created Ment2Excel Digital to provide a platform for shows like YOMO! Ghandi said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world” – We are working hard to be a part of that change”.

YOMO BRIDES

Created by Melvin’s sister Yonah Odoom and her friend Moshana Khan from North West Actors, the comedy centres around two young women living and loving in London – trying to find a husband. Both are fast approaching thirty, and the reality of being left on the shelf – is becoming just that – a reality. Determined not to grow old as lonely spinsters with just themselves and a cat for company, they decide to go on an all out assault to find their future husbands.

For Yo & Mo marriage is for life, therefore they are determined to make sure it’s with the right guy, even if it means meeting all the wrong ones!

YOMO COUPLES

Lenny Henrys ‘Act for Change’ has recently highlighted the problems faced by ethnic minorities in the media. Not only is the conception of this show – proof of those issues, but its presence also offers a solution – independently produced shows.

Melvin said of the show “YOMO is funny and smart, and is the type of show that has been missing from the landscape. I love the fact that rather than waiting for opportunities, the girls went out there to make it happen. This is the future”

I sat down with Melvin to talk about YOMO and what inspired him to make it? ‘’The web series was written and created by my sister Yonah Odoom and her best friend/actor buddy Moshana Khan. Being single girls they were getting pressure from their families on finding a husband and settling down! It’s quite common especially for women their age (ahem!) – Anyway they thought they would document some of their experiences as single women looking for love. They are both very talented actors and writers, so when they came to me with the idea, it was a no brainer.A lot of the times actors of black and ethnic minority descent do not have as many opportunities to play multifaceted roles, and when they do the roles can be clichés and stereotypes, we wanted to do something which broke out of that box”.

YOMO LADIES

Don’t worry though, Melvin isn’t thinking of chucking in his front of camera roles like BBC3’s DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF for behind it ‘’I still love presenting, and haven’t got any plans to stop! But I have always at some point wanted to get involved in producing shows. One of the other reasons for the birth of YOMO was because of a conversation that Yonah, Moshana and I had about the lack of diverse roles available for black and Asian actors. We came to the conclusion that the way forward was to create your own show. So we enlisted the help of Russell & Nana at Ment2Excel Digital and the YOMO journey began!’’

Alot of online TV series have been made this past few years about the Nigerian community- its interesting that their time now. But Melvin’s not trying to change any stereotypes.

‘’We weren’t really out to change any misconceptions; we just wanted to tell our story. We think there are funny stories out there, regardless of your culture!’’

The unusual angle this web series has is that is easily blends the second and third generation immigrant youth into the same story, and is truly reflective of London’s youthful all inclusive friendships regardless of cultural makeups today, specifically the interaction between Asian and African relationships. ‘’One of the things that Yonah and Moshana have found through their friendship is the amount of similarities between both families. Moshana calls my Mum “Mum” and vice versa! She’s at home in our house, eating jollof all the time (maybe too much!) – When different communities start to look closely at each other, you notice that there are usually more similarities than differences!!’’

Like many a new creative arts project Melvin has been resourceful in having this web series made, ‘‘in order to make it happen, we had to fund the pilot ourselves. We are now looking for investors as well as going down the crowd-funding root. The model for funding shows is definitely changing, and with names such as Spike Lee going down this root, it makes it even more credible! So watch this space!’’

You can watch YOMO | Web Series | Episode 1: The African, Asian Persuasion, here:

NOW I’m off to Soho for the MOBO ‘Lost In Love’ EP Listening Party, in honour of east London singer/song writer MIKE HOUGH!

JASMINE’S JUICE FEATURING KOJO ON NICK CANNON’S WILD N OUT!

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JASMINE WITH HER FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE- JACK OF MANY TRADES- KOJO.

Networks are important. Your network is your net worth.
It starts with a random introduction that usually leads to lifelong friendships and business partners.

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Many years ago, my friend, the west London singer Estelle introduced me to her friend Kojo, a comedian who had started hosting a weekly comedy night at corks wine bar opposite Selfridges in central London. Kojo’s nights pulled in literally hundreds of young, urban, excited comedy fans each Sunday, for an evening of new young comedians cutting their teeth on a hip hop inspired audience.

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I saw the movement growing to incredible sizes and as the then Head of MTV Base production persuaded my bosses to let me make and air this live night for TV. they weren’t initially convinced about comedy on a music channel, but after I explained that hip hop culture includes much more than just music they let me give it a shot. it rated beautifully, created a huge buzz for the home grown UK talent and before long Kojo’s Comedy Fun House was a series that ran and ran.

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KOJO IS IN THE PLATINUM TEAM OF SEASON 6 WILD N OUT TEAM IN NYC.

A couple of years later whilst I was out in New York celebrating my birthday with a private dinner party with both English friends who were in town as well as my American mates, I introduced Kojo to entertainment impresario Nick Cannon who at the time was acting, directing and making movies, hosting a morning breakfast radio slot, building his NCredible clothing and media production empire as well as hosting cornerstone American programming like Americas Got Talent and is of course hubby to the biggest female superstar of our time- Ms Mariah Carey.

A few more years down the line and Nick calls me and tells me he wants to include some UK talent in the sixth season of his MTV hit show Nick Cannon presents- Wild N Out, and who would I suggest to appear on his next series. Before I even had a chance to respond he said ‘’hey how about your friend Kojo who you told me about?’’ Great. No need for me to make any decisions. 3 phone calls later between myself, Kojo and Nicks PA and Kojo was on a plane to NYC.
Now he’s starring in one of the two Wild N Out teams in this series – an opportunity that’s huge for up and coming talent to get their faces and content exposed to an American audience. He’s even been described out there as ‘’ Great Britain’s comedic treasure Kojo’’.

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Kojo’s now back in the UK on his daily morning breakfast radio sow on CapitalXtra and been talking to me about his journey from his Hackney roots to what will no doubt soon be Hollywood.
‘’I met Nick Cannon in NY early 2009, when my old MTV Base boss (•smile•) flew over to NY ,where I was living at the time, to celebrate her birthday, and she introduced me to Mariah Carey who was in attendance with her then boyfriend Nick Cannon, who was someone I looked up to. Since that moment Nick and I stayed in touch and it’s only now something’s come up for us to work together’’.

Nick is clearly an inspiration for many young talented men globally and Kojo is no exception taking every bit of advice seriously ‘‘the filming process of Wild N Out was amazing. Seeing so many people from all over America loving the same thing as me, making people laugh. The set was amazing, crew were so professional and they really make the whole cast work together on the show to bring the best for the audience. Nick tells us it’s not about being the best out of a bad cast but the cast knowing when to take a joke and give a joke’’.

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KOJO WITH THE BOSS- RICK ROSS- CAPTAIN OF THE BLACK TEAM-SEASON 6 WILD N OUT.

Clearly the urban hip-hop genre is much bigger stateside than it is here in the UK. Hip-hop megastar Rick Ross heads up the opposite team to Nick Cannon. Kojo found the Americas certainly have a different mentality to that which he’s used to ‘’The differences between working with UK talent and US talent is, the Americans are very confident in what they do and very rarely 2nd guess themselves. Where as UK talent think it’s a good Idea but don’t deliver with conviction. I’ve always had the mentality of the Americans hence why I’ve achieved so much with so little’’.

Kojo is great at being his own champion and stays focused no matter where his career is. Like a chameleon he takes on new challenges. He wasn’t a TV or radio host but that stop him trying and now they are his main gigs. ‘’This is great exposure for me in America. When Nick spoke to me on the phone, I was at JFK airport by the time he hung up. The show is very popular and is shown all over America so will help the strong brand I have here over there. There will be more opportunities from this’’.

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And he’s already milking every opportunity life throws his way with new projects. The admirable thing about him is that he’s not afraid to take risks and fail. Even if a genre isn’t his forte he’ll give it a go. That’s the attitude of a winner. ‘’I’ve been writing movie scripts and theatre productions for the last 6 months with my first short film Wasteman Diaries coming out on July 23rd and my theatre play Above Romance is out at Hackney Empire on the 2nd of August. I’m also back on the road around the UK doing what I love the most- stand up comedy – in October’’.

His dreams aren’t meagre ‘’Nick Cannon is one of the nicest men you could ever wish to meet and he has shown a lot of faith in me to deliver. I hope to emulate his success one day’’.