Jamal Edwards: The Music Industry’s Selfless Pioneer

The tragic passing of Jamal Edwards has come as a shock. Aged just 31, the news of his loss has been met by an outpouring of sorrow, and no shortage of disbelief.

by Teddy Coward |
Jamal Edwards

The tragic passing of Jamal Edwards has come as a shock. Aged just 31, the news of his loss has been met by an outpouring of sorrow, and no shortage of disbelief.

Jamal Edwards black and white

The shock is amplified too by the considerable impact he made, even in such a short life. On music. On people. On UK culture as a whole.

When his mum Brenda – now known in her own right as a presenter – gave him a camera at 15, little would she have known the impact Jamal would have on UK music. Shooting videos of driven young rappers in his area, he’d upload them onto his channel, SBTV, which he set up in 2006. The channel was named after his own rap name, ‘Smokey Barz TV’.

SBTV didn’t just make Jamal his fortune, it stands as one of grime’s greatest archives

SBTV would be one of the 21st century’s digital success stories. With nothing but a cheap camera and access to YouTube, it helped launch the early careers of Dave, Jessie J and Ed Sheeran. As a marker of such, Jamal’s story was used to promote Google Chrome in 2011, showing how DIY videos could be turned into a multi-million-pound platform. That moment made SBTV so popular, its website temporarily crashed, and Jamal Edwards started soon started to become a recognisable name.

But the platform didn’t just make Jamal his fortune: it now also stands as one of the greatest archives of grime’s ascendancy into the mainstream.

Jamal Edwards at the BRITs 2019

Cast your mind back to the BRITs just two weeks ago, when Dave brought out Ghetts, Meeks, Fredo and Giggs, in a glorious, gospel-infused celebration of grime. Their performance of ‘In the Fire’ saw them each rap about their own respective journeys from challenging beginnings. Jamal, who was at the event, played a huge part in the road to such a performance, to put grime under the spotlight.

In 2015, for instance, Dave kicked-off his warm-up session on SBTV with the line ‘My life’s hectic, I just went from rapping for expression to chats with Jamal Edwards, and I’m just getting started.’

Jamal played a huge part in the road to such a performance, to put grime under the spotlight

Now a global superstar, Dave’s words have rung true: he was indeed just getting started. And Jamal would no doubt have watched on two weeks ago with well-founded pride.

I was personally fortunate enough to meet Jamal. In fact, he was my first significant interview.

Eager to impress in my first full-time journalistic job, I spent the day tracking him down, sneaking into what I thought was the SBTV offices (at least, that’s what Wikipedia said). But no luck.

The following day my boss messaged me late in the evening. Jamal was giving a panel talk at the British Museum. The talk would be finished in half an hour. I dashed to the tube and got there as fast as I could. Security met me at the gates. I didn’t have a ticket and no bags were allowed. “But please, I’m here for Jamal Edwards…” I tried to explain. Thankfully, one member of security let me in.

There he was: Jamal Edwards, SBTV founder, media mogul, YouTube star

I clambered up the stairs and there he was. Jamal Edwards, SBTV founder, media mogul, YouTube star, finder of some of the greatest grime artists going. The talk had clearly finished, but people remained outside, trying to glean the panellist’s wisdom and experience. I hovered around Jamal.

“I want to set up something for the grime scene in France – what do you recommend me doing?” one lady asked him.

“Persistence,” he replied. “And being hungry. If there’s a rapper you want, just go to where they are. Find them. You wait for them, at a gig, wherever. And you speak to them.”

Seeing no more opportune moment in my life, I interjected next. “Funny you say that, Jamal…”, I said, before telling him everything and asking for an interview. I’ll never forget his raised eyebrow as well as his willingness to help me out.

He was always looking at the possibility, for the opportunity to lend support

That’s what he was full of. The desire to help. He was always looking at the possibility, for the opportunity to lend support. As he learnt with his channel, you never know where that might lead. I grabbed his email and arranged an interview via his team.

The following week, I waited, unsure whether he would actually turn up and give me, a nascent journalist at a new publication, his time. Of course, he did. What’s more, he was exceptionally open and engaged, ignoring the relentless buzzing of his phone as we spoke.

Jamal Edwards in a red coat

Like some of the very best, he had a determination and a willingness to try. “I always say if you’re going to try something, the worst thing that people can say is ‘no’,” he told me, “People, I believe, are just scared and they don’t even bother, and I think it’s just about trying and evaluating.’

He was never scared – or at least he never showed it – and always sought the opportunity. Before Christmas, he told us how he’d used lockdown to try his hand at DJing, playing electronic music under the moniker Jamal Artman “for the fact I don’t want people to turn up thinking they’re going to hear grime, rap and hip hop.”

Jamal took little to no credit – a story that will be familiar to many artists he helped

And whilst he never shied away from experimenting – Ed Sheeran, for instance, first appeared on his platform through its ‘A64’ (Acoustic 64) series – he constantly tried new ways to pioneer grime. At the end of last year he announced the release of 8Bars, a new talent-discovery app which sees people from all over the country engage in rap battles.

As recently as December, too, he showed he was still pulling strings within the music industry, encouraging Ed Sheeran to feature on a verse for a song he’d found by Nigerian artist Fireboy DML. The track, ‘Peru’, went on to reach number two in the UK charts and gave the African star his first hit. Jamal took little to no credit – a story that will be familiar to many artists he helped. His loss felt by the industry is, and will continue, to be huge.

After all, not only do major figures continue to speak out about the loss, but it was now eight years since he was awarded an MBE for his services to music. That would be followed by an honorary MBA and PhD.

Yet despite his heady rise, he was a man of the people, someone who never shunned his community, but instead tried to elevate those around him. He was no doubt one of the most fitting ambassadors for the Prince’s Trust, a charity that tries to help young people set up their own business – just as he did with a camera all those years ago.

In Acton, where he was raised, sits a giant mural of Jamal plastered on the side of the High Street. The piece was put together by artists as well as kids from Bollo Brook Youth Centre and local Acton schools. Each played a part, just as he played a part in the careers and lives of countless people.

Despite his heady rise, he was someone who never shunned his community, but tried to elevate it instead

The mural is made up of hundreds of recycled pieces from the nearby environment. Pieces that have been reused to make something compelling. It’s a fitting tribute to a man who always saw the good in things, especially from his nearby area; someone who always looked for ways to innovate, repurpose and remould things to create something beautiful.

If life is measured by all the other lives you touched, by the impact you brought people and the positivity you gave them, then Jamal was a giant.

The mural couldn’t be big enough.

Jamal Edwards mural

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