In whynow’s early days, just before the pandemic, the late music mogul Jamal Edwards kindly agreed to come into our offices for an interview. We couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant interviewee.
The 2011 advert for Google Chrome captured a critical moment in recent history. ‘The internet is what you make of it,’ it told us; in other words, generation DIY was in control of its future with the advent of such new technologies.
It did this through a wild visual mishmash that charted the rise of a young and remarkably prescient Jamal Edwards – the boy who grew his phone recordings of hungry youngsters rapping and producing grime tracks into a multi-million-pound platform.
We met with Edwards, now an older, wiser man, to discuss SB.TV, the current music scene, and his “even more crazy power-moves” planned for the future. Inevitably, I asked him about that advert, which was so popular it ironically led to the SB.TV website temporarily crashing.
Jamal Edwards photographed in whynow studios.
“It was mad. I was sweating. I was very humbled and very fortunate to be picked for it – it was definitely a career moment for me, a career highlight. Google – one of the biggest brands in the world doing a story about a kid from Acton. Born in Luton, raised in Acton, it was like a fairy-tale sort of thing.”
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A fairy tale, it may have seemed, but SB.TV is the product of Edwards’ determination and resourcefulness. The channel – fully titled ‘Smokey Barz TV’, after its founder’s original rap name – has since amassed over 1.15 million subscribers, released over 4,000 videos, and earned Edwards his fortune.
“I’m just always looking for new artists. If I see someone on the street, and I like them, I’ll remember them – I guess that’s my secret, my hidden juice. People always have hidden skills – the thing I’m good at is finding new talent. That’s my thing.”
“It’s the same now as when it began but now there’s more eyeballs, so you’re able to break more talent. Whereas before I was looking, but now I’m getting an influx as well.”
That influx is self-explanatory. Edwards expanded SB. TV’s online presence during – and, in fact, majorly promoted the course of – grime’s ascendency into the mainstream.
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“Back in the day,” Edwards says triumphantly, “the 696 [Risk Assessment Form issued to shut down MC events] used to stop events happening, and it was an underground scene.
“But grime’s now in the mainstream. It’s in the charts; grime artists are now winning awards, so you had to overcome those barriers, but if anything, it made it more rewarding when we reached a certain success.
“For me, SB.TV was about creating as much exposure for the genre as possible, and that in turn helps be a part of the story – in terms of SB.TV being a part of the UK music story, with grime, rap and hip-hop.”
A few days before we met, Dave had just won the Mercury Prize with his debut studio release Psychodrama – a thoughtful album underpinned by fictitious recordings of the rapper’s psychotherapy sessions.
Of course, SB.TV, fuelled with Edwards’ “hidden juice”, caught him early. In 2015, Santan Dave kicked off his warm-up session on the channel with “My life’s hectic. I went from rapping for expression to chats with Jamal Edwards, and I’m just getting started.” True to his words, Dave continues this confidence in his recent album, no doubt proving that he was just getting started.
But a change of tone midway through its opener’ Psycho’, Â with a slow melodic piano, is an early indication of the album’s open and direct confrontation with the issue of mental health.
I asked Edwards if he agrees as to whether such a focus is an arguably significant milestone in the history of UK rap, which for many years has been caricatured as a means to look tough and take lyrical aim at rivals.
“Definitely,” Edwards agrees, “especially because he’s so young and has had to deal with all these things, but it’s good that he’s given a platform to important subjects like that and it will inspire other artists to do the same.”
Unsurprisingly, with his fingers still on the pulse, Edwards reveals that he has been working on music around the same issues. “I’d just done something with Westy around mental health where we recorded lyrics about our own and being affected by it and post it to Instagram – so yeah, it inspires them.”
“Part businessman, part-talent seeker and part influencer,” as he puts it, Edwards flicks between easy-going pal, chatting about football to an entrepreneurial consultant of the Ted-talking, self-helping era (he has, in fact, given a Ted talk).
“I always say if you’re going to try something, the worst thing people can say is ‘no’. I believe people are just scared and don’t even bother; I think it’s just about trying and evaluating.
“If you wanna create a new business, don’t be talking yourself out of it – just do it and learn from it. That’s what people need to do, have that self-belief to just do it. There are so many people that just don’t start a business because they’re scared of failure.”
Edwards has never been deterred and still possesses that aura of childlike fearlessness he had as a camera-wielding school kid. He’s certainly of the mindset that not much has changed since then. “I’m not famous,” he says emphatically (although his MBE, awarded in 2014, may suggest otherwise).
Perhaps that’s the attitude of someone who built from the grassroots levels. And yet, SB.TV also doubles up as Edwards’ own personal archive from which the early throes of artists who certainly have become famous can be seen – the likes of Skepta, Giggs, and perhaps most famously, after the channel branched out into other genres through its ‘A64’ (‘Acoustic 64’) series, Ed Sheeran.
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“It’s symbiotic. I’ve got the platform, and you’ve got the talent. Let’s link up and create some magic. It’s never been ‘Ah, you owe me’ – I’m not into that.
“I was sending Stormzy’s warm-up session today to one of my friends, just to re-live and –” he interrupts himself in kidulthood fashion to quote from The Lion King: “– remember Simba – why’d I think of that?”
There’s excitability about him as he reaches for his phone – “Wait, I have to find that!” – neatly illustrating the addiction he has to seek out anything that piques his interest.
At the same time, of course, he has a business-minded fixation on the future of his enterprise, significantly its’ conquering of America – “America’s our second-biggest audience, so I need to get out there and localise it.
“A lot of my focus at the moment is on the youth-centre work, which I’m focusing on a lot of the time, but getting back into content is something I want to do for next year.
“I’ve got so many sick artists that I want to film. I need to get back to the original content and ideas. I’ve been speaking to some top hitters for ‘F64’ [‘Fresh 64’, where MCs have 64 lyrics to spit original bars].
“Then with ‘A64’, again some heavy hitters, but some more up-and-coming as well. With ‘F64’ I want to keep that top. That’s my Champions League.”
To achieve such feats in the future, Edwards admits his team have advised him to go to fewer art exhibitions than he does. ‘I need to stop going, I am knackered, especially with new Netflix series, I stay awake until, like, 5 a.m. I’m like “One more episode, one more, one more”, and my eyes are burning.’ That’s one way to use the internet – a place that is, after all, what you make of it.
