Month: January 2016

Sony Music Entertainment have signed accomplished musician Davido to a groundbreaking global agreement. The deal was inked at the Sony Music offices in New York and will see the American-born Nigerian recording artist release his highly anticipated sophomore album later this year.

Davido signs his global contract with SONY in their NY office.

In Africa, Davido is a bonafide superstar. After relocating to Nigeria from the United States aged 19, Davido set up HKN records alongside his brother and independently released the first song he ever recorded entitled, ‘Back When’. The track was an instant success and propelled Davido to national stardom as he followed this with the release of his second single and pan-African smash hit, ‘Dami Duro’. This track became one of the biggest airplay records not just on radio in Nigeria but across the continent, catapulting him to superstar status and making him one of the most sought-after artists to collaborate with widening his huge fan base and media support.

His debut album, ‘Omo Baba Olowo’ was released in 2012 to critical acclaim earning him countless award nominations and accolades including two MTV Africa Music Awards and the 2014 BET Award for ‘Best African Act’. A world tour followed which saw Davido perform to sell-out venues across Africa, Paris, New York and London. Today, Davido enjoys a massive social media following with a combined number of over 6 million followers across all his platforms.

This deal represents a step forward for Sony Music Entertainment as it grows its roots in Africa. Announcing its official presence in Lagos, Nigeria verifies Sony Music Entertainment’s decision to pursue new business via the introduction of on-the-ground operating entities in an expanded number of markets in the region. The timing of the decision is based on the convergence of a number of positive indicators in Africa’s economy and positive signs in the music industry. Davido is a shining example of this.

Sean Watson, Managing Director, Sony Music Entertainment Africa stated, “Working with incredible talent like Davido heralds a new era for Sony Music Entertainment Africa on the continent. We couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with Davido and we are extremely keen to support his vision to succeed at the highest level in our industry.”

Adam Granite, President, Northern & Eastern Europe and Africa commented. “We are thrilled to welcome Davido into the Sony Music family. We are very much looking forward to bringing one of Africa’s biggest stars to the world. We are also excited to partner with Kamal Ajiboye, Davido’s manager as well as Efe Ogbeni, who will be executive producing the album on our behalf.”

“Music is the universal language that unites and betters the world. It’s always been my dream to take my music and culture to all corners of the world so I’m blessed to be partnering with Sony Music Entertainment on this next chapter. My number one aim is to make my fans and Africa proud” Davido commented.

Skepta deserves BRITS acknowledgement.
All photos copyright Jasmine Dotiwala.

This week MTV UK held their annual MTV Brand New events at Camden’s infamous Electric Ballroom. Doors opened at 7pm and within 15 minutes there was a 1000 strong crowd outside desperately hustling their way in for the urban music themed night featuring soulful vocalist Anne Marie, West London R&B trio WSTRN and the soulful garage king himself, Craig David. The night was immense with MTV puling out the stops for the show. Huge filming rigs, the best music crews in the business and a very slick lighting and stage set awed the very cool, young, influential crowd.

Similarly the behemoth brand that is the BBC realises that British black music is so strong and relevant to today’s generation, that they have a whole radio station – Radio 1Xtra – funded to the hilt to recognise the genre. Their annual ‘Sound Of 2016’ list this year features a really diverse set of British music newcomers from all genres, including BAME (God I hate that word!) acts Izzy Bizu, Mabel, Section Boyz, WSTRN and J Hus.

In addition, VICE has a really strong, informed music branch titled NOISEY. Much of NOISEY’s content is funny, edgy, mischievous and provocative and whilst they give all music genres equal love, much focus is given to the UK Grime scene. In fact, last year they made numerous Grime artist-focused documentaries like Skepta’s Topboy film, shot across his world tour dates.

Krept & Konan deserve BRITS acknowledgement.
All photos copyright Jasmine Dotiwala.

So you get it? Grime exists in the UK. Its big, bashy and profitable and the kids love it. Check the twitter followers of your average grime act. Collectively they have millions of followers all over the world. Heck, even Americans Drake and Kanye have been championing them. So why do the BRITS refuse to give the genres of Grime and hip hop made by British acts a nod?

This fortnight, hot on the heels of spring awards season, where #OscarsSoWhite took off and combusted, with every multi-platform media brand having an opinion, came #BritsSoWhite which will no doubt be everywhere for the next fortnight, leading up to show day.

There was much online dissapproval after this years BRIT Awards nominations party showed its lack of diversity, specifically the lack of acknowledgement British musicians of colour, and Grime artists.

Despite the rise of Grime and UK rap music, which is played globally and has fans internationally, this isn’t reflected in this year’s BRITs awards nominees. Only this past week Stormzy performed in Japan and a video emerged showing hundreds of fans spitting word for word alongside him.

Wretch32 deserve BRITS acknowledgement.
All photos copyright Jasmine Dotiwala.

The BRIT Awards website says that they ”operate a completely transparent procedure”. However it’s not very transparent to many of us watching and wondering how things are done.

The panel is made up of 1113 music enthusiasts. Many of my peers, who are journalists on the voting Academy, reassure me that whilst they nominate Grime artists every year, their nominations never seem to make it through.

In order to be eligible, the artist or product needs to have been Top 40 in either the single or album chart between 21 July 2014 and 10 December 2015. Which Stormzy has acheived.

My peers on the voting panel claim there are numerous issues. Firstly, a lot of the voting Academy are artist managers who vote for their own acts, and former winners (God only knows why they’d be given a vote?’)

Secondly, they also told me that most of the academy are much older, middle-class, music stalwarts, who whilst are great music influencers in their own rights and lanes, are totally unconnected and disengaged with the British urban music scene in 2016. To these voters, grime and hip-hop is an alien form they just don’t understand and therefore won’t vote for. Even i don’t totally ”get it”. I’m not meant to, it’s not for my generation, but can see its an unstoppable force that empowers innercity youth.

The thing to understand is that, the Brits are run by the chairmen of all the various major record labels, so they are naturally all ‘block voting’. Each record label CEO will tell their staff voting group who to vote for, depending on their business strategy and needs.

So, I can see that one explanation could be that, most pop acts are developed in their very early stages by a record label who has invested heavily into their marketing. Alternatively, Grime acts tend to have built their own fan bases and following over years from scratch. By the time a record label has snapped them up, the label’s are’nt always sure how to market these raw acts via their usual tried and tested methods.

The rest of the Academy is made up by record labels, publishers and agents, meaning that it’s a pretty a closed circle that are ONLY business focused, not about the art. Which is also understandable.

Alternatively, maybe it’s just us. We’re always banging on about ‘diversity’ and ‘equality’ and ‘equal playing fields’. Maybe we should just ”get over it”. We’re all simply jumping on the race bandwagon or its ”just people in urban areas commenting” or ”they have the MOBOs why do they need a BRIT?”

Maybe some folks in areas like Tunbridge Wells and other countryside locations may not have been touched by the Grime genre yet. But I doubt their kids haven’t.

I mean, how can names like Skepta and Stormzy be dominating digital news internationally and not be acknowledged by their own national industry? Why does an American like Kanye have more success pushing British urban acts onto his set at the BRITS stage, than the Brits themselves could be leading on?

I think the BBC are addressing this properly. Now for their annual music polls they ask their voters to explain how they are still connected to the music industry in the UK, so they are at least attempting to have the best possible, vetted, voting panel.

I hope that the British Grime music stars have the last laugh. They already have this generation’s ears, eyes and money. Their platforms are mostly digital and they’re breaking through without the support of the old skool gate-keepers. But they still need major support to achieve their full potential. Isn’t that fair?.

Even robust old skool powerhouses like the BBC and MTV playlist urban British acts on their A lists nowadays. Why does the BRITS Academy seem SO out of touch?

Yo, remember when they told us in the nineties that hip-hop was just a quick passing fad?

Tis the New Year. Party seasons over. For another few days! A whole new year of fabulosity has begun. This made me think about all my favourite parties from the past and come up with a list of my personal favourite top ten. Not beacuse of who threw the party, or who attended. More about what made the party ROCK!
ENJOY!

RUSSELL SIMMONS PARTY AT BAROLO.

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Mariah once took me to a party at Barolo NYC thrown by hip-hop entrepreneurial guru Russell Simmons and we hung at his table all night with fellow music man Andre Harrell and more. It was fun, so much laughter, banter, dancing and a stellar line-up of names that now feels dream-like! The party vibe was pure big ballers and business.


USHER AT JASMINES GEISHAS/GANGSTAS BIRTHDAY PARTY AT 190 QUEENSGATE,LONDON.

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Usher had so many good parties it’s hard to name just one. But they were all pure fabulosity. He’d perform, chat, hangout and dance with his guests all night till the early hours. The vibe was always very sexy with the ladies all out to catch the eye of the then young R&B star. Special mention goes to the Murder Inc Party thrown by Ja Rule and Irv Gotti at London’s In and Out Club (too much that happened that is not fit for public exposure went down!).

JASMINE. WITH MAXWEL. ON A SWING. AT LONDON’S SANDERSON.

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Neo-soul star Maxwells label threw him an album launch party on the London Eye where each revolving pod popped with his new music, champers and food. We rotated around and around taking in London’s skyline and Maxwell as he jumped from pod to pod mingling with guests and we all pinched ourselves at the fabulosity of it all. Pure ‘I-cant-believe-this’ vibe.

JASMINE INTERVIEWING JANET JACKSON FOR MTV IN THE LONDON DUNGEONS.

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Janet Jackson’s record label in London threw an album launch at the London Dungeons with a party where each and every single room was styled like a different country with music, food/drink from that particular part of the world. I recall England (fish n chips/pop music), China (Chinese dim sum/Asian sounds), Jamaica,(jerk chicken/bashment) Thailand (Thai curry/Thai pop) ,India (samosas /banghra) ,America (hotdogs / hip-hop) and more. I have a reoccurring memory of walls of oysters, curries, chocolate fountains, delicacies and more blowing my mind….and physique. Most certainly the most opulent, expensive record label bash ever!

A MEMORABLE PARTY IN ST BARTS, WITH JAY Z, BEYONCE, MARIAH, LA REID AND MORE. I THINK IM TELLING BEY TO MIND HER CROWN AS ITS BLOCKING MY FACE IN THE PIC LOL.

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Subterania ,Ladbroke Grove every Friday night in the nineties was THE spot to be. Guests queued for hours to get in but us regulars strolled unashamed straight to the front and partied hard. It was a club for the locals. The freshest young Londoners and every hot celeb internationally passing through would be there. Spike Lee, Prince, Eminem and more. Music by Femi, Alex Baby and more ensured the flyest crowd in the capital for dancing, fashion, fun and flirting. The roadblock outside at 3am when the party was done each week was as hype as the evening with young un’s hanging out till the early hours and continuing the party at the bagel shop in Shepherds Bush Green.

JASMINE THE CARNIVAL GIRL WITH MARIAH THE MERMAID AT THE COLLECTION.

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For a few consecutive years, Mariah and I used to throw a party annually around Halloween in London. We had one at the Mandarin Hotel, another at Kingly St and another at The Collection in Kensington. There was always mass excitement, amazing fancy-dress costumes, celebs and normal peeps trying anything to get in and music mystros Richie P,DJ Nikki and Runningman killed the decks‎ so our mates could wild out all night.

JASMINE AND QUINCY JONES DISCUSS WHY CARRYING A BOTTLE OF HOT PEPPER SAUCE ON ALL OCCASIONS IS MANDATORY.

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Oprah had a weeklong gathering of loved ones that coincided with her opening of her girl’s school in South Africa. The New Years Eve party had very fancy decor. Flaming torch’s lined mountain paths leading to a giant marquee with dining tables, fancy frocks and star curtains. Every star from Hollywood both onstage and in music was there. My best moment was seeing music manager extraordinaire Benny Medina, music God Quincy Jones and actor Chris Rock all doing Michael Jackson dances onstage. Pretty mind-blowing.

JASMINES OLD SKOOL HIPHOP PARTY.

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I’ve had a birthday party of some sort every year of my life. From black and white themed karaoke’s, underwear and pajama parties to mass private bowling parties, dinner parties at the Ivy Club and more. Some of my fave parties have been my Motown themed party, my old skool hip-hop party‎ and all my underwear parties.

GUESTS AT JASMINES OLD SKOOL HIPHOP PARTY- AFTER PARTY DONE AND PHOTO SHOOT STARTED!

But my highlight was my geishas and gangstas party by the royal Albert Hall, which was attended by every music act in London. Tim Westwood, Richie P,DJ Nikki and more dj’ed back to back throwing down tunes all night like a house party. Lennox Lewis, Usher and Joe turned up too, (although Lennox left after an hour as I refused to have a VIP area – Puffy once taught me that if you ever throw a personal private function, never have a VIP, it simply makes guests feel inferior/superior and kills the goodtime vibes).
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JASMINE’S BURLESQUE BIRTHDAY DINNER CABERATE.

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MTV Base’ The Lick parties in London were spectacles across the city, with queues of clubbers lining up for miles as they were entertained outside by fire eaters, stilt walkers and jugglers. Inside they were full of hot, fly young people all dancing and flirting like mad. Always top music by Trevor Nelson and very sexy vibes all night that would later be seen on telly. You know if peeps are going to be seen on telly the guests would turn up really looking and feeling GOOD!.

ITS BEEN A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE WORKING WITH THIS MAN OVER THE YEARS. HE IS THE KING OF PARTY THROWING!

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Puffy had numerous parties everywhere he went and every one was brilliant. He was a genius at throwing a party. His post MTV Awards party in Barcelona was truly mind-blowing. He greeted me and my mates (by name!) on the dance floor, flanked by minions with silver trays serving up copious amounts of champagne laden flutes. Naked hostesses painted like jungle animals and would bring you literally any drink you desired, free of charge all night long!. This party was closely followed by his yacht party in St Tropez‎ (the yacht was so big it was like Westfields on water and Penelope Cruz was sun bathing with us during the day!) and one in Berkley Sq, London where I recall he and Beenieman dancing pretty wildly with us all.

SERIOUSLY, CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT THIS PARTY WAS LIKE. I CANT SAY WHO THREW IT, OR WHERE IT WAS, BUT HAVE YOU SEEN A MORE GLAMOROUS LINEUP OF SCREEN AND MUSIC STARS AND LEGENDS?