Jasmine Dotiwala

Streetdance has come a long way since I was a break dancing kid on my mates lino in Covent garden back in the day. Back then hip-hop wasn’t even taken seriously let alone the dance form that accompanied it in the 4 cornerstones of the culture that also included graffiti and turntablism. So now that djs are superstars and graffiti is being displayed at art galleries its only natural that the dance form explodes too. Over the years UK ambassadors like Jonzi D have kept the art form in the theatrical world. More recently filmmakers have made a small fortune from dance films both American and English leading to dance troupes Diversity and Flawless achieving mass fame last year. Another group that’s been sweating away selling out theatres and wowing audiences from around the world are choreographer Kate Princes group called Zoo Nation who have been performing a spectacular show titled ‘’ into the hoodz’’ . the show had a sell out run in theatre land last year and last week brought back another run at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank. The press night was attended by a lot of talent from the music world and celebrity but it was the reaction that Diversity got that was mind blowing. The audience were seated and the show was ready to begin when diversity came in quickly, quietly and without fanfare to take their seats and before you knew it a few kids spotted them, shrieked with delight and chased them for autographs and photos. Well within minutes 40% of the audience that were seated were trying to grab, scream and get a piece of the group. The show start had to be delayed until everyone could be calmed down.
Once the show began it was as amazing as I recall it the first time around. The story is a very witty amalgamation of fairy tales with characters including Lil Red, Spinderella and Rap-un-zel but all based in the Ruff Ends Estate. The story sees 2 young kids run away from home, one of whom is played by reality dance show star –Akai, who the crowd roared for throughout the show – his female counterpart was ultra impressive with her dance skills too. The kids befriend a dodgy character who persuades them to ‘acquire’ 4 items – a red hoodie, an ipod, a weave and a gold sneakers. the music is an amazing mix of urban genres and the dancing is literally out of this world!. The choreography is very witty and perfectly narrates the story enchanting young and older audiences simultaneously. A thoroughly well thought out show with brilliant graphics, sets and atmosphere that leads to spontaneous audience participation and excitement. Later the same week ZOO NATION performed at the queens park festival for the west London community and had local youngsters enchanted with their 15 minute set.

I was invited to join actor Aml Ameen at his 25th birthday party that was doubling up as his and his girl friends leaving the UK party. Aml had people from all walks of live glued to THE BILL years ago as the young black policeman, and also in Noel Clarkes movie Adulthood as well as appearing onstage in theatre roles. Both actors are moving to L.A as Aml has been offered a big part in an American drama. Fittingly Aml’s party was held at the Hollywood Arms in Hollywood Road in Chelsea. Could it have been in a more apt location? On arrival I was pleasantly surprised to note that it was a very small gathering of his closest family and friends which included actor / playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah and good friend and actor Adam Deacon, both of whom gave heartfelt fitting speeches in honour of Aml on the night. As well as Amls lovely daddy singing bob Marley songs and both Aml and his lady speaking of their love for each other and the support of their loved ones ,a cake was cut, a lot of catching up was done and you could feel the love and unity in the air.  Also it must be recognised that a young aml must have had to battle all types of stereotypes, issues and hurdles to reach the top of his profession throughout the years. Its easy to get pulled the wrong way for young people in the current society climate but Aml has been a strong, positive soldier in TEAMUK , helped make my job empowering young people and giving them a platform to show their talent to the world and I cant wait for his American takeover.

Finally I caught up with a young man that has had me intrigued for a good couple of years now. I first spotted magician Dynamo on the music scene pulling magic for stars that I was working alongside and always wondered what his story was. We always have fun together at parties but I don’t really know his story so  I met up with him in a pizzeria opposite the roundhouse in Camden where we spent the afternoon chewing the fat.
Dynamo grew up in Bradford which he admitted ‘’doesn’t have much goin on. It’s not a wealthy city. It’s famous for riots. For me being a kid I got picked on cos I’m small and an easy target’’ but he admits that ‘’If it hadn’t have been for the negative things I went through, they wouldn’t have shaped me’’.

Dynamo revealed it was because he got bullied as a kid that his granddad stepped in with an occasional trick to cheer him up and the young dynamo calls him his ‘’magical grandpa.-My role model’’. ‘’I had 2 guys who used to pick on me called  “Sonny and Dean”. They put me in a wheelie bin and threw me down the hill. After that my Grandpa taught me a technique to stop people lifting me up-and that’s how it began’‘’I had to use magic to get me out of trouble and it became a way of life. I entertained the kids at playtime. The big kids were scared of me cos they thought I’d put a curse on them lol!’’.

His granddad may have introduced him to magic but it was a magician in New York at a convention that dubbed him with the name ‘’Dynamo’’. He explained ‘’it was in New York in the Hilton hotel in 2002. I was there for the legendary magician Whodinis 100 year death anniversary. All the big magicians were there. I ended up performing to all these famous magicians. A magician called Aaron Fisher yells “this kids a fuckin dynamo” so that’s how the name came about’’.

Its interesting to me that Dynamo has performed for many music stars and events and I was intrigued to learn how music had influenced his career.
He informed me ‘’Music has always been a part of my life. My mum had a radio but no TV. So I grew up to MagicFMs style songs. Like many kids I tried dance moves that I saw in music videos. Michael Jackson used a lot of magic in his music videos and shows. The most famous being the Lean forwards in Smooth Criminal,I started body popping at Mapa West Bowling Estate. It was run by a guy called Emile who introduced me to The Princes Trust’’.

Dynamos success story is paralleled by sadness and pain though as he tells me that his first big break came in hospital as he has always suffered from Chrohn’s disease. He nearly died aged 19. He describes Chrohns disease as being ‘’Like an open wound and having dirt rubbed into it all the time. Its a pain u get used to 24 hours a day’. In hospital I was having treatment and remember thinking, If I had died in hospital what legacy would I have left behind? So I decided to pursue my magic. My mum often let me try anything and fail myself so I could learn my own lessons’’.
Dynamo created a master plan for funding. All his mates were making mix tapes on laptops so he used the same technique to create a mix tape style DVD.
He then got a princes trust award in 2000 to buy a laptop and planned road trips where he went to the middle of town centres and just did magic all day long to random strangers. He moved to London 7 years ago but didn’t really want to be here .‘’I didn’t wanna move here. I’d still prefer to be in Bradford.When I buy my first home it will be in Bradford. at the time my manager was promoting rappers tours. All the people were too drunk to notice me as a magician but I persevered’’.

Dynamo encompasses a true young element of swagger and hustler that reflects the ‘’cant stop wont stop’’ ethos of hip-hop icons such as P Diddy. He once ended up blagging himself backstage to Snoop Dogg at Wembley, and showing the hip hop star some magic which led to the over impressed snoop making up a 3 min freestyle in honour of the young dynamo and now they’re twitter compadres!. Since then he has performed backstage for Coldplay leadman Chris Martin and his wifey Gwyneth Paltrow as well as footballer Rio Ferdinand and many more superstars-just go to his site to see the footage-its impressive!.

Dynamo is also responsible for bringing a modern day approach to his field which up until now had mostly been dominated by older magicians like Paul Daniels in the UK. He is responsible for the worlds first twitter magic by asking snoop to pick cards online across the Atlantic-once again just go to his twitter page to check him out.

He reveals that to get him into the right frame of mind pre show he listens to a lot of hip-hop. ‘’I use music a lot and am inspired by it. I always listen to Lil Wayne “shoot me down”….and “stronger” Kanye West. it gets me ready to take on the world!’’.

Dynamo stands out amongst his peers cos he thinks out of the box and involves current visuals and excitement into his magic set. During a 5 night theatre show at Soho Theatre he included hip-hop elements that had a diverse crowd awed by his talent when he brought a hip-hop style to his set with a hype man and a dj. To finish the show he made the dj booth vanish!.

This smartass now does as much work in Asia and Singapore where he is treated like a superstar.He smiles ‘’My vision of a stage show is I want to be a rock star on stage, People from Bradford don’t travel the world and party in Vegas and I can’t believe where I am now. When it comes to young people there are too many doors that are put up and we need to smash them down. Kids are force fed a structure for success but we need to let kids make their own paths. Most successful paths come from mistakes. Nowadays there’s too much control. There needs to be more creativity and freedom. Magic is taking something that doesn’t yet exist and making it happen. I constantly reinvent tricks. I like interaction. I am doing well but I try to only use my powers for good!’’.
Another young champ doing his thing in his own lane- you’ve gotta be proud of our UK strong hold right now, its unbeatable!

KINDRED SPIRITS- Quincy shows Jasmine his must pack suitcase item- hot pepper sauce.

When asked whom in the music world my industry friends would most like to meet its not the artists that grace our tabloids that come up most frequently but a man who is single handedly responsible for much of the great music from yesteryear that has facilitated present day music- a man renowned for working with Michael Jackson on off the wall and bad, and who pointed Michael in the direction of new jack swing and Teddy Riley to update his sound. A music conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter.  A man that worked alongside Ray Charles, Dizzy Giiespie, Lionel Hampton, a man that arranged music for Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald, a man who scored the music for iconic movie The Color Purple’, earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations,27 Grammys- a man called Quincy Jones. One of the last living music legends that encompass’ and embraces acts from the early days to having respect from modern day acts like Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg. In all my work with young music stars in the states, when Quincy turns up on set, its as if the lord himself has graced earth with his presence!. Probably as many modern day artists have sampled old classic beats that Quincy was responsible for making!

I first met Quincy in South Africa 4 years ago at Oprah Winfreys New Years Eve celebrations. He spent hours talking to us and recounting olden day stories that are fascinating. Listening to him recall the conversations with legendary figures and talk about what the world was like once upon a time is a thing I could do daily. So when our mutual friend fashion and jewellery designer Heba Elawadi asked me to join herself and Quincy- (or Q as all his friends call him) it was a no-brainer. Heba asked me to invite a few friends if I liked so I reached out to music colleagues and friends including MOBO founder Kanya King, singer Terri Walker and others that I knew would appreciate lunch with a legend.
We arrived in the grounds of a fabulous home in the country where Q, Heba and a few family members were awaiting my arrival before eating. I was of course late due to the usual hiccups and racing around country lanes trying to figure out why they don’t just number their homes instead of giving them fabulous, grand names. When I did finally turn up, Q was sat chilling in the garden chatting to friends and enjoying the rare UK sunshine. Hebas parents had laid on a feast fit for a king which was apt as Q is royalty. Heba was rocking a lovely maxi dress by her own brand El Horreya: Designs For Freedeom (www.elhorreya.com <http://www.elhorreya.com> ).

We spent the afternoon laughing, teasing each other and talking about music.i kept trying to force Terri to sing but she kept it moving with polite conversation. We toasted our blessed lives and danced with the belly dancer that came out to entertain us post-lunch. It was a very opulent day sipping the best beverages, tucking into exotic Egyptian food and sharing time with very special people. My favourite moment was just before Q began his food and pulled out of his travel bag a bottle of hot pepper sauce! Well-I nearly screamed with delight! I have always put hot sauce on all my food. When I say all I mean all. I have even been known to smear it on pancakes much to Mariah’s families disgust lol! Quincy revealed he took mini bottles on all his travels as well as small packets of healthy Korean seaweed to eat alongside his food. those tips from Q, plus his still twinkling eyes and appreciation for life and the good things were enough to make me smile all week long! Always up for a laugh, when asked what the secret to his long, successful life was Q retorted ‘’booty!’’.

The next night I was invited to dinner at the rooftop Chinese restaurant at the royal garden hotel overlooking hyde park with another legendary A&R man – Jack Stevens- a man that has worked alongside Sade, the Eurythmics and many more. Me being the ever attentive nosy journalist hack pried him for more music industry stories from back in the day and whilst I’m under oath not to repeat any I did conclude that back in the 60’s and 70’s they were really rock n roll unlike our pretenders to today’s throne.

With young comic talent like Jason Lewis and Kojo  making waves at the BBC and MTV it was only a matter of time before many more began emerging and one duo that are making a name for themselves with music artists even pointing me in their direction are new urban comedians KG & Nicholas Marston who are a comedian and a writer that have with their comical interludes had the internet alight this month. I attended their live show night at the Gem Bar just off Regent Street which was heaving with a young, sexy crowd that were hysterically laughing all night as the comics did their thing with their hilarious characters ‘’English Dread and African Dread, Shadrack and the Mandem, Caramel the R&B group from Brooklyn South London’’. 2 other performers that had us rolling with their original, very on-point comments were Jason Howard and Kayleigh. Look out for them!

I ended the week by having my hair trimmed at the uber cool 3V HAIR SALON in Notting Hill where paparazzi stalk clients. I go there so I can pretend to be famous whilst I enter and leave- sometimes it works but it mostly doesn’t. as soon as my Barnet was a decent state i whizzed up the road, again to the Royal Gardens tea rooms for a high champagne tea for my friends birthday before popping off to the ‘’Off the Radar’’ music event at Westbourne Studios where a lot of music acts including Preeya Kalidas and Terri Walker were performing for a very local, cool, West London crowd.
Finally I attended THE BILL/KIDULTHOOD actor Aml Ameens birthday/ leaving for L.A soiree –more on that next time!

NAS & Jasmine.

As well as the very commercial pop acts that sweep through the uk on tour that are regular chart toppers, there are also just as successful, legends that quietly pass through doing their shows that you’d only know about and attend if 1-you really know your music. 2- you want a night with fellow hard-core music lovers. So imagine how excited I was when leaving the 02 arena a few weeks ago and being handed a flyer promoting the ‘’QUEENS OF AMERICAN SOUL’’ -Gwen McCrae (All this love that I’m giving) , The Jones Girls (Nights over Egypt) , and Jean Carne (Don’t let it go to your head) all in the same show! The one person I knew who would know and be excited alongside me was friend and colleague Trevor Nelson who expressed delight too. The night was the most fun, old skool classics were sung amongst a beautiful crowd and all was good in the world of real soul music. Watching the oldies kick back, sing and dance with their two-step was sweet and made me yearn for yesteryear where men and women two-stepped with each other all night.

My once-upon-a-time fellow ballet student and teacher Gavin roebuck invited me to see the Mikhailovsky Ballet (from St Petersburg. Russia) at the stunning Coliseum theatre in Covent Garden where I attended the opening night of the great classic ‘’Swan Lake’’ alongside Hugh Grant and Cilla Black! It was my first time seeing a bonafide Prima Ballerina (the young diva Polina Semionova) perform live since my dancing days years ago when I used to practically stalk ballerina Darcy Bussell . Polina was breath takingly beautiful and divine. The evening was magical and a much-needed refreshing bit of cultural entertainment that had us enraptured from the moment the live orchestra struck up their first note. There is something so traditionally quaint and classic about attending the ballet. If you love great live music that will touch your soul and admire the elegant lines, technical skill and beauty of the dancer then a night at the ballet every now and then is a great thing to share with a loved one.

The much anticipated Nas and Damian Marley concert finally took place at Hammersmith Apollo which was packed to the rooftops with a mix of hardcore hip-hop aficionados for Nas and weed smoking rasta heads who rocked up for Damian son of the almighty Bob. The anticipation for the concert had reached fever pitch by the time I rocked up to the HMV Hammersmith Apollo. It was packed to the rafters!!
With a line up like this you know it wasn’t going to be just any UK support act who had paid to get on the bill. Kicking off proceedings were Ty and rebel Akala with their positively progressive hip-hop stance. Things just got hotter as sound clash master David Rodigan selected some classics! Next up DJ Green Lantern took to the wheels of steel. It felt like a blues as the herb smoke rose and the crowd swayed, putting their lighters in the air and did I mention it felt like 100 degrees in there.  ‘As We Enter’ blasted out and the flagman was in full swing with the Lion of Judah; there was a roar from the audience as The Distant Relatives emerged. The magic in the air was electric.  What followed were two brothers so naturally interconnected in sprit, you saw them lean on each other and laugh, throwing meaningful looks between them as they weaved between solo performances and collaborations. Nas’ ‘You Can Hate Me Now’, ‘Made You Look’ and Damien’s ‘Jamrock’ brought the house down. ‘Road to Zion’ and ‘War’ showed them ease between verses. We went back stage (where everyone on our scene seemed to be) and watched from the side of stage. Damien stood opposite me had locks that reached his ankles and his proud stance felt regal while Nas retained his crown as rap’s favourite son. They mashed up the dance with the multicultural crowd jumping, dancing and singing every word. This was the gig of 2010 and the fusion of these two giants proves positivity in music rules!

I ended the week at the annual Windsor Cartier international polo day at Windsor Great Park where the England team were playing new Zealand. This is a very long and fabulous day where women spend days in preparation preening themselves with hair and make up artists at their beck and call and spent thousands of daddies money on a sexy frock to strut amongst their peers and get trollyed out of their minds by 3pm. The day begins with a champagne breakfast at the open bar area where still hung-over from the previous night Henrietta’s and Sebastian’s all chortle and toast their spectacularly wonderful lives. At 11am the first match begins after which is a 4-course lunch in the grounds of the tres exclusive china white tent. Post lunch there was yet another match by which time the grounds are packed with jewel coloured frocks of every assortment and men in typical Ralph Lauren meets puff daddy attire. I managed to drown a pint of Pimms in the heat and then watched enraptured as riders thundered along the pitch , one strong arm controlling the speedy horses, whilst the other swung the stick to whack the ball into the goals. The excitement and danger of the game makes it extremely sexy to watch and that coupled with alcohol made this upper classed crowd extremely frisky!. At 6pm the party begins and for a furiously noisy 5 hours the guests get through 50,000 bottles of champagne, shots and goodness knows what else. I of course found myself in the vip amongst the music heads like Wileys manager John Woolf and record label head Clive Black as we caught up and giggled at the madness surrounding us. I spotted a couple of England footballers, a lot of young lords and ladies and a lot of chancers who were hoping to bag themselves a rich partner. Thank goodness DJ Sam Young played the first part of the party with great music or Pete Tongs main dance music set would’ve finished me off!. It occurred to me as I left that unlike the festival scene which had now been taken over by our urban music strong hold, the Polo arena is ripe for the picking and having the occasional NERD or Dizzee performing to this crowd would be a good new untapped venture.

After experiencing Ibiza many years ago as a 19 year old over excited bunny with my girl friends, getting smashed on tequila for my first alcoholic experience ever and observing crazy crass antics by sex mad, drunk desperados, I swore never to go down that road again. So how did I find myself in Ayia Napa last week!?

Well, for the past 3years an artist/producer called Sniper had been inviting me to experience life in his native home of Cyprus. Always laughing at him I swore I would never attend the annual summerfest urban craze fest that is Ayia Napa. Relentlessly every year Sniper would reach out and offer to show me ‘’the real Cyprus’’ and I would decline. Not just cos I had heard about its crazy 3 month wild fest of debauchery, but also because whilst working at MTV it would not be morally correct to be seen hanging with music acts and accepting ‘’payola’’. MTV were very strict-quite correctly about us walking the straight line and if there were even a sniff of ‘’corruption’’ you could be fired.

So-when Sniper heard I had left MTV towers for terrestrial TV last year he insisted that now that I couldn’t be ‘’musically corrupted’’. So with a new, open mind I arranged for a Cypriot friend to show me around the city and jumped on a British Airways jet to Larcana and kept it real quiet cos on the low I was a little embarrassed that I was finally making the dreaded journey. I guess it’s how men feel when they visit a lap dance joint lol! Before we even left UK shores there was a sign that things had begun as they were going to continue. My mate made a joke about having a huge knife in his case to the check in clerk, then got excited about a discontinued aftershave line in duty free which he bought. Then forgot on the cash desk. On the plane he insisted he was going to go back and retrieve it and then told air staff that it was his wallet and they practically put out an APB to go get the aftershave and get it back to him!

So we arrive in Cyprus on day 1 where Sniper has a car meet us at the airport. As soon as we got in it was playing Snipers music (www.snipermusic.com)  . As we drove past bus stops they were advertising Snipers music. As we zoomed past the gigantic Waterworld Themed  Waterpark there were massive Sniper posters. As we cruised through town we saw lots of young hip hop fans wearing Sniper t-shirts!. We couldn’t help think we were in a hip-hop version of the Warburton’s bread advert where there is product placement everywhere you look. The car dropped us off at the 5 star Grecian Park Hotel which was plush, marbled with a huge pool and set just outside of the main town as I had insisted sniper arrange somewhere where the grime music scene boys wouldn’t bump into me in my bikini-how unprofessional would that be!

The next few days turned out to be my version of heaven and hell equally interspersed.
On our first night it was heaven, Sniper and his lovely lady took myself and my guy to a traditional Cypriot village-The Good Village- where we tasted a meze of local dishes which ended with my guy being encouraged to try the delicacy of a goats head that had been sliced perfectly in half and opened up on a silver platter. Not wanting to offend I tried a penny size piece of goat brain that was very pate like. My uber competitive, trying to impress fella did goat brain, goat cheek, goat tongue and the piece-de-résistance- goats eyes!. 10 minutes later the horror of what he’d done caught up with him and he was gulping down red wine and smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves. He doesn’t smoke. You know there was no kissing till Colgate!

On our 3rd day the concierge called our suite and informed me there was a gift awaiting me at reception. I walk down to find the coolest buggy that had been sent to me for the week. All black, a solid cage and slick as hell-I was amped zooming it around the ocean paths. The day was made even better as we attended the huge infamous Waterworld Themed Waterpark which 50 Cent had mentioned I must visit. Jay Z had also informed me that on his Cyprus trip Memphis Bleek and Sugababe Mutya had closed the park down after hours to experience the rides. Sniper offered to open out of hours so I could have the park to myself but I reassured him it was totally fine to mingle with the great unwashed public-how weird would it be having a park full of operational staff attending to just me and my guy? Too weird. Instead sniper had a security man escort us around the park, leading us to the front of all the queues-which I found totally embarrassing but was grateful for.
The rides were really exciting! Like Thorpe Park but full of water. It all looked clean, fun and pretty sexy with everyone in beachwear. I went on every ride except the hell high red vertical slide drop cos sometimes even I’m a scared-cat. My favourite was a really high-entwined slide that dropped you into a giant spinning wheel-esque, bowl shaped bottom before plunging you deep into a plunge pool called the AEOLOS WHIRLPOOL. POSEIDON’S WAVEPOOL was pretty hardcore too! It was nice that the crowd was both British, Scandinavian, and Russian so I didn’t have to just hear cockney, northern and scouse accents all day long. A heavenly day!.

Day 4- we were taken to the various beaches to experience water sports that included jet skiing, donuts, banana boats, and a new ride that I loved called fly fishing. My big achievement though was water skiing. Hanging onto the bars on the side of a speedboat I braced myself sturdily as it ripped me through the warm Cyprus waters. Too much fun!. My guy tried to yell instructions at me from the boat. Finally peeved by his criticism I suggested he show me how to do it. Cockily he jumped into the ocean only to find he couldn’t even balance on the skis and insisted the skipper take him back to shore!. Shake My Head.  But heaven was followed by hell…
I tried not to take in too many out of shape topless chics with bright red burning breasts and foreheads that were peeling. In this day and age its unfathomable that people are still so old fashioned with the thought that if they don’t have a dark, burnt look on their return to the UK, that they will be seen not to have had a great vacation. Pathetic. Honestly-I observed people that had flown over the seas to experience not another culture or have active fun in the sun, but idiots that refused to wear sun lotion for protection and instead were frying their skin with cocoa butter!?. Forget the fact that this is the one thing that will damage and age your skin to resemble crocodile skin, but what about the health issues? Cancer is not just something that happens to other people!.
I calmed myself down with a delicious fish supper where we all dismantled a huge local fresh fish called Stone Bass

Sniper also took us to see cultural buildings and churches as well as the caves of Cape Greko where people used to pray in hiding during the crusades, as RICHARD THELIONHEART was once ruler of this land, those days people were persecuted for their religion, faith and beliefs. It is also said by US scientists that the edge of Cape Greko is where the lost City of Atlantis broke off to sink in the ocean and searches will start in the near future!.

Twitter is a great thing and I saw that my boys Rampage (RADIO1XTRA) were playing one evening at club Black & White (seemingly the only R&B/hip-hop club to go to out there). When Rampage play I know I will rave until sunrise and we did. In the house were many UK urban faces as well as local hip hop lovers, international big ballers from Russia, Scandinavia, THE USA, and most ballers that playn in the country or nearby countries like Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt and some players from our premier league

Before we went into the club though we stood in the infamous centre square strip road watching the madness unfold. It was pure hell. Young girls and guys all staggering around drunk looking as if they’re about to throw up. Ladies with literally no clothes on wearing classless lycra scraps of fabric giggling incoherently as guys grope them as they wander past. Hen night groups plus stag night groups, plus teens that are all on heat and of the mind set that ‘’what happens in Cyprus stays in Cyprus’’ OR GOES ON FACEBOOK! all mixing to devastatingly dangerous results. Photographer to the hip hop world Paul H and promoter Mr Play stood alongside me as we watched the horror unfolding before our eyes. We also popped into Club Ice where DJ EZ was killing the crowd doing what he does on the decks. After raving with Rampages Mike Anthony until 6am we stopped by the jerk chicken stall where we had an early breakfast before hitting our 5 star beds before the next days fun and frolics.

To rebalance my chav over dose the next night Sniper took us to uber fancy Japanese restaurant Nozomi which was outdoor, elevated and overlooked the sea. With an all white very classy bar and décor we sipped the finest cocktails, popped a gold bottle of ace of spades and nibbled on my favourite black cod and fancy food as Snipers business partner and old skool A&R GURU to the stars JACK Steven (Annie Lennox, sade etc) told us stories from the music world of yesteryear! Jack encouraged my guy to match him drink for drink. Clearly my guy obliged by knocking back cognac brandies and espressos in abundance and was so wired he was on a food hunt at 5am and then couldn’t sleep until 2 days later! The drinking continued at the Nissaki Lounge Bar by the beach where i got high on secondary smoke from everyone elses shi-sha!

The following night I was forced to watch a very boring world cup football final. SNORE. The end. Thankfully this was also ‘’ JET –SKI SUNDAY’’ where we all roared around the Cypriot coastline on high powered jet skis!.

On our last 2 DAYS Sniper had us pack an over night bag and took us to experience the nearby town of Limassol where we stayed at the Londa Hotels amazingly cute suites. That night all 6 of us piled into a huge, white Porsche cayenne stretch limo which took us to a fancy restaurant at the Columbia Plaza which houses the Columbia Steak House for a steak dinner. The venue had a live music area upstairs called the ‘7 SEAS’ where we all jumped onto the drums and piano as I did my best Mariah impression. No one was impressed lol.

The next morning Sniper took us to a diamond manufacturer where I had my not very expensive jewellery valued and we watched as precious stones were turned into all kinds of expensive merchandise. I sat in the huge vault for a minute. It was the closest I was ever going to get to being surrounded by diamonds and I was going to make the most of it!.

On our last night we heard Ms Dynamite was performing at Club Ice so we decided to brave the madness again and go down and surprise her. The club was heaving once again packed with young, naked holidayers on heat. Sniper hijacked the mic and performed some of the tracks from his newly formed 3fifty7 Group of Companies brand,  including the Ayia Napa anthem with  Drew Astro and Pump It Up that features his new artists Oxide and Neutrino-remember them?). The crowd loved his set and I was pretty impressed. Dj Masterstepz and promoter Mr play kept us amused with their funny comments and I was left speechless as I saw folks wearing t shirts that read ‘’dat gal will get dash down’’. Oh dear.

I was also horrified by an old white guy called Johnny. Apparently he’s infamous in Ayia Napa as ‘’Johnny loves black girls’’. He had on a disgusting slogan t shirt and a group of young black girls were even flanking him wearing his t shirts!. I could only feel pity for them as I thought ‘’lord forgive them for they know not what they do’’. Ms Dynamite took to the stage and did her thing like the true professional she is as the crowd sang alongside her word for word and South London’s finest started showing off their uk garage day moves! We finished the night taking a very hammered DJ Mastersteps to the jerk chicken joint where in his best patois accent he proceeded to coarse out the cooks!

The next morning we had a final champagne spray fight in the pool- yes- I was caught up by now in the foolishness-  before being dragged off to the airport as certain peeps with me who didn’t want to leave had to practically have their fingers prized off the hotel door.

The conclusion? Cyrpus is a lovely island that can be either party central or more relaxed and classy depending on how you choose to spend your time. Both heaven and hell its a young, mad place that can be classy-but only if you know where to look! VIVA CYPRUS- IT WAS SPECIAL!.

singer TERRI WALKER, actress/singer PREEYA KALIDAS, JASMINE & singer/song writer CELITIA MARTIN.

Every year for Black History Month myself and the MTV BASE team would go down to the very prestigious ‘’Black VIP 100’’ exhibition which marks the first decade of this millennium with a historic photographic record of black achievement in modern Britain annually and invites individuals to attend a Buffet Reception where during a very fun, buzzing afternoon a photographer takes am portrait of you that is included in a historical gallery showing for future prosperity. In the past our presenter Trevor nelson used to always film an annual episode of THE LICK at this event. So imagine my surprise when I was asked to be a part of such an esteemed line up for 2010. Well after thanking them for thinking of me I replied back asking ‘’um, did you mean to include me, you are aware I am of Asian African origin?’’. Dennis brown and Lorna Stewart replied back insisting that ‘’ We would be delighted to see you at the event. Just to confirm, the definition of black is anyone who is of Nubian descent, including people of mixed parentage. Nubian means people who, through the diaspora (slave trade), were displaced from their African origins and dispersed throughout the world- As an inspirational figure in the world of television and media, we would like to invite you to have your portrait taken by a professional photographer together with other achievers from the world of politics, sport, business, religion, media, entertainment, music, education, creative arts, and community support.’’ Well I’m not one to decline a fun afternoon so on Saturday we put on our finest to go mingle with other achievers in our community in a gorgeous manor house in Lewisham (yes-I ventured south of the river AND enjoyed it LOL) . After initial speeches, we feasted on traditional west Indian food and drinks and mingled amongst the portraits of VIPs from past years that are designed to inspire young people to excel and create a legacy for future generations, by highlighting our individual success and your valuable contributions to society. Portraits I spotted included my mate Mobo founder Kanya King, a range of VIPs, celebrities, well known personalities and members of the general public such as; Lenny Henry, Baroness Lola Young, Rudolph Walker, and many others. The Exhibition is visited by thousands annually and is supported by interactive workshops about black history, inspiring children and young people, and professional development for entrepreneurs. It has been heralded as a major success, with recognition on TV, radio and in print media and I urge you to visit it with friends and family to inspire and unite us all- a much needed reminder of our successes in the current climate!

Walking into the Wireless Festival last week was like a 360-degree turn around on British festivals of yesteryear. I remember in the nineties my street musician mates like Blak Twang, Ty, Rodney P, Roots Manuva and the Cookie Crew would just about get onto a festival line up by the skin of their teeth, and even then it was the smaller, alternative stages they were allowed to grace-and we were so delighted by their inclusion. Over the years with more respect and attention paid to young Brits like Lethal B who is an amazing live act, festivals have invited urban acts to dominate their line ups and wireless was another ‘’ we can exhale now’’ moment. This year saw UK urban acts out number American ones with the likes of Wiley and Roll Deep, Chipmunk (who really is becoming more and more superstar like with his stage presense as time goes by), Tinie Tempah (who swore quite a bit and took his top off at the end of his set!), Mz Bratt (who literally had her tent bouncing with excitement), Mclean (who was accompanied by his gorgeous daughter and wifey) and more! After queuing for our VIP Roc Nation passes (a celeb we all know and love refuses to queue for hers so someone else kindly queued for her!), we fought through the hundreds to get into the guest VIP area where we made a bee line for some food. Any food. We were starving. So we chose the food stall with no queue-the chip stall, where we paid a whopping £7.50 for fish & a few measly chips! Now we could see why the queue for the Jerk chicken went practically around the park. Everyone was still buzzing about the previous day where Missy Elliott had performed her typically awful live set after turning up mega late, as well as the humungous faux pas of wearing a Germany Adidas tracksuit onstage- mere days after Germany ran circles around us in the world cup leading to England being knocked out!. Oh dear. Was there really not one British colleague around to warn missy ‘’um that might not be the best idea’’? Add to that the fact that after fans began to boo her took off her shoe and gestured to throw it at them, which eventually led to organisers pull the plug on her set. Cringe. I know the industry says she gets very bad stage fright but come on son! A decade down the line she’s had a couple of afternoons to get a stage choreographer or trainer in to help her out surely!?? Record label top dogs like SonyBMG’s Nadir Contractor, Gordy Hagan and the man that made Destiny’s Child from a European point of view Mr Matt Ross were mingling with relative new comers KISSFM radio hosts Rickie & Melvin, singer Terri Walker, new up and coming girl group 3d, super producer Tim Blacksmith, boxer David Haye who as usual had girls lining up to take a photo with him, singer Mclean and many more. Beyonce was up in the tower watching her man do his thing onstage, she was joined by best female friend Gwyneth and other very big VIP names. Jay z was as charismatic as ever but I couldn’t heklp feeling at times he looked as if he was just going through the motions at yet another summer festival. All around us young ones were talking in hushed whispered tones about his alleged masons connection as I just rolled my eyes and laughed!.

Straight after Wireless we were invited by American southern soul chef, the celebrity cook Asbell who was throwing a July 4th celebration dinner for Americans in London at the private members club THE ELECTRIC. Ashbell is back in the UK to bring his southern soul food flava to the world of food. He has loved being in the UK and relishes bringing spice n all things nice to the table. Having produced a menu for Electric members he delighted chefs and customers with mouth-watering dishes. The great thing about southern regional food is it’s heritage is part Irish, Scottish, Native American, Spanish and African much like Ashbell McElveen whose family can be traced through all these lines and whose globe trotting has bought a wealth of recipes under his belt that know how to showcase this fusion of flavours. Ashbell is here to bring some life and soul to the palette. To help people remember through the fussiness of all the food TV overload that simple is best when you know what to do you can enjoy the experience of eating and sharing great food and most importantly in these times a style of enjoying great food that won’t break the bank. he is also producing some signature cocktails inc watermelon martini using his own forthcoming brand of White whiskey called Ashbells Moonshine, a clear mixable and delicious triple distilled corn whiskey – blended to an old family recipe…. Going to be launched soon in the UK. Cookery master classes soon come!

The next night Terri Walker performed a set for the iTunes festival at the uber plush members only club Shoreditch house which was full with fans and friends who came to support her including former Sugababe Keisha. Teri rocked studded Kurt Gieger shoes,a grown up blazer and sang her heart out and had the crowd eating out of her hand-look out for new music from her this year!.

Years ago when I was outraging listeners on CHOICEFM with JASMINES JUICE scandal talk my hero was American controversial gossip DJ Wendy Williams. Whilst I merely talked about what was gwanin in the scene and revealing upfront news snippets, Wendy was causing catastrophic pandemonium by outing all the hip-hop stars news and private business. Many a star wanted to kill Wendy back in those days. But Wendy made her lane and graduated from there to get her own talk show. Now her TV show the Wendy Williams show is coming to the UK courtesy of BET who flew her to London to hang out with us for a minute.

The very fabulous Wendy who greets her audiences with her celebrated opening line “How you doin’?” joined an intimate audience of around 100 of us in the theatre screening room of the prestigious Soho hotel where we had a lovely evening getting to know Wendy over flutes of champagne and nibbles.
After a few introductory speeches by BET bods the lady herself stepped up and was I surprised. All these years of following her career and I never knew she was so BIG. Physically this lady is 6 foot in stocking feet and a big lady who’s boobs were ginormous! She revealed that she had been experiencing London and been enjoying fish & chips with enough malt vinegar, but was vexed cos there was no hot sauce. (A girl after my own heart-maybe its     all that hot bitterness that we like to eat that comes straight out again with all gossip queens!). She added that being in the UK was cool as she felt at home because of the British tabloids.

Wendy is Queen at talking and making you warm to her. Like me she reassured us all that reassured me that what she says is never meant to be nasty and that her show ‘’ is not a mean spirited show but that its always what we say in the back of our heads’’. Wendy spoke about the break down of her show informing us that it combines celebrity gossip, news events, relationship advice, as well as diverse mix of celebrity interviews from film, music, fashion, sports and television and carries a variety of interviews with old, young black, white folks, Hollywood stars, pop stars and real people.
As if she wasn’t glamazon enough, Wendy had on her skyscraper heels and she laughed chortling ‘’flats are only for working out or when your corns and bunions are flaring up, worrying! Things Wendy does worry about are her aging parents who are 77 and 79 , taxes, her kids, and the BP crisis. She revealed that her biggest struggle is raising a decent young boy to become a decent man and whilst she talks everyone else’s business, hers is not out of bounds.She let out that she knows pain and openly talks about her two 5 month old miscarriages. Wendy’s show debuts here in the UK on BET International (Sky Channel 191 and Freesat 140 on July 13.

South London’s finest Giggs text me a few weeks ago asking me to save the date for his ‘’invisible album launch party’’. By that I gathered he meant ‘keep it on the low cos every time I try and do anything publicly the police shut it down’ . So it took all my will power not to tweet or talk about it and whilst a few other music industry journalists had mentioned they weren’t attending as they didn’t want to get caught up in any madness, I wanted to support ,so gingerly made my way to ‘’the- ultra wanting-to-be-as-pretentious-as-the-New York-Bungalow 8-but isn’t’’’ Bungalow 8 club in St Martins Lane Hotel.
I felt smug as I was able to park practically outside the door. Until I stepped up to the suited bulldog on the door with my name. He checked it off the list and then asked for ‘’the password’’. Stumped?. Giggs hadn’t mentioned a password. Just as I was pulling out my celly to ding him, he stepped out from behind the bulldog and informed him ‘’ she and her guest are cool’’, at which the bulldog sat back. Poor Giggs explained that all night the venue had been uncooperative with his guests so he was having to play doorman. Poor guy. Downstairs in the intimate venue it was getting busier with Peckhams finest grimy boys and gals getting warmed up whom Giggs described as ‘’manden and hotties-just family invited’’. It was clear that the hotel weren’t used to ‘’this type of crowd’’ and most likely weren’t best pleased. Nevertheless Giggs popped on a slick black suit, greeted his guests and mingled as the party popped off big time with a really nice vibe. His album ‘’LET EM AVE IT’’ was played all through the night and a moment to cherish considering our antagonistic past was as Giggs told me ‘’thanks for coming Jas-it means a lot’’. (Who would’ve ever thought he’s ever say that LOL) perhaps he was tipsy.

Next my guy dragged me out of there to run up the road to the NERD party at Studio Valbonne. The venue was heaving as we entered and was 90% full of eager, skimpy, dancing as if it were their last day on earth girls with the remaining 10% of men looking as if they’d just won the lottery. I guess the law of averages says that as Pharrell is unlikely to leave and please every female that’s hot for him some of these guys must get lucky. The naked chics were kept excited by the sounds of celeb DJ to the stars DJ Manny Norte who always has a party jumping. Party host Adedapo Awofisayo sat us at his VIP table and spoilt us all with an abundance of beverages and by the time NERD hit the stage at 2am for a quick set the vibe was electric. Football manager Chris Nathaniel was holding court with music manager Paul Boadi in one half of the club and when Pharrell came in it was as if England had won the world cup so hardcore was the sheer volume of the screaming which was off the Richter scale.

Remember the talented, young, black comedian impressionist that I first brought to TV airwaves at MTV BASE for BLACK HISTORY MONTH called Jason Lewis? He has just had the ‘’Jason Lewis experience’’ commissioned by BBC3. Congrats Jase-you deserve it! Thanks to Jay Davidson & Nana Hughes and Jo Sargent for making it happen! Upwards and onwards.

Unity and ambition in groups of circles plays a huge part in success and this example keeps popping up in every story I encounter. A young man that I kept hearing about years ago that young people really respected musically is an artist named Wretch32. My interns, researchers, work experience and more would bring his name up continually. I met him a few times before he became popular and he was always the most well-mannered, friendly, engaging person. Everyone liked him. He is on the register for ‘’next to blow up’. Check him out. From North London like his homeboy Chipmunk, Wretch smiled as he recalled to me that his Dad was a sound system DJ so they had speaker boxes all over the house and in Wretch’s bedroom. His Dad also took him to jams which he laughs were maybe not appropriate but Wretch was sucking it all in. Wretch has been really close to Chipmunk for years as both are North Londoners and always kept in touch, played each other tracks and kept each other on their toes. As well as Chippy, Wretch is close to acts Scorcher, Ghetto and Bashy and loves following Scorcher and Skepta on Twitter as both are mad funny, but does see the downside of the social networking site when he observes cyber wars between artists. He maturely understands that the advantages to Twitter are fan and public interaction but acknowledges that its negative side is that you put out immediately the first thing that comes into your head and press send.
He described his early days getting into the game and explained that it ‘’ was more difficult to get into the game as acts like Wiley, Roll Deep, Nasty Crew, and others were all from London’s East End and all the pirate radio stations there were controlling the sounds of the time’’. Wretch’s first mixtape “Learn from my mixtape” caught peoples ears and Radio1Xtras DJ Cameo , Ace & Vis and Semtex were suitably impressed.
Wretch continues ‘’Combination Camp were on HeatFM and encouraged me to get on the mic’’. ‘’I continued writing and improved and got onto Pirate radio’’.
The quality of lyrics and concepts on Wretchs mix tapes caught peoples ears with his mad concepts. For example he did a track called “Punctuation” where he went all metaphorical with the English language and people were impressed!. After that he did a lot of school tours and talks with primary schools, which he found easy as ‘’kids nowadays respect artists more than their teachers’’.
Soon after putting in all that hard graft Wretch started getting a lot more airplay and became Radio1Xtras most played mixtape artist in 2006.
He then sat down with his team of friends…his mate is his manager and like many an urban act, Wretch thinks its easier to keep his business in the fam and ‘’not listen to other managers cos a lot of them just talk’’. They boast “We will make you big and it all amounts to nothing”.
Currently working on his new album “Black and White” which is a quarter done with a single coming soon, Wretch has been chased by Radio1Xtra bigwigs to host his own show and is juggling being a good dad to his young son. The album concept differs from his past work on “Wretchrospective” but he reassures me ‘’its still intimate with a good vibe. In the past I may have been too conceptual’’. The new work includes tracks that talk about love-but not too much and generally the roller coaster of life and being in the industry. The one thing I love about Wretch is that he never talks too reckless-he understands the power of the irresponsible word.
Smiling with love he recounts to me that his young son means everything to him and tells him that when he grows up wants to ‘’be a screwdriver” LOLOL‘’. Look out for Wretch32. An articulate lyricist, a responsible father and a decent human being. That’s all!.

I want to also shout loud and proud about a young man called Jason Lewis who 3 years ago was working in clothing store Banana Republic and sent me a YouTube link to a parody of MTV BASE Black History Month and asked me to check it. Assuming I’d be annoyed by this young, whippersnapper nobody’s content I clicked through on my computer and watched with one eyebrow raised. I got it immediately. My team weren’t convinced but I could see his thought process and comedy angle were unique and what our audience would appreciate. I brought him into MTV to work with our team and the legal department to ensure we could deliver a workable script to film for the upcoming BLACK HISTORY MONTH. My bosses had already warned me that with resources being cut everywhere Black History Month plans weren’t concrete. However, Jason offered to make ours. With his own team of friends in his talented circle. between them Jason had a huge group of actors, directors, editors ,this kid was placing himself in successful circles and they were all pulling each other up together! To me it was mind blowing! To cut a long story short, Jason spent long, frustrating hours with myself and our legal advisor working on his scripts and making him understand the meaning of ‘slander’ and ‘libel’ before getting his own, basic 30 min show on MTV BASE called THE JASON LEWIS EXPERIENCE. Kudos to my boss at the time-Virginia Monaghan – for letting me persuade her on so many projects that I was passionate that should make it to air. Even though Jason’s work wasn’t at the time of the highest quality we were used to putting on air, Virginia saw the light, supported me and allowed me to bring in some very talented young people to the channel. Next, my pal that works at the BBC requested the DVD of Jason’s work and before you could say boo, Jason was called into the hallowed walls of the BBC building where for the last year has been working hard to make it. He’s had a few cameos in BBC comedy output and then last week a press release by the corporation was released confirming that they were shooting a pilot for Jason own show ‘THE JASON LEWIS EXPERIENCE’!. A beautiful story of a young ambitious, talented man that learnt to play by the establishments rules and slowly bent them into his own shape –congratulations Jason-I salute you!

Another similar story is that of Alexander Amosu. Years ago when I was working as a CHOICEFM presenter and covering the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court a young man introduced himself to me and mentioned that he was selling ‘’R&B ringtones’’ as mobile phones were now popular with kids. I took his card, wished him well and moved on. Gradually I’d hear his name regularly as he climbed the ladder of success. He had built his company from the ground up and sold it for millions. Next he concentrated on the luxury market and became known for producing and selling high end designer things like a diamond encrusted IPod or phone, the most expensive suit in the world etc. He knew how to spin the current trends and now he is an established, respected business man. He held his birthday party a fortnight ago and as you arrived at the venue the first two things I spotted were a brand new white Audi R8 spider and a red Ferrari California! To complete the opulent entrance we were gifted a red rose branded with an Alexander Amosu logo whilst we sipped on champagne. Very indulgent but hey-the mans worked hard and has the right to celebrate his success on his special day. As we wandered around the room we noted on display ‘’that’’ world’s most expensive suit costing £70,000 and four show cases of diamond encrusted phones. Guest also had the chance to get their phones engraved with their names or logo for free as well as try out Mr Amosu’s new line of pin striped suits laced with your name, a revolutionary idea that’s bound to have numerous fans among the vain footballers or rappers worlds. You could smell the money in the room as guests filled the venue to capacity with paparazzi taking photos and a two camera crew following and filming Mr Amosu’s every move. (very damon dash LOL). The event kicked off with a video tape that showed Alexander’s journey to the top followed by a grand entrance with him coming through a secret door with African dancers and drummers! Soul singing legend Omar completed the fabulous evening by performing to guests that included Alesha Dixon, Clive Sharpe – chairman Golden Wonder Crisp, Chris Gorman – Chairman Quintessentially group, Micheal Birch – Founder of Bebo, Tinie Tempah, Duncan Bannatyne – Dragons den, David Pun – Director Harvey Nichols, Jim Ike – Nollywood Actor, Kanya King – mobo founder,, Emmanuel Jal, comedian Kojo. A very proud night for all present.

MZ BRATT & JASMINE

Mariah’s brother/ nephew Shawn was in town this week and knowing he’s more a Nobu brother than a Nando’s one we went somewhere suitably expensive where you pay as much for the ambience as the food before I took him down to Bungalow 8 nightclub in St Martins Lane hotel where my friend John Woolf (Wiley’s former manager and man about town) was throwing his regular bash. We were ushered down into the intimate bar where the petite but much acclaimed female DJ Kaper was playing old skool hip-hop. In one corner was singer Hinda Hicks who has new music coming out soon, in another was producer Shy FX who was accompanied by his new American artist a very young, blonde lady and urban magician Dynamo for once was hanging out and socialising instead of taking everyone’s attention with his mind blowing magic, but I was most enraptured with one half of super production duo Chase & Status who ended up taking over the decks and throwing down some hardcore ragga! Braap!

It was a week of fabulous dinners as next one time ChoiceFM DJ, now football and business guru Chris Nathaniel invited me to dinner at celebrity loved Knightsbridge restaurant Mr Chows. We were accompanied by female vocal duo addictive. Chris and I had business to discuss so met a little ahead of the rest of the group. When addictive walked in the whole restaurant went quiet, stopped eating with forks suspended in mid-air and stared open mouthed at bthe 2 glamorous ladies that had just walked in. it was a hilarious sight to observe as they were clearly trying to work out if it was Destinys Child or The Saturdays LOL!. I ordered my (and Mariahs) favourite-the squab with iceberg lettuce. After convincing the addictive ladies it wasn’t pigeon but diced chicken –they joined me in wrapping up the little parcels of heaven and devouring. We finished with black cod-which is better in Nobu and gossiped about all things fabulous.

Addictive are really busy right now with their Mix CD out on 9th September, their Summer Tour to Holiday resorts from the end of July, a Schools & Uni Tour in September, a new Single out January 2011 followed by their Album out Summer 2011. they’re currently doing Club Tour up North and some big, rich, fat, cigar smoking bigwigs are developing a film script featuring the girls! go get em ladies! For a while now the UK charts have been dominated by male British urban acts and so its nice to see a lot of the ladies breaking through again.

Next BET invited a VIP group of 100 guests to meet controversial radio host/ TV talk show presenter Wendy Williams-as my one time child hood heroine I had to go-more on that next week!.

I ended my week with a cup of tea with Mz Bratt. With her single ‘’Selector’’ blaring out from every radio station and car stereo, Selector looks to be one of this summers anthems and Mz Bratt is the name on everyone’s lips right about now. There’s talk of her locking down a major record deal with Atlantic.
She revealed that her single which will be released in September, will be put out via the aforementioned Shy FX’s record label (keeping the money and talent all in the UK family-nice one!).
Listening to ‘’Selector’’ its hard not to smile at the very hard, Buju toned lyrics coming from this very slight, delicate, pretty young girl that looks like she could play the Disney princess in every story.
The track is very wild when Bratts music in the past in comparison is very reserved. More recently Bratt has become part of a very forceful music clique called the ‘’A list crew’’- headed up by the legend that is Wiley. Bratt confessed that the first she had heard about her inclusion in the group was when she was on holiday in Egypt. She kept seeing Tweets saying ‘’Bratts in the A List’’. The tweets continued ‘’Wiley wants you to be in the a list collective’’. Bratt added ‘’He said “let’s do this and I had known him since I was a little girl so his Co sign is a big deal’’.
Other members of Wileys ‘’A List’’ include singer Shola Ama and her sister Sadie, artist J2K, Brazen/, and lots of other new members.
Bratt confided that Wiley regularly calls the collective together to work on music in the studio altogether where he has them all working together and experimenting like the
Andy Warhol of the grime scene putting together acts and experimenting.
I had to confess to Bratt that whilst I loved wiley and what he had achieved ,he had frustrated me a lot in the past by not turning up for media promotion opportunities and so on.
Bratt smiled knowingly and reassured me ‘’Lately he’s been more reliable. He’s realised with acts like Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder he knows its a new day and its motivated him’’.

Bratt revealed that the Album coming from the group “Midnight Love” is out now and compared her clique to a British version of American collective ‘’Young Money’’.
Bratt has recently collaborated with film director Noel Clarke on music for his movie 4321 after the musical score director Bashy reached out to her and now 3 of her tracks are in the film.
Similarly Bashy had Bratt work on a track for the movie shank too-isn’t it great to see team- UK working together united in a way that’s never been seen before!?.

Bratts story is one of struggle and tenacity. Her early beginnings were in Ilford. Essex East London. She recalls growing up with her Dad who was into acid house. She recounts the stories of squatting. They were poor. Her middle class mum brought her up. She reminisces ‘’I Had a hard upbringing –the squatting was the worst. There was a lot of Domestic violence. I remember a lot of House parties. My Sister and I sat on the stairs. Superstar Seal used to squat with dad before he was famous. I remember being 14 years old at school listening to Dizzee on the radio. I used to hang with the guys. I met Terror Danja and he supported me quite a lot’’.
Currently Bratts midway through working on her album with All Saints old producer K Gee. I imagine being a pretty female in the game isn’t easy and Bratt agrees and confirms that ‘’People feel they can talk to me in a certain way or take advantage of me and of course there are the inevitable rumours about being with acts that you’re working with but I take it on the chin and keep it moving’’. Bratt adds that she’s always having emotional rants on twitter but loves it and is slightly addicted. Her favourite tweeter is fellow artist Giggs who has her laughing all day.
Bratt is a talent to look out for. Like a very young Ms Dynamite she’s gorgeous, talented and making music in a mans world- its time for the ladies to takeover again!.

This fortnight saw me finally go see the SEX AND THE CITY 2 movie with all my girl friends. We had purposely avoided it until one of us returned from L.A so we could all view it altogether as we had always done so. So one sunny lunchtime we booked ourselves into the marble arch Odeon and had a private screening as not one other person was there. We were all dressed as our favourite SATC2 character complete with cute frocks, corsages and vertiginous heels and made a day of it at lunch knocking back pretty cocktail’s, talking about shoes and discussing men!

Next Adidas bigwig Paola Lucktung sent me a VIP box to go see George Benson. Yes, you heard correctly. Often I get sent a pair of show tickets from my record industry pals but Paola likes to do things big. So I was sent the whole Adidas corporate box and so I rolled down to the 02 Arena with some friends and we watched a living legend sing classic old skool hit after hit including ‘’nature boy’’ and ‘’never give up on a good thing’’. The Adidas box was a great barometer of how well our UK acts have done on the major platform internationally as huge photo shot pictures of Estelle alongside David Beckham adorned the walls. I felt really proud of the gigantic leaps and bounds young British talent has made recently. The George Benson audience meanwhile were expectedly a little older than my usual crowd and the volume, amusingly seemed a lot quieter which made me smile and imagine my mums voice saying ‘’turn that volume down’’. George had a tight little band that at a couple of moments seemed he was threatened by them running away without him so he reined them in again. The set was very old skool disco- like and the vibe was lovely-like a christening/wedding atmosphere.
Next I did my part for the community when I helped organise the first ever Paddington Festival for the west London area. I’m a west London born and bred gal and so when I was approached to help put together the line up and event for this year I jumped at the chance. I’ve learnt in life that its just as important to do things that aren’t always part of your daily remit and to give back and the more you give the more you receive. So on Saturday morning as the weather decided to give us a heatwave I called my mates KAT (MTV/CHOICEFM) and music artists Bashy and Akala to jump onstage at the junction of Harrow Road and Elgin Avenue where a stage had been set up. Alongside them were local dance group Hypnotik and local MC Cortex. Kat had the crowd rolling and entertained all day whilst the acts did their thing. Acts like Bashy and Akala are truly inspiring to the young, local audience. Their intelligence, lyrical dexterity and not even trying to be fly natural swag oozes out in bundles. Even the older crowd in the audience sat up and paid attention to them. Young kids had their faces painted and a lot of Caribbean and African food was going around. At one point the festival bigwigs wanted to pronounce the event officially launched by having K at cut a plethora of helium balloons and have them fly into the sky. The joke was that the balloons were tied to the roof of the stage and Kat had to climb up there to cut them off! Health and safety!

Puffy came to Europe again last week to promote his music and new group Diddy – Dirty Money, who released their new single Hello Good Morning last Monday. Now, having worked on numerous occasions with the bad boy for life I can tell you that he has a massive machine around him that ensures as part of their job that he causes pandemonium wherever he goes. Calls will be made to arrange model types and pretty chic’s prepared to wear nearly nothing to flank him as paparazzi both real and ‘’prepared’’ flash those bulbs. His bling will be ostentatious, his sunglasses will not be prized from his head and assistants will scurry around him whispering and hyperventilating to ensure the correct amount of gravitas is surrounding him-(nicely mixed with an erroneous amount of Sean John fragrance and perfectly moisturised lip balmed lips). Did I ever tell you a few years we held up a shoot so puff could summons his stylist to grab Vaseline for his lips and insisted on a mirror to show every corner of his mouth was not dry before continueing!. It used to make me laugh when I first noted the machine of fame at work but now it’s a given that I enjoy observing.
Puff arrived in the morning on Eurostar from Paris and as expected caused chaos as he descended on London’s St Pancreas station a pair of statuesque ladies either side of the Diddy. He was later whisked off to the BBC to film Jonathan Ross where even more narrow corridors were crushed up with men in black in sharp suits-you know how Diddy does!. He then topped off his London visit by partying the night away at London’s Whiskey Mist nightclub and was joined by Drake, M.I.A and Kelly Rowland as well as the usual wanabees hoping to get lucky for the night. The music stars were all clearly having a blast as they ordered over £20,000 worth of the infamous Gold bottles of Armand de Brignac Champagne-the current top champers of choice having kicked Dom P and Cristal to the kerb. Of course with all the half naked chics, sparkling bottles and DJs Manny Norte and DJ Nikki on the decks it wasn’t long before Diddy started dancing on the table and showing London clubbers what partying is all about! I gotta hand it to him, his parties are always on another level from his infamous white parties, his crazier than crazy MTV AWARDS parties and his parties on private jets- Sean Combs is a party guru!.

I’ll have to keep those memories at the forefront of my mind as its world cup time! Now I need to find friends for the next month as the football has taken over my crib and guys attention. Maybe I will spend all the extra time in the gym…..or a meet a man in there that doesn’t like the footie LOL!

Mariah’s brother/ nephew Shawn was in town this week and knowing he’s more a Nobu brother than a Nando’s one we went somewhere suitably expensive where you pay as much for the ambience as the food before I took him down to Bungalow 8 nightclub in St Martins Lane hotel where my friend John Woolf (Wiley’s former manager and man about town) was throwing his regular bash. We were ushered down into the intimate bar where the petite but much acclaimed female DJ Kaper was playing old skool hip-hop. In one corner was singer Hinda Hicks who has new music coming out soon, in another was producer Shy FX who was accompanied by his new American artist a very young, blonde lady and urban magician Dynamo for once was hanging out and socialising instead of taking everyone’s attention with his mind blowing magic, but I was most enraptured with one half of super production duo Chase & Status who ended up taking over the decks and throwing down some hardcore ragga! Braap!

It was a week of fabulous dinners as next one time ChoiceFM DJ, now football and business guru Chris Nathaniel invited me to dinner at celebrity loved Knightsbridge restaurant Mr Chows. We were accompanied by female vocal duo addictive. Chris and I had business to discuss so met a little ahead of the rest of the group. When addictive walked in the whole restaurant went quiet, stopped eating with forks suspended in mid-air and stared open mouthed at bthe 2 glamorous ladies that had just walked in. it was a hilarious sight to observe as they were clearly trying to work out if it was Destinys Child or The Saturdays LOL!. I ordered my (and Mariahs) favourite-the squab with iceberg lettuce. After convincing the addictive ladies it wasn’t pigeon but diced chicken –they joined me in wrapping up the little parcels of heaven and devouring. We finished with black cod-which is better in Nobu and gossiped about all things fabulous. For a while now the UK charts have been dominated by male British urban acts and so its nice to see a lot of the ladies breaking through again.

Next BET invited a VIP group of 100 guests to meet controversial radio host/ TV talk show presenter Wendy Williams-as my one time child hood heroine I had to go-more on that next week!.

I ended my week with a cup of tea with Mz Bratt. With her single ‘’Selector’’ blaring out from every radio station and car stereo, Selector looks to be one of this summers anthems and Mz Bratt is the name on everyone’s lips right about now. There’s talk of her locking down a major record deal with Atlantic.
She revealed that her single which will be released in September, will be put out via the aforementioned Shy FX’s record label (keeping the money and talent all in the UK family-nice one!).
Listening to ‘’Selector’’ its hard not to smile at the very hard, Buju toned lyrics coming from this very slight, delicate, pretty young girl that looks like she could play the Disney princess in every story.
The track is very wild when Bratts music in the past in comparison is very reserved. More recently Bratt has become part of a very forceful music clique called the ‘’A list crew’’- headed up by the legend that is Wiley. Bratt confessed that the first she had heard about her inclusion in the group was when she was on holiday in Egypt. She kept seeing Tweets saying ‘’Bratts in the A List’’. The tweets continued ‘’Wiley wants you to be in the a list collective’’. Bratt added ‘’He said “let’s do this and I had known him since I was a little girl so his Co sign is a big deal’’.
Other members of Wileys ‘’A List’’ include singer Shola Ama and her sister Sadie, artist J2K, Brazen/, and lots of other new members.
Bratt confided that Wiley regularly calls the collective together to work on music in the studio altogether where he has them all working together and experimenting like the
Andy Warhol of the grime scene putting together acts and experimenting.
I had to confess to Bratt that whilst I loved wiley and what he had achieved ,he had frustrated me a lot in the past by not turning up for media promotion opportunities and so on.
Bratt smiled knowingly and reassured me ‘’Lately he’s been more reliable. He’s realised with acts like Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder he knows its a new day and its motivated him’’.

Bratt revealed that the Album coming from the group “Midnight Love” is out now and compared her clique to a British version of American collective ‘’Young Money’’.
Bratt has recently collaborated with film director Noel Clarke on music for his movie 4321 after the musical score director Bashy reached out to her and now 3 of her tracks are in the film.
Similarly Bashy had Bratt work on a track for the movie shank too-isn’t it great to see team- UK working together united in a way that’s never been seen before!?.

Bratts story is one of struggle and tenacity. Her early beginnings were in Ilford. Essex East London. She recalls growing up with her Dad who was into acid house. She recounts the stories of squatting. They were poor. Her middle class mum brought her up. She reminisces ‘’I Had a hard upbringing –the squatting was the worst. There was a lot of Domestic violence. I remember a lot of House parties. My Sister and I sat on the stairs. Superstar Seal used to squat with dad before he was famous. I remember being 14 years old at school listening to Dizzee on the radio. I used to hang with the guys. I met Terror Danja and he supported me quite a lot’’.
Currently Bratts midway through working on her album with All Saints old producer K Gee. I imagine being a pretty female in the game isn’t easy and Bratt agrees and confirms that ‘’People feel they can talk to me in a certain way or take advantage of me and of course there are the inevitable rumours about being with acts that you’re working with but I take it on the chin and keep it moving’’. Bratt adds that she’s always having emotional rants on twitter but loves it and is slightly addicted. Her favourite tweeter is fellow artist Giggs who has her laughing all day.
Bratt is a talent to look out for. Like a very young Ms Dynamite she’s gorgeous, talented and making music in a mans world- its time for the ladies to takeover again!.

MZ BRATT & JASMINE

PIC- EASTENDERS ACTRESS / MUSIC ARTIST PREEYA KALIDAS.

You can be assured that once the sun comes out in the UK that us pessimists will do all we can to make the most of it so a million BBQ”s, park picnics and summer festivities begin to take over our lives.
Last weekend I attended 2 BBQ”s, 2 christenings, a talent show called AMPT at Sound Bar where singer Shaun Williams, and MC”s Sincere and Scorcher performed ,as well as a few trips to the gym.

The christening was in Oxford for a lovely little baby girl called Monet. Daddy from Ghana via South London, mummy from Oxford. The church was stunning, the reception hall was decorated in the usual balloons, unlimited alcohol, a feast of food including a spit roast pig out in the garden area, guys all having drinking competitions, and the sun was out. We ate jollof rice, stewed chicken, and much more. As I was nibbling delicately on a chicken skewer I overheard a little boy ask a lady ‘’is that your babyson?, why is he so brown?”. Hilarious. The poor child mustn’t have been too used to seeing brown kids out in Oxford!.
I wasn’t laughing for long though, before a guy who was fully embedded in the male drink-off decided to whack an ice cream across my face for fun. I was furious but before long my competitive spirit forgot I was wearing a white knee length couture- like dress, and smashed said guy’s face into a pile of cream, chocolate and fruit cake. Cue much screaming, hysterical laughter and ruined clothes. They wont be inviting us back again!.

The following evening musician TY threw a show at the infamous north London jazz café and invited us to share the VIP balcony with his nearest and dearest for one of the best live music shows of the year so far. Early on the venue was crammed full of a great party crowd as DJ Mr Thing played classic jam after jam. Sitting with us at dinner upstairs were UK hip hop legends Roots Manuva and Rodney P. Also in the house were Flava magazine, Charlie Sloth and Lyricisit .Ty literally came, saw and conquered the crowd , joined onstage by his music friends like Roses Gabor and others the crowd were eating out of his hand all night. A real artist has personality and speaks in a relaxed manner with their audience and Ty was a genius at this-he could give a few younger chart acts a few lessons. A real fun hip hop show.

Legend George Benson was performing at the 02 and Adidas head honcho Paola Lucktung sent me not just tickets but a whole box. Yes. You heard right. I had the Adidas VIP box in the Arena all to myself so my friends and I sat back, watched Mr Benson sing hit after hit and spent a lovely evening reminiscing about the good old music from yesterday. George was good if at times seemingly threatened by his band taking over and reeling them back in. The vibe was relaxed and so laid back I could’ve fallen asleep as the crowd around me were calm and the stage set resembled an old school disco .It also seemed that the sound volume wasn’t high as it usually is for a younger artists demographic. You know the oldies. They like to listen at a lower decibel LOL!.

To end my week Eastenders actress and musical theatre star Preeya Kalidas popped over to my crib in a very sexy ,summery dress and vertiginous high heels to give me an exclusive playback session of her first music album. The sun was out and I wanted to fatten her tiny slim body up so I made fresh pancakes with fruit for brunch and forced her to eat them even though she tried to be strong with cries of ‘’no Jaz-I have a video shoot I have to be trim for this week’’ .
Now more than ever the British Asian music industry is thriving and what with singer Jay Sean’s success the time Is ripe for another pop star to emerge-particularly to fill the female Asian pop gap. Preeya left Eastenders after her massive story line last month where she found her husband was gay and a massive 9.3 million viewers tuned in to see her exit on the show proving that a brilliant storyline coupled with a diverse cast brings in great ratings. Preeya has been in the game for a long while with parts in TV specials, films and lead parts in West End Theatre shows but now the time has come for her to really take her career to the next level.
I have to confess that when I first heard Preeya was making a music album I rolled my eyes and thought ‘’here we go again-an actress wants to be a popstar’’. But then I heard the music. Its good. And then I recalled that she actually began with her roots in music and this album shows she has a strong musical background. I presumed her sound would be tinged with an Asian accent but her vocals ,which are very strong, sound very international and inclusive which leaves me concluding she could be a very successful sexy ,sassy pop star for the new generation. Im still intrigued as to how such a teeny physique can belt out such a huge, bellowing voice!
Her first single ‘’Shimmy’’ is extremely catchy and will have dance floors full and bouncing across many various club genres.
The Asian influenced remix features bhangra star Mumzy Stranger who sounds very like Sean Paul and the way he yells ‘’Preeya Kalidasssss’’ I’m convinced we will all be shouting it at her in the street!. Meanwhile artist producer Rishie Rich did a reggaeton version.
As we ate pancakes in my sunny living room I bounced around to her music including a track I loved from the album called ‘in my heels’’ which is a dance based up tempo, big dance tune that goes‘’ I’m a diva, I’m that girl ,in the club, rock my world’’. Big. A track that has to be a single is ‘’Dance for you’’ whilst ‘’Habit’’ is a big ballad with strong vocals which I can imagine being played years from now.
On the rest of the album Preeya has worked with Novell, Cage Productions, and about to blow artist producer Labrinth who made one of my favourite tracks on the album called ‘’Bad boy’’ which the bad boy in life loves!.
Preeya calls her sound ‘’triple s pop’’- which stands for ‘’sexy-sassy –soul-pop’’ and the thing I love about her is that she’s unapologetically proud of her background with regular nods to her ethnicity with her visual look sometimes enhanced and hinted at with henna tattoos and Asian jewellery accessories. Signed to Mercury Records, Preeya is a top priority act for the year and I think you’re all in for a shock with her new music-I think radio stations will play list this album as its very accessible, fun, catchy pop at its commercial best. Preeya is leading the way forwards when it comes to young, sassy British Asian females but can more than stand-up and be counted alongside the Leona’s and Alexandra’s in the mainstream. You go girl!

I hope you’re all working as hard as me! The harder I work the luckier I get, the more fabulous my life becomes!
Work hard; play harder is the perfect formula to a happy heart in my book!
So it’s a good thing that Its mid year madness in London town as when I’m not scripting, researching, editing and in meetings we’ve been awash with film premieres, awards shows, video shoots, album launch parties gigs and picnics in the park.

This week’s fabulosity kicked off with writer/director/actor Noel Clarke’s film premiere for his new movie 4321 at the Odeon Leicester square. I was so late that my guy had to hold a car park spot for me around the corner by physically standing in it and as I was wearing a tight, white ,Dita Von Teese pencil skirt dress couldn’t take bigger steps than a geisha girl. I was stressing that the doormen wouldn’t let us in as we were pushing the punctuality limit so I popped my converse on with the dress and hurried embarrassed up the red carpet with my mate looking mortified at me LOL. Typically, Noel Clarke was still doing interviews on the red carpet and said hi as I tried to run past avoiding his eye in my mixed up outfit. Once inside the foyer I swapped shoes into my skyscraper stilettos and all was good with the world (and my mates face) again!
In one corner of the foyer I spotted actors Aml Ameen and Adam Deacon who were deep in conversation, no doubt about their thespian world-I shimmied over to them for a quick hug and catch up before running along to find my seat.
Before getting there however I bumped into dishy boxer David Haye and reached up to kiss his cane rowed cowboy hat wearing head. Thankfully our seats were in between MTV comedian Kojo and Master Shortie-who’s just signed his American deal!. Also in the house were Wiley, presenter’s Rickie and Melvin, MTV and BBC comic impressionist Jason Lewis and many other power players. The film was eagerly anticipated and didn’t disappoint. Not one to be held in a niche pocket, Noel has expanded his urban film genre to a bigger diverse audience and cast and the film was gripping and intriguing in all the right places with its slowly unravelling plotline. It was very entertaining and Noel really has founded a new film genre for young people that speaks their language and that they can relate to. Bashy did the sound track and got Mz Bratt, Adam Deacon, Noel and others involved like the unifying business guru that he is.

Straight after the film I popped on the sneakers again to leg it up the road to catch the final part of singer Egypt’s showcase at Black Market Records where a nice cool crowd was mingling with good hospitality. The crowd seemed to enjoy the new music from Egypt who had fantastic energy and her new material sounds promising.

My week also included a lovely networking evening with my colleagues at BBC children’s department where i caught up with a number of diverse producers and directors from all walks of life to share experiences, next I spent a whole evening just writing lovely things for references for some of my former colleagues, then I cooked Eastenders actress Preeya Kalidas a Sunday morning pancake brunch with maple syrup, raspberries and blueberries as we listened to her debut album (more on that next week!) I ended last weekend judging at my old ballet schools national finals competition which was very la did ah darlings and reminded me to go book a pedicure for my ballet worn feet!.

Later in the week it was Genesis Carnival Company’s press launch celebrating 30 years at carnival! We were treated to nibbles and drinks as they unveiled their cyber-tribe themed costumes for this years Notting Hill Carnival 2010
The costumes were modelled by Miss Jamaica UK and Miss London and the evening was hosted by former Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules and we were treated to a live performance by Soca Bantan from Grenada to get us into the carnival spirit early-I guess it’s a West London privilege!

The next day Mobo founder and friend Kanya King called to invite me to the UK Performance Awards, an annual event that aims to celebrate outstanding UK breakthrough performances across a number of diverse categories such as sport, education, music, innovation and the environment. Hosted by Kate Silverton at The Churchill Hyatt Regency in Portman Square it started with a champagne reception before a show, which awarded very deserving nominees accolades. In the music section were Tinie Tempah, Giggs , Marina and the Diamonds and newcomer Ainne. Lifetime award winner Sebastian Coe made me laugh as he was not amused being sat at his arch rival Steve Ovetts table. Luckily I was sat at the aptly named music influenced ‘’McCartney’’ table. The lunch was delicious, until I got a text from Giggs saying ‘’stuffing your face as usual’’!.i looked around the ballroom to see him smirking at me. If I get anorexic in the future blame him. Later as the host called for Giggs onstage it turns out he had gone for a pee and was no where to be seen. Hilarious!. Tinie ended up winning the music category and Kanya collected his award for him-make sure you get it Tinie-you know what Kanyas like-it’ll be on her desk alongside her MBE for years if you’re not careful.

That same night I was summoned to Westminster where the uber talented vocalist Alicia Keys was holding her ‘’keep a child alive black ball ‘’. The event was in a classic old church space which looked breath taking on the summers night as the paparazzi lined alongside the red carpet for the A LIST names that just kept on coming. As I stepped in there was pandemonium over Katie Price and her man Alex, next JLS, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, footballers Sol Campbell and Carlton Cole and Chris Martin flew by. After that I spotted a gorgeous looking Jade Ewen and shoe God Christian Louboutin. The JLS boys were seated with Katie and Alex and the ballroom was heaving with glitz and money-just the right ingredients for a charity auction. Alicia took to the stage to welcome everyone wearing a silver cocktail dress that she looked pretty in but it has to be said, resembled a toilet doily. And for the millionth time this decade people questioned ‘’who is her stylist and what were they thinking?’’. We concluded that it must be an attempt to hide the ever-growing pregnant bump .She was joined by her co-host Thandie Newton who looked lovely. The food and drinks just kept on coming (can you tell I ate a lot this week!), we were also treated to platefuls of posh biccie macaroons- you really haven’t lived if you don’t know about macaroons!. Once the auction began it was the most fun-unlike most auctions the bidding and bidders were big!. First up donated by OK magazine was an opportunity to have your photo taken with Alicia. Obviously I take my proximity to stars and my photo opportunities for granted but imagine my shock when a bidder stumped up £12.000 for it!.
It was interesting to see that most of the night though, not 1 footballer or celeb bid on anything whilst heads of record labels were bidding like wildfire. Does this show who really has the purse of gold?
Funnily the auctioneer kept mis pronouncing Alicia’s name calling her Al-eeccc-ia instead of Al-esh-ia. Before long all the celebs were throwing offers around. Shaun Wright Phillips offered a footie coaching lesson which hilariously Carlton Cole bid for!. Christian Louboutin auctioned off a pair of shoes signed by Alicia and Beyonce that he had custom made for them. Next, JLS offered themselves out on a dinner date which had the ladies freakin out. it went for £7000!
Thereafter Alicia’s fiancé producer and artist Swiss Beats offered a studio session with him which AEG head Rob Hallet joked that JLS should invest in . To our delight both Tinchy Stryder and JLS got into a bidding war for it against each other -JLS won with £30,000!!! I couldn’t help thinking neither act really needed Swiss to get to number 1 but maybe they were thinking of their U.S prospects?. I also wondered whether JLS’ deal with Simon Cowell could be so lucrative that each lad could afford to shell out £8000 on a whim!?
To end the nigh everyone was upstanding as hostess Alicia performed onstage joined by Kasabian. By now Alicia had changed into a new outfit. And looked good! Wearing a black asymmetrical shoulder cut sequin knee length loose dress! Finally -the stylist came through lol.
If you love kids & Alicia Keys & support her cause-text the word ALIVE now to 82540 to make an instant £3 donation to Keep A Child Alive
As everyone danced hard to the live set, JLS were jammin hard, Tinchy looked a lil bewildered swayin by himself and I had sweat too much dancing wit the boys and decided to make a classy getaway before the lights came up fully and exposed me.
As I left I was handed a Goody bag, which was handmade, by women from Rwanda, all the women that made it had sewn their name inside the bag they made, with a toy watch inside-a very conscious, fun, inspiring night- a salute to Ms Keys-a woman of substance.

LEONA, NICOLA & JASMINE.

For so long its been about the fellas but this year the ladies are back with a vengeance. Leona Lewis manager, my mate Nicola called and asked if I’d like to join them in their ‘’Laurie Milne’’ jeweller extraordinaire VIP Box at the 02 Arena for Rihannas recent ‘’Last girl on earth’’ tour show. Well VIP and Box are my 2 of my fave words and to share it with lovely Leona of course I accepted. Leona had a bad throat the day of the show so I tried not to waffle on to her too much during the show as I usually tend to. Riri came on late. She probably wanted to distance herself from support act Pixie Lotts cos Pixie was good-too good for a warm up. When Riri finally made it onstage she brought attitude, bolshiness and visuals to entertain. Her vocals are very nasal and not the easiest on the ear but her catchy song writers and stunning outfits and set designs more than distract you from that. Also-when at a gig I try to go with realistic expectation. In the same way that going to see Whitney was more about experiencing a real moment with a legend, Riri is clearly not going to bring Mary vocals. She didn’t disappoint though. From riding astride a hot pink army tank, to dancing on a Cadillac car, to gliding across the stage on travellators and revolving dance floors there were pink leotards, black rubber S&M outfits and more visually tantalising feasts that highlighted her glamazon figure to its fullest. Even her final web catsuit that looked like it came from Dalston Market was carried off like a couture classic!. Only thing is if she’s going to wear 6 inch platforms she’s gotta practise walking in them more as she took a tumble-not the first of the tour-and certainly wont be the last. . As well as her own hits-which by now there really are plenty of (thanks to her A&R man the legendary RocNation genius, Jay Brown), -she threw in a few covers including an Oasis classic.During ‘’hate how much I love you’’ she had the crowd eating out of her hand, if only she could get more personality into her set –it was over an hour before she even said ‘’Hello London’’ and even then, that was it-it was clear she lacked confidence to relax. A lot of cash was spent on this tour with all the various sets, trapeze artists, dancers, and full band as well as an abundance of props and all I could think was ‘’bravo girl!’’, where’s the ‘’Princess of the Roc-Tierra Marie now?’’.

This very month Leona Lewis herself takes the 02 Arena in as a part of her tour which goes across the country and I cant wait to see her with her full stage show. She watched Rihanna very closely when we were at her gig but didn’t seem blown away. I know Leona will shine in that understated, purely vocal talent she has. She needs nothing else. Her brother Bradley used to be one of my editors at MTV and used to talk about his ‘’younger sister who sings’’ all the time years ago-who would’ve ever imagined that she would be an international superstar years later?.

My West London sistren Estelle was in town very briefly on low key business and whilst here she took me shopping to Selfridges, browns and Harvey Nics. She caused a stampede in Selfridges as fans recognised her and wanted photos and like a true star she obliged. I’ve noticed during my years working with the stars that the bigger and more successful they are the more they respect their fans. Its always the asses that disrespect the very people that put money in their pockets with their ‘’sorry no photos’’ crap. Estelle’s always gracious to her fans. As well as that we went down to the now regular Wednesday night at Camden’s Koko Club where Channel 4 record their great music show ‘’Pop’’. Estelle was eager to catch it as our mate’s Tinie Tempah and Mr Hudson were performing that night. Tinie Tempah was so good it was fascinating to observe. He is amazing live and had an energy that’s going to smash the summer festivals this year.

Speaking of West London, video director to the urban music world stars Luke Biggins and hip hops version of photographer Rankin- Mr Paul H, have set up an amazing new huger than huge, slicker than slick studio in West London where we have been frequenting often this month as so many new artists and old have made it their new home. Called Jacuzzi Studios it really is a central hub of London’s hip-hop elite right about now. They’re looking for eager, young, talented people to join their style, make up, film crew so holla at them on twitter if you think you’d like to be part of a growing, about to explode movement- hip hops version of the Andy Warhol.

GOSS; Which young new British musician was just about to sign on the dotted line to a major record label deal this week when Mr Simon Cowell called up and offered them a rival offer instead?

June’s finally nearly here and at last the weather has given us opportunities to pop our dresses and shorts on which frankly is a blessing as my legs were beginning to think they’d never see the light of day again and if I’m spending a few hours a week doing squats and lungs in the gym then these pins need to be on display whilst they’re still decent!

This fortnight I’ve been watching old tapes of the ground breaking, iconic, nineties youth TV show THE WORD. The reason? This September is the 20-year anniversary of the show and there will be mass TV and event celebrations to acknowledge the affect this notorious show had on youth TV culture in the past decade.
Its fascinating to watch the tapes back on the show where I was a presenter on series 5, where we had icons from Bo Derek, Prince, Patrick Swayze, Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Salt n Pepa, Eric Cantona, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jodeci, Mary J Bilge and many , many others appearing before they blew up. The outrageous content that showed anything and everything wild in the world of celebrity was my first foray into TV presenting before my MTV presenting days and I look back on those times in awe. The live studio used to be filled with party people, street dancers wearing shell suits, burlesque furry knicker wearing performers, and all the staff that made THE WORD went on to bigger things. Zoe Ball and Jo Wiley used to be researchers on the show!. My then genius TV bosses Bob Geldof, Charlie Parsons and Waheed Ali bred a stable of future power players that are now heads of TV, radio, film, and between them all they practically control the industry. Back then millions of viewers around the uk made no plans on a Friday night because THE WORD was unmissable, car crash TV. Live music, controversial interviews (who can forget that we gave Shabba Ranks a platform to ruin his own career and humiliated Oliver Reed and MC Hammer so bad), and stunts that would never be allowed to air in today’s very politically correct world were the normal every week. A group of nobodies eager to get their 15 minutes of fame would do unthinkable things to get onto the infamous slot ‘’The Hopefuls’’ which saw them sit in baths of cow dung, eat toenail clipping sandwiches, drink pints of each others urine, snog an old granny and lick an over weight mamas armpits post workout. The interesting thing I observe whilst viewing the old shows is that no music, youth entertainment show has ever matched it. There’s definitely a huge gap for this in today’s broadcasting world but which broadcaster would ever have the balls to recreate such a monster in today’s OFCOM controlled TV world?

After a year of the men controlling the music charts the ladies are back in full force with this month seeing visits from Whitney, Rihanna, Leona Lewis, Kelis, and of course the return of my West London hombre Estelle!. Estelle continues to represent the UK internationally and battles the ‘’dark skinned stereotype within our industry’’ daily. Her forthcoming album ALL OF ME is about to take over international play lists again and the first official single called FALL IN LOVE is already being hummed by radio listeners globally.
To celebrate her return I threw a last minute dinner party in her honour at mine where a few girl friends and men popped by. The night started in the usual civilised manner with nibbles and wine and conversation. As the night continued I corrupted poor stell by encouraging her to mix up a punch from my cocktail cupboard and before you knew it all kinds of bottles were being mixed with her favourite beverage-Ribena-to make a deadly concoction that tasted sweet and easy on the palette but was messing us all up. Moments later the banter between the girls and guys went off with the men role playing men chatting up women in nightclubs and all kinds of screaming, laughing and passing out took place. Estelle’s new album playback party is this week and takes place in a very fab venue with her usual eclectic mix of art and fashion. A true artist.

Finally I ended the week by going to see 2 live shows. Firstly to see artist Bashy play the lead role of ‘Markus the Sadist ‘ again in Jonzi D’s hip hop theatre show about an artist that gets signed to a major label and sells his soul to the music industry devil-always on point Bashy is a true multi faceted artist that can only get bigger and blow up this year.

Next I was invited to the IndigO2 on Friday night to watch Muyiwa and his famed chorale, Riversongz in action. Now I had heard a bit about Muyiwa and Riversongz before, but nothing would have prepared me for the night with the UK’s number one selling gospel artist. All I can say is who needs the gym when a few hours at a Muyiwa concert has the same effect on your body! I’m still aching from all that jumping around and dancing. Even the usually reserved Rudolph Walker [Patrick from Eastenders] let all inhibitions go and danced the night away with his wife, Dounne on the front row of the sell-out show. Also in the house was award-winning comedian, Eddie Kadi (who will be headlining at the 02 in September) saxophonist YolanDa Brown who had the crowd in the palm of her hand with her performance towards the end of the night and Chief Inspector Leroy Logan – Britain’s highest ranking African Caribbean police officer – who was so “inspired” by the show that told Muyiwa that he wanted to put him in contact with his son, Gerad ‘Soundbwoy’ Logan! It’s been two years since Muyiwa took to the stage and judging by the reaction of the crowd, it’s obvious he’s been missed!

Luckily my diary has has had as much fun in it this week as work or I could be in serious danger of depression with this UK weather. As Marvin would say ‘’What’s going on?’’. We’re mid may-nearly summer and its still the temperature of winter!
Heating my life up were lots of entertaining moments. I have made 3 Sunday roasts in a row for friends who have popped in, eaten to their hearts content and fallen asleep on my now legendary sofa (Mariah name checks it in my song ‘’betcha gone know’’ in her latest album) .
This fortnight my girl Estelle was briefly in town from NYC and we spent bank holiday Monday shopping at Selfridges, Browns and Harvey Nics, where Stell bought some high dusky pink vertiginous designer heels. She nearly tempted me into getting the midnight blue satin blinged up Alexander McQueen’s but luckily my bank account managers face kept looming into my subconscious and I kept my credit plastic tightly wrapped away out of sight like a good girl.
Post shopping I dragged Stell down to our mate hip hop theatre impresario Jonzi D’s Breaking Convention hip-hop theatre weekend at Sadlers Wells which was packed full of dance loving people who wished they had been in the original Breakdance and Beat Street movies (don’t deny it-I did too!).
To end the night we had a last minute dinner in Mayfair restaurant Automat with stylist to the stars Karen Binns and other friends.

Last Wednesday and most Wednesdays recently I’ve been found down at Camdens legendary Koko nightclub (formally Camden Palace), where Channel 4 regularly record their Sunday morning T4 music show ‘’Pop’’. Estelle was still in town and really wanted to go see her mate Mr Hudson and Tinie Tempah perform, so a 10 strong crew of ladies including Virgin Media’s Jodie Dalmeda, Music Worlds Fiona Ramsey, PR mavon Vanessa Amadi, Adidas head Paola Lucktung, and I jumped around with all the young uns, and I mean young-most of the audience looked 16!  Tinie Tempah never fails to entertain, his presence onstage is so strong he had the packed venue jumping screaming and chanting-they were totally eating out of his hand!

Next my one time nemesis south London rapper Giggs called me to cuss me. Well, he actually called to invite me to his albums official playback but cussed me first because he assumed I’d deleted him from my phone contacts as I hadn’t immediately known who it was. After explaining that my blackberry had finally collapsed and was in intensive care being repaired leaving me with no contacts to hand he let me off. Phew!
Anyhoo-that Friday afternoon I took the afternoon off work and headed down to Giggs very special afternoon.
The invitation implied it would be a different event to the usual and I was excited. The address was a very old world educational institute in the heart of Londons brain centre and the college was an old Etoneque building with amazing architecture and grand painting of lords, ladies and distinguished folk from yesteryear looking down on us. As we entered the lobby we were greeted with the now expected wine, soft drinks offers and Giggs immediately came bounding down the grand staircase to greet his guests and thank us for coming. We acknowledged how far this guy had come. 30 minutes later we were ushered into a huge grand hall, like a Harry Potter movie where old world desks were set up like an examination hall. An old lecturer (was he an actor?), greeted us and played the role of our tutor explaining that we had 45 minutes to open the paper on our desks, put on our individual headphones and take the paper away with us. Well, this was brilliant! You could see all 50 of the chosen journalists were impressed. The juxtaposition of this south London, raw, grimy character placed alongside this grand ,imposing, English, establishment was enough to start with but the examination room and headphones just banged in the final nail that said Giggs was on another level. He had mentioned to me a while back that when he played his music for people ,like most music acts he wanted total silence until the track was over. Well now he had forced listeners to actually listen. Unlike your average artist playback session where journos chat drink and socialise Giggs had forced us to sit and pay attention. Like he always has. Our desks had the ‘’Giggs listening exam paper ‘’ on it, as well as a byte sized mars bar, a green apple and some water. The visual was a classic. Fantastic idea! The body of work sounded together and panoramic and I have no doubt that if Giggs plays the game, then alongside his very slick managers Jack and Archie they can come, see and conquer.
I ended the week with my favourite body jam classes at the gym and a dinner party at my crib thrown in honour of the return of my west London girl Estelle. It was a long night full of eating, drinking, screaming, laughing and after the great company I had an early start at a South London church for one of my best friends daughters christenings. I had been asked to film the blessing and so as I stood there, camcorder in hand, smart garms on, surrounded by my nearest and dearest under gods roof I thought ’’lord let me sleep 8 hours tonight!’’.

So much had been made of Whitney’s live show that it was impossible not to arrive at the docklands 02 arena without preconceptions of how bad one of the worlds living legend divas show could be. The uk press had been salivating at her ‘’terrible Birmingham show’’ with predictable headlines like ‘’Houston we have a problem’’ etc. but my guy and I turned up out of respect for who she once was and the fact that she is after all still Whitney. Legend. Icon. Badass mama with a voice that once reigned supreme.
It seems thousands of others felt the same cos the arena was heaving with anticipation early and as Whitney walked out with no extra pomp or regalia the crowd went nuts. The beginning part of the show saw her mentor and record industry label head Clive Davis watching her from his seat alongside Whitney’s mother. The family were in full support as her daughter bobbi Christina also took the mic briefly to show those melodic genes carry through the Houston household.
When she performed ‘’its not right but its ok’’ I sung along and smiled at the irony of the title song. It wasn’t right that clearly the years had taken their toll on Whitney’s voice in certain parts of songs especially those notorious high notes, but it was ok. We were there to see the legend in the flesh.
Similarly In “Greatest love of all” she wasn’t hitting the high notes but it really didn’t matter. The fans must’ve read the bad reviews but sang along hard and kept her going.
Interestingly in more gospel flavoured tracks like ‘’Preachers wife’’ movie song “Jesus loves me” , she hit every high note sounding amazing!. Clearly her vocals are more at home with the music of the church she was raised with.
There was a long segue with her brother singing “drifting on a melody” which predictably had fans running for the loo and hot dog stand whilst Whitney changed into her next outfit which was a red rubber satin looking gown which unfortunately for her clung in the wrong places and made her look a little lumpy and unflattering but nevertheless there’s no doubt that her figures great for her age. For me it was a sack the stylist moment.
The show was worth seeing a songstress with a reputation and catalogue that Whitney has. Her banter with the crowd was full of feistiness as she cussed 2 front row audience members for not participating as much as she liked, and again as she acknowledged the haters as the crowd gave her a rousing applause.
Her encore showed a more youthful Whitney in boots, jeans ,ruffled white shirt and waistcoat prince charming style. She came, she sang, she may not have conquered but she came correct and gave us her all and it was more than enough in this current day when many acts cant sing live to begin with.

Straight afterwards it was off to the Mayfair hotel uber glam bar for a party thrown by former international male model elo in honour of his business-the London motor museum.
Now, I’m not a car fan in any sense of the word. I cant tell one make from another and distinguish them from one another by describing their colour. But last week elo convinced me to travel out to Hayes in west London where he opened up the museum after hours on a Sunday so I could have a private tour and viewing. It blew my mind. And my mate who is a car fan was gob smacked by the spectacle. The museum houses over 150 classic carts from Europe and America from every era and genre. There are classic cute cars, flash cars, cars from movies, videos, celebrities and so on. Cars with statistics like ‘’fastest, most expensive, oldest in the world’’.
So when elo invited us to the pre party just before the annual infamous celeb packed gumball rally I agreed to go. As we pulled up to the venue a few of the classic cars from his collection were on display outside and passers by were gawping and taking photos in excitement as if tom cruise had just passed by.
The usual ultra trendy, sexy model types and rich kids inside were sipping cocktails and nibbling on finger food. Just as I thought at 1am that the night was over elo explained that he was dragging us to the after after party at cirque club. I protested that I had an early morning the next day. The protest was in vain and lasted 3 minutes.
The outside of cirque was heaving and reminded me of a hype New York that people from every fashionable walk of life were desperate to enter. Once we were in we were guided to the basement where it was like a scene from a video as strippers knelt gyrating on the bar in frilly pink lingerie, carnival girls and circus inspired characters were mingling with street kids. There were even midgets jamming hard (are we till allowed to say midgets or is it vertically challenged people?).
At first the dj was playing house music that didn’t have me ecstatic until I spotted a group of home boys jumping up and down like crazy on the still pretty empty dance floor. On further inspection it turned out to be none other than Dizzee Rascal wearing a nirvana t-shirt dancing hard to the hypnotic beats with 3 of his crew. As if that sight wasn’t bizarre enough , next to him Shane from boy band Boyzone was hosting a table heaving with drinks that the whole club were guzzling from.
Once the dj started spinning hip hop & R&B the dance floor got blitzed and it turned into a sweat fest up in there.
I finally dragged myself out of there at 3am dreading waking up 2 hours later as a car was coming to scoop me up at 6am to do my slot on the BBC RADIO LONDON breakfast show with my old BIG BREAKFAST colleagues Gabby Roslin and Paul Ross.
Yep-I was a wreck but hey-life’s for living right?. As someone once said, you can sleep when you’re dead.

What a week. I feel like wonder woman. cooked Sunday roasts for friends, picked up my guy at the airport, entertained my god children, did my newspaper review slot on BBC RADIO LONDON on the breakfast show with Gaby Roslin and Paul Ross, got my car back from the garage thank goodness as the matchbox I was driving was horrific, paid the usual car fines, attended the Whitney show at the 02 arena, and juggled work, family and friends. The stand out moments included my trip to a video shoot at the London motor museum and an album showcase by musician Akala.
The London Motor Museum based in West London. How had I never known about this secret hidden gem on my doorstep? A huge warehouse just off the A40 and M4 that showcases over 150 amazingly stunning cars .I’m not a car person at all, know nothing about them but even I was left speechless by the vehicles from famous movies tv shows, videos, celebrity cars, vintage, classic, pimp mobiles, European, American, you name it-this is an impressive collection.
Set in a slick, stunning, spacious venue that is the perfect place to hold parties, showcases, photo shoots, corporate events, family days out I will be taking my god children there soon. It reminded me of the aircraft hanger spaces that Puffy and Damon used to hold their fashion shows and gigs at in New York. Probably because the owner Elo is an American who now calls the UK his home. Elo used to be a very well known model face for well known clothing brands and over the years saved his money to buy up his car toys. He buys them cheaper when they’re wrecks and then does them up and sells them for massive amounts. Snoop Dogg, Kelly Rowland and premiership footballers have all graced his business. Elo shut down central London with a road block of his classic cars when he threw a cocktail party at the Mayfair hotel last week as hundreds of press, passers by and guests all surrounded the visually stunning pieces of road art outside the party venue whilst we sipped cocktails and nibbled finger food.

Next it was off to Hoxton to see Ms Dynamites little brother Akala perform tracks from his new album ‘’double think’’. Earlier in the week Akala had a private listening session for 10 people at his recording studio where we sat and eagerly heard his new work.
Akala told me he was going to hackney empire and watching KRS1 at age 7 and going to Shakka dances as a kid too so its no wonder that he fully embraces his heritage and knows his culture inside out. He was attending an extra curricular African history class
regularly as a child too so is always going to champion pro black causes quite naturally. When his big sis ms dynamite was doing her thing smashing the charts, Akala was playing professional football
and even owned a restaurant in Cyprus when he was playing for Wimbledon football club. Clearly a talent from a young age he explains he gave up every young boys dream job as a footballer to become a musician because ‘’ Football became a job’’.
Every time I hang with Akala we debate back and forth about anything and everything. With 2 very strong opinionated people nothing else could happen. We jumped from music to politics in seconds. Like me Akala hates the UK benefit system and what its turned millions of people into .’’ To make life so easy that you’re comfy to do nothing’’

I’ve always wondered why a man as gifted lyrically and visually wouldn’t just take the easy route and make a commercial chart hit to gain fame and money and make other material for his fans on a smaller scale?. Akala looks horrified and retorts to me quoting KRS1 lyrics and more as well as  ‘’there’s been a dumbing down of music in the last 10-15 years
, I’m looking at the music model from a different point of view from the norm
, so when music acts are trying to sell you a product like champagne its the end- its about selling people a lifestyle that they can’t attain. It tells you young black people can’t think. That they can only think with their pistol or penis.
I refuse to make that one track that could chart me and sell my soul in the process.
I wont make materialistic music cos I can relate to people that have taken the wrong path –grown men tell me they wet their beds and have nightmares in jail. I know this side of life and I don’t want it’’.

Wow-10 minutes into our chat and Akala makes me question so much.Akala adds as a final nail in his monologue ‘ I do believe that people want intelligent music, I know miles Davies, Ella Fitzgerald and bob Marley had to fight and for us musically to suggest that this is the best we can produce is a disservice to them and a testament to show how much we’ve destroyed ourselves’’.
Akalas has learnt not to sell his musical soul from past experience as he confesses to me that he hated his previous song “The edge”. It wasn’t staying true to his mentality and now he says its ‘’ a song I feel shame about and it hurts me. Although the NBA just licensed it LOL’’.
He has a very strong point. We were clearly a nation that once upon a time did respect and prefer harder rap when you consider that it was the Wu Tang album that was the 1st rap album to go to number 1 in the UK. It looks like this young man is steadily creating a parallel movement for a fresh more articulate listener around the world.
Further highlighting this coming change in our scene is the fact that his F64 is currently one of the most popular on the online UK music site SBTV (just for the record akalas favourite F64’s are by Black the Ripper and Lowkey).

Even though Akala may not be a commercial chart name yet he’s managed to stay true to his musical beliefs with the aid of top showbiz agents to the stars William Morris who book him regular festival dates like Camden Crawl and breaking convention/ globally. Akala excitedly reveals ‘’They treat me like a band I’ve supported Christina Aguilera / Jay Z /Richard Ashcroft and more. Lots of shows outside of the urban scene, Some even say that I started the whole electro dance genre with my Shakespeare –hip-hop music projects’’.

Not many people have heard Akalas new material yet although Radio 1 DJs Ferne Cotton and Zane Lowe have played cuts from it on their shows. In between munching down on his favourite conscious vegan chocolate Akala played us what sound like hit after hit.
The album begins with a long classical piano introduction and the material is loosely inspired by George Orwell’s 1984. Akala loves the fact that these books predicted fluke events.
Akala explained that he went away to south African and Brazil and it was the Brazilian youth that fascinated him…’’there were 50 kids holding m16’s. But still being polite to me and offering me their hospitality. Those kids are probably not alive now but their hospitality was unbelievable.

Akalas first single XXL is deliberately not like the rest of album. It stars mc stereotype. An A&R man offers an artist jewellery and the usual devil gifts to sell his soul and of course the devil wins and the artist ends up going mad. It immediately reminded me of Jonzi D’s musical ‘’Markus the sadist ‘’ where Bashy played the lead role of Markus. Akala nodded and smiled ‘’Bashys on the remix’’.
The second single-‘’Yours and my children’’ is about war and the way Brazil exploits young people to kill them. Akala spoke like a Brazilian version of Che Guevara!. I watched him thinking he would make an excellent young politician. He has natural leadership qualities that inspire and engage thought. When I mention this he shrugs ‘’A lot of young people wanna know but don’t know where to look

When you’re educated you won’t disrespect yourself and your community- I will do the video in brazil and do loads of remixes to create a movement!’’.
Much of the album is hard, heavy drum n bass, rock and hip-hop beats mashed up. Very club and festival friendly with Prodigy sounding classics.
My favourite tracks are ‘’Marathon Man ‘’ which is very panoramic sounding-I can imagine it on an Adidas advert or film soundtrack .i also love ‘’Physco’’ and ‘’Lay Down Face in the Dirt’’. There’s a stand out track that the ladies will love called ‘’I don’t need’’ ,a beautiful track about what Akala needs from a woman…’.not the fake nails/lipstick/cleavage, Needs to share quality, Its ok to be vulnerable upset ‘’. Clearly a man who knows the love of a good woman. Smile.
Akala has managed to juxtapose infectious beats with deep, articulate lyrics but even though the album talks about deep issues but it ends on a happy note.
It’s impressive. Very unexpected, very ground breaking new sounds that may not be familiar to urban music lovers but is a refreshing breath of fresh air. Akala has always stood out amongst the run of black musicians with his very sharp, attuned intellect and articulation. With this being election week he refuses to reveal which party he’s voting for but does state ‘’ this is my official party line- Whatever decision you make ,make an informed decision’’.
From his deep, political rhyming word play to his hip hop Shakespeare projects to his un-missable live shows ,he’s a force to behold.
go claim what’s yours son!.

Ty absolutely killed it last Friday night at Plan B in Brixton….from the moment he stepped on the stage he had the audience in the palm of his hand, whether they were there for the club night or specifically for the launch, he definitely had it down packed.

He totally engaged the crowd and had them singing along to almot every track.  Backed by the almighty Big Ted their stage presence was nothing less than pure hip hop and professional.

It was great to finally see Ty in his ‘happy place’ again, on stage, behind the mic and entertaining.  Those who only know the ‘serious side’ to this MC his comical side shun bright while constantly running jokes, saluted the old school – hailed me out.  Every song.

His creative side was on point, interlude between track inlcuded the theme tune to ‘Cheers’ – it was dope!!!  He jumped in and out of the crowd and at one point was laying on his back on stage, rapping….I kid you not.

It’s clear that Ty has a special relationship with hip hop and watching his performance, his delivery, his passion, his determination and his hunger, it was great to see a UK MC who’s been in the game for many of years still able to represent.

With the current state of UK Urban artist making an impact in the national charts, Ty can/will be that artist who will constantly make music, constantly gig, constantly developing and constantly increasing his fanbase and out live what’s hot right now.

He ended his show and totally forgot to do the single so Ted had to remind me and in his unique comical way Ty apologies and then performed the single with the crowd swaying from side to side.

A BIG NIGHT!

by COOKIE AKA the infamous Cookie Crew legend..

I’ve always made it a point to avoid football matches and highly-strung men with testosterone and alcohol fuelled mouths at male dominated sporting events so this fortnight was certainly an eye opener.
My old mate boxer Audley Harrison made his come back fight appearance at Alexandra Palace and of course I was there to support him.
Even though he’d left VIP tickets and a VIP car park pass for me at the box office I was so embarrassed about the courtesy car that my garage had lent me whilst they fixed my ride, that I parked at the bottom of the hill and made my mate walk up with me. He wasn’t best pleased but understood my fear of shame at being seen by all and sundry stepping out of a gold, orange, brown matchbox shape mini Daewoo wearing all my glad rags!
Once we finally made it into the venue I was surprised at the fun fair like ambience which saw bars, food stalls including a pattie stall (do they have those at all fights or just ones with black fighters?), and many many young ladies wearing barely any clothes running around with vulgar expletives exiting their mouths. Girls, be sexy on the inside. You will last longer that way. Strippers and models have an expiry date.
‘’Wow’’ I thought ‘’this is gonna be a night to remember’’. And it was. Sitting in Block A in front of some rude boys who gave us hilarious comedy all night with their wise cracks and cusses, to the chants of the crowd that were both funny and vicious , ‘’we’ll never see you again…..AGAIN!’’ and so on. If I’m totally honest I have the utmost respect for Audleys focus cos some of the things that were being yelled out to him were hurtful-I guess that’s a boxing thing. There were a furiously aggressive few rounds where Audleys opponent Michael Sprott seemed to be getting some shots in, and Audley fought with one arm cos he dislocated his shoulder in the 2nd round. It was clear by round three that he wasn’t using his right arm and continued to fight one handed! In the 12th and final round when we thought it was a wrap, Audley drew on some superhero strength and knocked Sprott out with a big lick from nowhere! As someone said ‘’to all the Harrison haters ‘’SHAME ON YOU ALL it was a different story when he was winning us a gold medal at the Olympics. It shows that a lot of you fools only follow a winning fighter .I suppose you all support Man United, Chelsea or Arsenal. You’re all a load of glory hunters, Audley will prove you wrong’’. Oh how we roared, laughed and cussed back his detractors. Believe in West London! We fight to win!

Another champ- albeit a lyrical one is uk hip-hop forefather and my old friend rapper Ty.
With all the UK black music acts that are in the charts now that hailed from the grime scene its easy to forget that there’s still a very vibrant UK hip-hop scene attracting thousands of young fans nationally and internationally and this scene will also blow up given time and care. You only have to look at this years re-emergence of UK hip hop seeing album releases from Roots Manuva, Klashnekoff; Rodney P; Charlie Sloth; Jhest, Skits and its appreciative audiences that recently attended the Jay Z, Talib Kwali and Jay Electronica concerts to know there’s still a piece of our culture that’s realer than real.

Ty’s new album ‘’Special Kind of Fool’’ was released last Monday April 19th and has been bumping in my ride ever since. He represents what real hip-hop has been for over 2 decades with his international sell out gigs alongside hip hops greatest. I was really impressed listening to the new material, as it really is Ty’s story. The tale of an artist who after ten years, three critically acclaimed albums (Awkward 2001, Upwards 2003, Closer 2006), collaborations with the likes of Tony Allen, De La Soul, Damon Albarn and Estelle, a Mercury nomination amongst other accolades, and a worldwide army of fans, has always followed his heart. From the days when we all used to break-dance, body pop and rap down in Covent Garden with Jonzi D, DJ Pogo and Billy Bizness and rock a backpack ,Ty was there doing his thing on the mic from day one.

We sat down over an eggs Benedict breakfast recently to reminisce about the days when the American musicians ran our music scene and agreed that the change had come because many of us had put in the work. Acts like Wiley and Dizzee quite clearly know Ty and his music and the feeling of mutual respect co exists comfortably.
Acknowledging the recent successes of the UK urban scene Ty said ‘’the Sudden turn around of the UK music scene this past 2 years
is very impressive, its cool that doors are opening. However there’s no balance. All the kids think that the formula is the same- Can you not see the effect that this music’s having on kids now.
So now i can look back at So Solid and appreciate the success they had without compromising themselves.
I can see there’s no balance presently so I’m makin a record for myself first. Its not easy but
I rap on dance records to keep my finances secure’’.

It took Ty 2 and a half years on his own in his home studio to make his latest material. Unlike previous content which his musical partner Drew produced mostly-this time around it was all Ty- leading to a producer string to his already thick bow.
I wondered whether he felt any pressure having to try and keep up with the kids so to speak. Ty gave me that ‘don’t be ridiculous ‘ look that he has and explained ‘’ Jas I’m not concerning myself with fitting into what young people are into’’. To be fair, ty’s been here for the long stretch, Will the current crop of chart hitters still be here in 2 decades? Ty’s longevity clearly speaks for itself.
He hasn’t compromised and still they flock. Channel U have been known to rinse Ty’s video 24-7!
Ty has overcome adversity with a near death experience in 2006 when he had been training hard but not eating healthily before being diagnosed with diabetes. So he took a break and naturally came back with a different perspective on music making. He explained its like’’ Like when you have a child. You realise what’s important?. What’s your purpose?. Let’s get to the point quickly’’.

The thing most Ty’s fans love about him is that his whole career has been based around not being the stereotype MC from the street. He likes to show that people can come from poor areas and still be articulate. Ty is the alternative to being brash, he has an alternative swagger. He doesn’t say ‘’innit fam’’ or ‘’blood’’ within his songs. Some people would say it will be easier for Ty now that Kanye has opened that door- UK heads would argue Ty opened the door first.
The new album has big production, panoramic qualities musically and every now and again you may recognise a classic old skool line dotted through album
. Ty smiles ‘’A lot of people under estimate young people but they do research music and will get it’’. There are a few collaborations on the album with Ty’s friends such as Anthony Mills, Vula Malinga , Shaun Esscoffery, Erik Rico and even the Queen of lovers rock herself-Carol Thompson!.

The new single will be a double-a side called “Heart is breaking” featuring Sway
and “Me” . With ‘’Heart is breaking’’ Ty explains he wanted to create a broad cross reference of people struggling. ‘’i took snap shots of different modern day UK scenarios. I live in a multi cultural community and wanted to reference that.
I’m a ground breaker.
Its up to me to be broadminded and introduce new things’’.

He explains that his friendship with Sway goes way back to when sway was in a crew. Originally Bashy was supposed to feature but it didn’t work out but now I cant imagine it without Sway’’.

Ty and laughed and shook our heads at just how much the UK street music scene has developed. We recalled when rappers used to get booed onstage for having UK accents. Ty suggests ‘’There was an identity issue cos we weren’t proud of being Brits.
The youth have now decided we like our sound. The work that was put in the 80 and 90’s has helped.
A lot of kids blame oldies for not opening doors.
I’m cool with fact that we opened doors for Dizzee etc. What I’m not cool with is their attitude when they state “I’m not part of rap scene’’. if you’re not singing and you’re spitting over beats you ARE hip-hop so to dissociate yourself from hip-hop is disrespectful.
They don’t mind being called hip-hop when it suits them!’’.

Ty did bring up something I thought was interesting. Whilst young, new American lyricists frequently shout out their elders and fore fathers the UK acts don’t? But Ty has no hang ups. The only regret I spot is when he confesses ‘’
In my career I’ve sacrificed love. I’m a travelling man. I’m hard to lockdown-love has suffered’’.

I recalled that back in 1991 UK hip hoppers used to constantly talk about ‘’not selling out’’. Ty sighs ‘’No selling out then was about being young and wanting to be credible. The kids now have no problem with being pop.
The genre of lyrics was much stronger then so acts reflected that.
Hip hop is as weak as its ever been right now. Rebel MC,Goldie , Cookie Crew had a commercial element but were still real.
So Solid were an extension.
When people disassociate themselves with hip-hop now it annoys me. If Jay Z is your role model you are hip hop. Without hip-hop none of them would be dressing the way they dress and talking the way they talk. They need to understand that the music industry is allowing them to exist. They also need to know that Its cool to be a little bit humble. On your way down you meet people you met on your way up’’.
Ty continued ‘’there’s a common concept in grime that you do pop to make it. Wiley, Kano, Tinchy ,Lethal B etc were all in crews before majors plucked them to become solo and make solo acts. When you’re plucked away from your core its easier to manipulate you.
Try and do something to further your culture. Everyone’s too out for themselves. When the culture disappears they’ll be stuck!’’..

One thing that Ty and I agreed upon was that the new generation is very entrepreneurial whether its with online TV spots, video directing, forming companies and much much more. Surely we have to acknowledge the Bad Boy, Roc A Fella and Phat Farm empires for inspiring young homeboys globally.

Ty is funny, unique and different. When he’s not dropping hip hop knowledge he’s keeping people doubled up in laughter with his silly antics. And he’s utterly fearless and  unafraid of being stupid onstage. His live shows are legendary .He has fun, his audience have more. ‘’I don’t come with airs and graces. I crowd surf.
The maddest festivals I did were Montréal jazz festival in 2005 with Dilla and Roots Manuva. It was crazy. My  special moment there with Dilla was when he took me aside and congratulated me. He gave me his number and kept in contact.
The
Carling Festival in Reading was a memorable year where 50 got bottled by audience. I was in small tent with 2000 fans. I started by asking my crowd if they were gonna bottle me lol, then I climbed a turret mid performance and climbed so high I got stuck and security had to climb up and rescue me!’’.

Yes he’s a real feisty, mad, opinionated character.
If you’re not lucky enough to catch Ty at his May 31st gig at London’s Jazz Café where he’ll be with a full band you can keep up with him on twitter where his crazy side can often be seen saying things like ‘’I do declare from this day forward as far as the funhouse is concerned I will only be referred to as lord cumbassa the third and 3 quarters, busting dance routines and wearing George Clinton outfits!’’.

Whenever March and April come around I brace myself for Mariah to call up last minute and suggest sweetly ‘’hey what you doing next week? Wanna come and join me for a last minute 27th March anniversary /Wedding nuptial renewals/ vacation/party/celebration?’’. And yet whilst I know that I have pressing things to attend to here at home-how can you refuse an offer like that from a living legend like Mariah?
It used to knock me off kilter when I was a boring Capricorn that likes to plan her diary at least a month in advance but I’ve learnt over the years to ‘’be malleable’’.
This year the call came around 10 days ahead-which for her majesty Mrs Cannon is pretty decent notice!.
After throwing in 10 bathing suits, a couple of dresses and a tracky into my now extremely battered suitcase, I Jumped on an American Airlines flight wearing my Gucci boots and very English classic lady look. At check-in the stewardess mentioned that she followed my column and as I checked in at the gate I was informed that my seat had been changed. Assuming that my lovely aisle seat had been given to another and I’d been chucked mid-row my neck started twisting outta shape as I questioned ‘’why have you moved me?’’. I was ready to kick off before feeling real stupid as the clerk smiled ‘’we’ve upgraded you’’. ‘‘Oh’’ I giggled embarrassed and had a very pleasant experience sleeping flat all the way en route to my girls pad in New York.
Once I arrived at Mr and Mrs Cannons lair I was informed there was a note for me in the kitchen. Reading it I was informed that because Mr C awakes at 4am for his daily breakfast radio slot, the Carey-Cannons were already in bed (it was midnight), but that they’d left me ‘’some food in the fridge’’. Trying not to jump for joy as my mouth dribbled at the sight of UBER bourgeois eatery Mr Chows legendary squab in iceberg lettuce, I continued reading….’’oh, and there’s a surprise for you in the media room’’.
Curiosity out did my exhaustion as I padded down to the media den where our mutual friend had been waiting with MC all day to surprise me with her newborn baby!.
I gushed and got my broody on for a couple of hours .We are all inspired by our friends beautiful baby.
Not wanting to waste food that costs as much as my weekly wage-(ok I may be exaggerating- but only slightly), I then had Mr Chows for breakfast too before us 3 girls (MC, myself and Rachel) piled into the black convoy of vehicles that carried us to the private airfield to one of Mrs C’s favourite places in the world-Puerto Rico!.

En route to PR we played the same silly games that 12 year old girls all over the planet play whilst nibbling on crudités and sipping coconut water . I promised not to tweet that we were going to PR so I tweeted ‘’the islands’’ instead. I shouldn’t have bothered cos on arrival at the San Juan airfield the paparazzi was lurking in ambush for Mrs C and the tabloids had her plastered all over the next morning, and I just shrugged my shoulders and quipped ‘’right then, I’ll get tweeting haha’’.
En route to our lovely location at 2am MC insisted on stopping at an American superstore version of Boots chemist, to pick up ‘’noodles for the water’’ and ‘’candy for her husband’’ ( translation-what we Brits call floaties and sweets ’’. I know I should be used to it by now but every time MC insists on walking into regular stores and shopping it makes me chortle hard inside .If only they could see her now. The stores staff tried to hold it down but eventually cracked as a line of picture requests politely gathered and MC quickly accepted them all. (as the drive continued I had to wonder; why are there SO MANY burger kings in PR?))
That evening we had a small slumber party in our pyjamas and caught up as the Carey-Cannons 3 puppies ( JJ, Cha Cha and their son Dolomite) ran amok around us. We lovingly call them the 3 –puppy- circus due to their constant bouncing and whizzing around us. At one point in his excitement, Dolomite bounced up as we were playing and managed to pull my top clean off! It was like a slow motion cartoon where I protectively clutched my lady parts in modesty!.
I assumed it was just a one off accident until moments later when he sprinted out of MC’s room with her just- laid –out- panties in his mouth as MC and he proceeded to have a hysterical tug of war. That puppy is officially a freak.
For the next few days we hung out on the veranda admiring the ocean, amazing sculpted fauna and golf courses, Olympic sized pools, hot tubs and play pools, marina and breath taking rain forests in the distance, ate well and slept. Female pup Cha Cha clearly knows she’s one of the ladies and would hang out with us all day curling up wherever we were. Most afternoons we migrated to the boat and jumped in and out of the ocean as we had our surf lessons and swam out to the famous island where MC shot her legendary classic ‘’Honey’’ video.
I don’t know how it happens but Mr and Mrs C’s pets always love the water whether its an ocean, pool or hot tub. MC was the perfect student and persevered in the water until she was surfing away with the 3 pups surfing on her board simultaneously with her. It had to be seen to be believed!. I gave it a few shots then stuck to the basic activity of floating lazily doing nothing and then jumping back on the boat and machete whacking the hell out of the fresh coconuts and scooping out the delicious flesh, scaring Mrs C silly that I’d do myself an injury. In the evening we debated about American food being better than England’s food, and argued long and hard about which we preferred and was the most authentic. Mrs C also cussed us all out for being on our digital devices all day long what with some on twitter, facebook and the guys checking sports constantly , ‘’whilst we were all in such a beautiful place’’.
On April Fools Day everyone tried to trick everyone. I told them ‘’in England it only counts before noon’’. Thereafter ‘’in England’’ (in a haughty lady of the manor voice) became a joking point to cuss me with every few minutes. A couple of tricks did go down but I’ve been sworn to secrecy. One afternoon we hung by the pool where poolside Liam Gallagher and all of Prodigy were knocking back the beers and having fun as the odd American that recognised them became overly excited..

Mr C-AKA Mr Nick Cannon, as usual had a long working week with his daily radio show early every morning then his filming for “Americas Got Talent” , which meant he cold only join us on the Good Friday in Puerto Rico.
On the Saturday we jumped on the Carey-Cannons jet which whisked us off to  Orlando where we spent another couple of days having fun. Of course Easter Sunday we remembered the Lord and chilled out, (‘’Jesus is the reason for the season’’-Nicks fave line!) .
On Easter Monday we contemplated joining the public Easter egg hunt where 4000 people would be hunting eggs but then Nick got his grown man on and put it into perspective for us and reminded us that the publics focus would quickly go from hunting eggs to hunting Mrs C. We knew he was bang on point so instead we began our day (at 5pm) painting Easter eggs. No. Really. Myself, Mr and Mrs C and our good friend Rachel got all competitive dyeing eggs, painting on motifs, and being crazy competitive. We had Easter baskets with loads of fresh eggs, paint, sparkles, ribbon, confetti, you name it, our eggs weren’t ever gonna be anything but first class!
I painted a cool baby pink egg and frosted it with silver sparkles. I had no shame in stealing Mr and Mrs C’s artistic egg ideas too and stuck funny faces on them. If you think all this sounds too surreal well picture this. Myself, Rachel and MC did all this wearing baby pink bunny ears throughout. Yep- we’re forever 12. Nick even bought Mrs C a toy princess tiara, earrings and necklace from the toy store that were appropriately pink yet lavender.
On my final day before I had to jet back home Mr and Mrs C took me to Universal Orlando theme park where they say ‘’you ride the movies’’. It was no empty boast-the rollercoaster’s were amazing!. We went on the RIP RIDE ROCKIT  -scary as hell, fast, high and the drops were stomach curdling. I didn’t open my eyes once!. Next it was THE INCREDIBLE HULK COASTER and THE DUELLING DRAGONS where I decided to bite the bullet and stay open eyed throughout-it was magical. We were riding them at sunset so the colours and lights around the city were stunning. Of course when you attend with Mr and Mrs C you don’t line up-you’re escorted very quickly and expertly by a security team that whisked us backstage from ride to ride. Every now and again people would spot the superstar couple and cheer and applaud . Just another day in the life of the Carey Cannons but to me-these are once in a lifetime adventures I’ll treasure for ever!. Happy anniversary MRS C!