The Zulu Nation Rap Show - Def K

Catch Def K alongside Echo every Tuesday night between 10pm-12am for the Zulu Nation Rap Show

As DJ Def K I have been dee-jaying for 24 years since the tender age of 17 playing hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, and rock in the traditional hip-hop style of scratching and mixing. I would get myself into clubs ( with my records ) such as Dingwalls, The Wag Club, and The Starlight Club, where I would persuade the DJ to let me on the set for 20 or 30 mins at a time. It was here that I learnt my trade from legendary DJ’s such as Jasper ‘The Vinyl Junkie’, Roy ‘The Roach’ and Tim Westwood.
This inspired me greatly and after a string of house parties and small underground clubs, I not only honed my skills as a DJ but regularly played out with the best street DJ’s that have now gone on to major success, such as ‘Doctor’ K (Heatwave Sound System) also known as DJ Hype, Rebel MC ( Beatfreak Sound System ) DJ HB ( Soul2soul) and Richie P / Mike Antony (Rampage)
I knew and met these artists on the street scene back in the mid/late 80s and early 90s.
During the late 80s I dee jayed for a group called Red Ninja, at the time we were managed by tv presenter and entrepreneur Normski. We subsequently went on to appear on his show Dance Energy ( a program aired in the early 90s on BBC2 ). I produced a track for Red Ninja called ‘Danger Zone’ and its video won the dance energy video vote. From this we acquired a ’single record’ deal from Virgin Records, but I continued to produce tracks for various successful underground groups of the time.

My biggest break came in 1991 when I won a dee jaying competition run by Kiss FM and hosted by the legendary uk hip hop DJ Richie Rich. My mix was featured on his show and on becoming friends with Richie I became the featured DJ on his show. Richie introduced me to Max and Dave also of Kiss FM and when Richie left in the mid 90’s I then became the featured DJ on Max and Dave’s show.

After hearing me on the Richie Rich Rap show legendary uk rap group ‘The Demon Boyz’ wanted me to work with them on their second album Original Guidance (released on Rebel MC’s Tribal Bass Records ). The album sold over 40,000 copies, out selling Madonna’s album at the time!!! The single from the album ‘Glimity Glamity’ produced by Mike J, Cutmaster Swift and myself became the biggest selling hip-hop single of all time, remaining number 1 in the hip-hop charts for over four weeks!
1993 saw me achieve success in the DMC Mixing Championships by becoming the London regional champion. In this year I left the Max and Dave show to again join Tim Westwood ( at Capital radio ) as a featured DJ on his show.
Whilst at Capital with Tim I met and worked with the rap legends and originators Melle Mel and The Furious Five MC’s. I dee jayed for Mel and the Five when ever he toured the UK.

Through years 95 and 96 I became DMC UK Mixing Championships runner up, and on both occasions narrowly missed out on becoming the UK champion to go forth and represent in the world finals against Harlem’s Roc Raida ( R.I.P )
I then took time out from competing to set up my own production company called 2 Def Productions which I achieved in 1999 through the help of The Princes Trust. I did DJ and production workshops for the youths in my local community of Tottenham north London.
I went back to my roots to reconnect with Mike J from Demon Boyz also know as Million Dan, and in 2003 released the popular Dogz and Sledgez. Together we have been back on the road touring across the UK and Europe doing performances from his first album release ‘Spektrum’. We have recently been back in the studio together working on new tracks for his next album also to be released on Million Dappa Records.

Watch this space!……….The saga continues!!!!!!!!!

Zulu Nation Rap Show Blog

Strike up the band, unleash the smoke machine and set the lasers to strobe… The Grandmaster BANG Blogger is back!!

(OK, note to self, ego back in the box mr sphinx head!). Peace and blessings all nice and decent people, it’s your boy TJ Chill back on the blog, and I’ve been out and about in the community rubbing shoulders with the rich and shameless gathering material for the blog and also harassing UK artist’s for their music for the radio. All of which will be unveiled in the goodness of time. So keep an eye on this space!

Serious things now. I was kindly invited back by Sergent Hewitt of the Met Police and community organiser Yasmin Allen as a special guest contributor for the press launch of the Haverstock Youth Panel.

The Haverstock Youth Panel is an initiative that has been formed to build a bridge of understanding between the youth and police. Haverstock is part of Camden in North West London and is an area rife with youth crime, gang and drug culture. The Youth Panel is a open forum to allow young people to get their issues across to the police in the bid to build safe neighbourhoods for them to grow up in.

Rapper Jimmy Screech, TV's Normski, Co-ordinator Yasmin Allen, and TJ Chill at the press launch of the Haverstock Youth Panel

The launch event included talks and live musical performances. TV personality Normski, gave a very inspirational off the cuff speech that was both heartfelt and sincere. He talked about his experience of growing up around the Haverstock/NW1, losing friends through violence and this Youth Panel being an opportunity for young people to make the choice to change things for the better.
Sgt Hewitt arranged a display of items that had been recently confiscated from young people in that area, and as you can see by the photos, some of these weapons are brutal and it’s very concerning to say the least that young people, no matter the reason, are walking our streets with these weapons.

Weapons recently confiscated from young people by the police

The young people at the event and the parent supporters were allowed to examine the weapons and the young people said that it helped bring the reality of the situation home to them. There was an explanation of the stop and search rules, the procedure and the rights that individuals have when being stopped and searched. This was followed by a question and answer session that the young people said was very useful for increasing their knowledge about why stop and search was being done. (As an adult I had presumed that young people would know these things but then again, why should they?!).

For me, my hope is that the young people on the streets doing the madness are the ones that get involved with the Youth Panel, and when they do, that they are actually given the opportunity to voice their opinions, be listened to and are encouraged to come up with some solutions; and then supported to realise the ideas which are achievable. Tackling youth crime seems to me, to be a topic that sits on many agendas without much being done about it, so as well as applauding them on taking a pro-active stance, I wish Yasmin Allen, her team of helpers and the Haverstock Youth Panel every success, as the initiative will be rolled out across the country should (no, let’s be positive) WHEN this pilot project succeeds.

How do we help/support/teach/guide/motivate our young people effectively? There is the comment box below, so please feel free to contribute your thoughts on the matter as many influential people such as community workers/leaders, council workers. funders and policy decision makers do visit this website and your comment could spark something that leads to a positive change to our streets and more importantly to the lives of our young people.

Aside from the serious edge of the Youth Panel launch there was a very impressive musical showcase of up and coming talent courtesy of MAP Music and Trailblazers. Look out for two incredible teen aged acts: One Hip Hop/Grime act called Black Biscuit (2 MC’s and a female singer), and an RnB singer called Oliver King who had the girls screaming their heads off! The night was bought to a great climax by one of Roots Manuva’s Banana Klan members Jimmy Screech, who had just come off a big tour.

Next time on the Zulu Nation Rap Show blog: Afrika Bambaataa: Founder of Hip Hop culture and founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, meets BANG Radio’s Tahirah and gets interviewed by one of our BANG Radio up and coming young talents.

Meanwhile, for all you Hip Hop heads, here’s what’s been happening on the show:

Zulu Nation Rap Show playlist 9th and 16th March 2009

Remember, if you are an artist and you recognise your peers in the playlist then you need to get at me with your music. If you’re a listener then feel free to go through the playlist and research some of these artists and their music. Keep supporting the show, the music, these artists and keep supporting BANG Radio!!

Spread the word. Peace and blessings.

TJ Chill - Zulu Nation Rap Show, Mondays 10pm-midnight

Plotting World Domination

Public Enemy & The S1W's Plot World Takeover in the late 80's

It has been an interesting Hip Hop week for me. I received the brand new Nemesis and Arrogance promo of their forthcoming Mixtape album which I’m actually on! And yes, it is great to be back on record as an MC again with new material. I will be playing tracks from the album EXCLUSIVELY from Monday. I’m awaiting a release date but I guess it should be in the stores sometime in March,

I’ve also been recording this week with top Ska band PAMA International for their forthcoming album and tour. We’ll be performing the new songs around March/April at Brixton Academy and Kentish Town Forum. All exciting stuff. (Sorry for being a little self indulgent but I’d hate for you to find out these things some other way!).

I was asked to spend some time in a Wembley studio with The Suspects. A young North West London based production crew currently working with North West London rappers. They were playing me some heavy material that will be dropping later on down the year. As I have worked for years in both the commercial and Hip Hop music industries they wanted my (humble) opinion. Now, if you’re are a music artist from any genre, you may wish to pay attention to the following:

First thing I asked these guys in the studio was, what was it they wanted to achieve with this project/artist? “World domination!” They said without flinching or batting an eyelid. “Define that” said I. They went on to tell me about wanting to be popular in music territories outside of the UK including America. Having heard this from the mouths of too many artists over the years I had to probe a little deeper. “So whats your plan of action to achieve world domination?” I asked. Now, obviously you wouldn’t expect me to divulge their step by step plan but suffice to say that their approach was fairly conventional.

I do believe that so called “world domination” as a musical artist within the entertainment industry is still possible and will continue in the way that it always has. There will always be BIG named artists that will rise up and they can come from anywhere in the world. HOWEVER, I believe that as you are reading this the nature of how that is achieved is changing and changing rapidly. The major UK record companies, who do acknowledge the changes, are still fairly conventional in their approach to promoting artists, using glossy videos; adverts; and radio pluggers to achieve varied levels of “world domination”.

Whilst sitting in the studio with the boys I showed them NW10 rapper K.I.D and notorious South London rapper Giggs. Both are achieving hundreds of thousands of hits on You Tube, without the glossy expensive video, without any promotion, without any commercial radio play and without any record deal! These artists are amongst a new wave that are the talk of the kids on the street. However, kids are not buying the tracks, they somehow source them and then zap them to each other via blue tooth on their mobiles. As a result, mobiles are now the main medium that young people use to listen to their music.

In the conventional model, artists would rely on record labels to figure out the path to world domination. Record companies would spend huge amounts to promote the artist and rely on sales of the music to make their money back and increase their profits. In this simple model everyone in the equation gets what they want: The artist gets ‘World domination’, the label makes lots of money and the youngster gets their music. However, in this emerging new model, kids are not and will not buy music. (Yes they should but they’re not and that’s another ongoing conversation). For the artist the question nowadays has got to be ‘how am I going to make money for what I am doing?’. ‘Do some live shows’ I hear you cry. Well, for those signed to a record label the contracts have changed, and to make their money record companies are now taking a large chunk out of what traditionally went to the artist for live performances.

I don’t know what the answer is in terms of how to achieve musical world domination in 2009 and beyond for a new artist. It will become apparent soon I guess. I think the likes of Giggs and K.I.D are presenting clues as to how an artist can use inexpensive unconventional methods to draw the attention of a massive audience, and that surely has to be Step One towards musical World Domination for an artist.

I suggest that these are interesting times for commercial music. The conventional days of record companies dictating to the buying public what is cool seems to be shifting elsewhere. Radio broadly speaking seem to be slow in reacting to these changes with playlists still reflecting pretty much what the major record labels are telling them is cool. This will continue as long as it is commercially viable for radio to do so, and the majors will stick around for as long as they can continue to convince radio stations that they are indeed the gatekeepers of what is musically cool. However, keep an eye on the kids and what music they are listening to on their phones cause they are responding to or even creating a new model of music consumption that is very different from the conventional ones that have dictated things for so long.

Young people are at the heart of what we are doing here at BANG Radio, they are involved and a very much respected element of everything BANG so there’s little danger of us not being on the cutting edge and upfront.

Word of warning to all connected to the music industry: Times are changing and if you don’t change with the times, you’ll get left behind…!

The streets are speaking.

Here’s the playlist from Monday’s show:

Zulu Nation Rap Show Playlist from 26th January 2009

Remember, if you are an artist and you recognise your peers in the playlist then you need to get at me with your music. If you’re a listener then feel free to go through the playlist and research some of these artists and their music. Keep supporting the show, keep supporting the music and keep supporting BANG Radio!!

Peace and blessings

TJ Chill - Zulu Nation Rap Show, Mondays 10pm - Midnight

Next Page »