So a few weeks ago, it was Social Media Week in London, and I was invited to talk on a panel about Music and the impact of social media, which basically covered the do's and do not's, how it's changing the industry and how to best use it.
To be honest all you need to know is in the video above and genuinely a few people have contacted me out of the blue to say how useful and informative they found it.
I thoroughly enjoyed stepping out of my world of music journalism and chewing the fat with fellow panelists Raj Kotecha founder of Creative Content Agency, David Haynes VP of Business Development at Soundcloud, and MTV Wrap Up’s Babatunde Adefuye.
BIG CHOON, killing it on d&b floors right about now. Good to see the rolling, sludgy funk back. Sounds remarkably like a late 1990s/early 2000s Ed Rush/Optical production....
So I'm a judge on the UKAMA (the UK Asian Music Awards), which take place on March 10 at The Roundhouse, and have been on the judging panel for a few years. It's nominations time at the moment which is always a fun opportunity to get on Youtube and check out some AMAZING music.
It makes you realize how caught up in your own little music world we can be and how weird and wonderful music can be. It's good to have your eyes and ears opened to what else is out there.
Here are some of the delights I've come across today:
Punjabi West Coast gangsta rap, about white people - Gora = white person.
This is Hard Kaur, Brummie rapper, who's absolutely smashing it in India.
Check this track from Context MC. I had the pleasure of meeting Context last week, as I'm making my music video debut in the promo for this track. **Cringe**
2011 should be a big year for Context MC, the year he makes his mark on the underground, solidifies his status as white-hot homegrown hip hop talent and moves onto the next level.
My round up of current indie hip hop which ran in in Metro today. You can access a PDF here, it's page 38.
For any journalism students, there's a worthwhile exercise in comparing this copy below (which is what I filed) with what actually appeared in print - it's not a million miles apart but will give you an insight into the editing process.
MUSIC EXTRA
Homegrown Hip Hop
Ghostpoet: Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam Brownswood
The remarkable mainstream success of homegrown urban music in 2010 shows no sign of slowing in 2011. However away from the rarefied air of the Top 10, innovating, edgy Brit-hop is also blossoming as this selection demonstrates. Ghostpoet’s absorbing debut LP Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam evokes what it’s like to be up all night, thinking, and anxiously flitting between home truths, worry and self-doubt. Self-spun, lo-fi soundscapes capture the half-asleep/half-awake state, as Ghostpoet murmurs and sleep-talks through the lonely twilight hours. He contemplates relationship breakdown through no job and little money versus surviving anything with his partner’s support, running away versus battling, and getting drunk versus fretting. Ghostpoet’s an everyday kind of guy, references including A-levels, biscuits, lemonade, pork pies, ‘Primarni’ (Primark), Rocky and James Bond, roll from the tongue like water thanks to his fluid, even flow. PBB&MJ is far from all doom and despair, Ghostpoet bluesy rap swell into rousing songs (Run Run Run, Us Against Whatever Ever, Liiines) as birdsong signals the end of a particularly dark night.
Late twentysomething Londoner Rizwan Ahmed splits his time between acting (Four Lions, Shifty, BAFTA 2011Rising Star nominee) and rapping (Riz MC). Independently-released debut LP MICroscope is a stiff examination of contemporary society – opener Radar notes the necessity to pigeon-hole, brand and box all and sundry in this age of information-overload, and is fittingly set to a racing heartbeat rhythm, that’s a racing, panicked heartbeat. Both People Like People, which observes style over substance, posing, and hipsters, and All In The Ghetto’s break down of gentrification (lattés, bikes, and nice bread invading ‘rawthentic’ neighbourhoods), are witty and impish. The stripped back Sour Times sees Riz offer an impassioned, poignant defence of Islam in the face of against crass demonization. His somersaulting wordplay leaves you pondering and unpicking torrents of keen couplets, consequently MICroscope rewards investing time with depth, humour and coruscating commentary.
Skandal’s Hunger Pains mixtape was a highlight of 2010, however 2011 sees him operating under more personal guise Rewd Adams (Rewd is an anagram, and Adams is part, of his actual name). Album Rewd Awakening (free from www.rewdadams.com) is intimate, openly talking about time in young offenders institute and contemplating ending it all, as well as sleights as a rapper struggling against the odds. Rewd’s interested in the wider world whether ‘on road’ realities ‘or mperialism. Although melancholy, emotion and honesty are stand out themes - this is hip-hop as therapy. At times it’s uncomfortable yet compelling, and whets the appetite for an LP proper later this year.
Nottingham’s Wariko is a well-known name in Brit-hop, grime (Ghetts hosts his current mixtape) and spoken word (he performed at Charlie Dark’s Book Slam last year) scenes. His forthcoming LP Natural Born Poet (available from www.wariko.co.uk), eases between all three styles, as well as bashment: Lies plays out boyfriend and girlfriend arguing about infidelity, The Way I Am 2 ruminates the nature or nurture question, and Out of My Window distills the intrigue of people-watching and paints a vivid picture of every day people. It’s heartening and refreshing to see MCs outside of London, and particularly the long established, rap-crazy city of Nottingham, making their mark.
The average person's view of Pakistan is likely to feature a few of the following words - floods, terrorism, bombs, and corrupt cricketers. However these aren't the whole story, there are people getting on with their day to day lives and young people doing what young people do the world over.
Slackistan, an independent movie, provides a glimpse into the rich-kid slackers of Islamabad: I won't go into too much detail as this feature, for Metro newspaper of Nov 30, does. If you like the piece, I'd strongly suggest watching and supporting Slackistan - it's really worth watching.
A slacker’s guide to Islamabad
Hip new movie Slackistan is shedding a very different light on the lives of Pakistan’s youth.
Eating hamburgers, drinking coffee, smoking Marlboros, textual intercourse, Facebook flirting: these are some of the things privileged kids in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, do to kill time (or ‘time-pass’ as Islooites – people from Islamabad – say).
The surprising lives of early twentysomething graduates pondering what to do next in a country making headlines for all the wrong reasons is the focus of a new film called Slackistan.
Much like Slumdog Millionaire and This is England, first-time actors have been cast in a film that feels more like a documentary. It’s also a tribute to where director Hammad Khan grew up. Islamabad is dubbed ‘the city that always sleeps’ and this humdrum normality is a world away from the Pakistan of the news. Slackistan director Hammad Khan Slackistan director Hammad Khan
Religious extremism, terrorism and bombs are the motifs of Pakistan’s failed state image, and this year’s devastating floods and spot-fixing allegations against several international cricketers have kicked the country while it’s down. But Hammad sticks to what he knows – the neat, green Islamabad of his adolescence. ‘The idea came through talking to my co-writer, co-producer and wife, Shandana Ayub,’ he says. ‘We know Islamabad and wanted to make a film about the city we love.’
The word ‘normal’ keeps cropping up in conversation with Hammad and 21-year-old Aisha Akhtar (who plays Aisha, best friend of Slackistan’s main protagonist, Hasan). ‘It’s far more normal than you imagine,’ says Hammad, 35, now based in London. ‘Fear of the unknown plus sensationalism makes for a warped image. Life in Islamabad is diverse and follows the nine-to-five lifestyle. It’s a thriving city and there aren’t bombings every day.’
The film’s soundtrack is also a world away from what you might expect. Hip hop, indie, rock and punk all feature. ‘I picked young artists from the underground scene. I was able to feature someone such as Adil Omar, a 19-year-old rapper from the city,’ says Hammad. ‘It blows my mind how this happens with no music industry infrastructure.’
The movie had a mixed reception in Pakistan, with concerns that the film doesn’t actually represent real life and paints a negative picture of the country. Akhtar adds: ‘People are offended by the word “slacker”. They’re saying, we finally get a film about so-called normal lives in Pakistan and you show rich kids doing nothing.’
Hammad says: ‘There is the universality of finding yourself in your twenties but in Pakistan it’s intensified. There’s a burden and uncertain future. Rather than do nothing, my idea is take a small step. If you want to be a filmmaker or an activist, take the resolution.’
Both Hammad and Akhtar have seen young Pakistanis, privileged or not, take these small steps. ‘Since the floods, people involved in the movie have set up NGOs and charities to help,’ says Hammad. ‘The slackers have become “slacktivists” and that’s so positive.’
Akhtar hopes the movie will stimulate a cultural youth movement. ‘In Islamabad, everyone wants to be a filmmaker,’ she says. ‘Cameras are cheap and every second person is making a film. I’ve heard about a slacker-style film in Lahore and in Karachi. It’s started something.’
Both Akhtar and Shahbaz Shigri (who plays lead Hasan) have had their lives changed by the movie. Shigri, an aspiring filmmaker, has made a video for Islamic punk band The Kominas. Akhtar has switched from a political science degree to creative writing and is penning screenplays. She is far more positive and dynamic than her listless character in the film – and upbeat on Pakistan’s future.
‘My mum works as the head of an educational foundation,’ she says. ‘I hang out at her office and she interviews thousands of students from all over the country who are not elite, privileged kids. And people from remote villages, who you don’t think have a chance, are off doing PhDs in America through grants. They’re extraordinary people and they deserve it. It makes me hopeful. I have hope for my country – at least as far as young people are concerned.’
