IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS JACK
In order to explain my journey with music, the downfalls and my success I have to rewind it right back to the start when I was only four years old. The decade was 1980 a different time, to say the least, and was still a happy non-restricted world where you can do things that you can no longer do. The UK was under suppression from the reign of Margaret Thatcher who was the UK’s Prime Minister and was the leader of the Conservative Party and for those who are not in with their UK politics, she and the party are the equivalent of the American Republican Party. She was dubbed the “Iron Lady”, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style whilst others called her Margaret Thatcher the milk snatcher after she withdrew free school milk from children over seven in 1971, earning her the nickname. In the 1980s during her time as prime minister, the Thatcher government enacted Section 28, a law that opposed the “intentional promotion” of homosexuality by local authorities and the “promotion” of the teaching of “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship” in schools. She did help the economy grow in uncertain times after several crashes in the market but this was all off the backs of the poor which she sanctioned quite heavily whilst making it easier for the rich to get richer. This caused quite a repression here in the UK and people were divided for and against her and the party she ran but never the less she was respected by some and kind of looked up to her as the role model of the woman-by-woman and a straight-talking get the job done lady from the men’s point of view. With so many cutbacks and taxes made directly against the low-poverty suburbs, it was the illegal rave scene that helped dampen the youth of the time’s repression and hate for her and the party she led or anyone who would be as sheepish enough to follow along and be dare I say submissive to her antics. The mid-80s was the birth of House music and the start of the illegal rave scene which started after partyers came back from Ibiza wanting to carry on with the party and what started as small events quickly grew and became large-scale operations all over the UK but abruptly came to end in 1992 when new laws came into force in respect to how loud the music should be, disbursing large crowds of partyers and confiscate equipment. This was after a few deaths after they digested pure Ecstasy or MDMA and after the newspapers kept picking up the story and running sensational headlines about the illegal parties that were taking place. The events were hosted by promoters who you would pay something like £10 to gain entry to the all-night and all-day party only ending when the crowds were too thin. During the second Summer Of Love, named after the sense of community and the atmosphere brought to mind the first Summer of Love, in 1967, when all was peace and love and was from the summer of 1988 to the summer of 1989 it wasn’t restricted and promoters could host these mostly free parties and not be trouble with the law or made their mission or even life difficult. It was the new decade of 1990 did and after so much talk from the press and the deaths of a few partygoers did they started to clamp down on such parties which ran the whole operation underground and the operation of running such parties was done in secret. To attend the party you needed to ring a mobile which was a premium number and was handed out by trusted associates who would work alongside the promoters to get the crowds in. After the clamp down it made it harder to give such numbers out leading people down fake paths, not getting the right number or not being given the right location which lost them some of their customs and following. By the end of it around 1992 when new laws came into force it became a widespread problem and people stopped looking for such parties spending their time more practically at home with loved ones, friends and family growing out the party scene. The parties were hosted on other people’s property like fields and abandoned buildings and meant loud music throughout the night and day, damage to property and drunk and drugged-up crowds and didn’t go unnoticed by the people who lived near these events. Due to the large crowds during the Second Summer Of Love, the police had no power to disburse crowds and bring down the sword on DJs, promoters and live acts who would now work against the police to host these parties. It was a different time back then and a time unlike today where people find it easier to kill the vibe back then it was about having fun and not being a party pooper so to speak even if that meant breaking the law in later years.Â
SUNRISE BACK TO THE FUTURE
The 12th of August 1989 which was a Saturday was one of the changing points of my life and partly made me the person I am today. It was late around 10ish at night which isn’t that late in my eyes but is for the four-year-old me. My mum caught wind of an event happening in a place called  Longwick in Buckinghamshire and she really wanted to see some live acts as at some or even most events you would get some sort of live performance by underground artists who were popularised by rave culture. I have a brother older than me by a couple of years and we each used to have a babysitter to look after us while my mum went out and let her hair down. As my brother was babysat by this person and I had my own babysitter and on the pretence that I would sleep the night away it was decided that I would go with my mum to this event. The event was called Sunrise Back To The Future and was if not the biggest event the Acid House promoters Sunrise and Back To The Future put on. It was hosted on a field off the M25 (a motorway/highway junction) and brought in thousands of people on this one field to party the night away. Being in the car on the motorway/highway and seeing in the distance what I now know to be a Ferris wheel and other fairground rides I thought that was funny I didn’t know they did circus at night and was new to me. Also to explain it wasn’t just Acid House music and live acts there were bouncy castles, coffee stands, fairground rides, face painting and so much more and involved smaller businesses around the UK in order to put on the show. I remember walking through the field of the carpark and into the crowd and seeing all these people who looked aggressive but were friendly like anything which was confusing. It was also confusing seeing people on this field in dusk light due to the stage lights and other lights dotted around I really couldn’t put two and two together and was wondering what all these people were doing and being up so late or though I was four so being up in this darkness. Like my mum predicted I went back to sleep up until I was awoken by the promoter onstage who thanked the other promoters and took a five-minute breather for everyone to soak up the sunrise which was coming over the horizon and such a beautiful thing to look at. This was another turning point for me as I had never seen the sun peer over the horizon before and I started to wonder about the sun and its purpose. Thanks to UK kid’s shows like Playdays a popular children’s TV show from the 80s and early 90s I knew it was called The Sun but I didn’t know its purpose or understand the solar system but I did know or wonder that the sun was very hot due to the proximity of being close to it. The crowd clapped, cheered and whistled as we all took several glances at the new day’s sun before the live acts came on the stage to perform in front of the crowd and carry on with the party vibe which was in full swing. Â
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The live acts were throughout the night and early morning and even had backup dancers. There was  Cry Sisco who performed their house hit Afro Dizzi Act. I was asleep throughout their performance but I did see them for a minute or two before falling back to sleep again but they did their thing and got the crowd moving.
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 Ez-Posse now goes under the name Feral Is Kinky who did her smashing hit Everything Starts With A E. I was awake for this performance and was another groundbreaking moment as the male backup dancers were voguing on stage and my mum had the videography to Madona’s Immaculate Collection and I watched it several times so I was trying to put two and two together on what they were doing and if it was connected to that lady in the Vogue video which was always on in the background and one of my mum’s favourite Madonna’s songs at that time.
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Doug Lazy who performed his bass drop anthem Let It Roll. Again another groundbreaking moment as the backup dancers who were energetic and giving some was something I had seen before in the videos but still was new to me. I think it was in one video maybe MC Hammer or someone similar but they were dancing in the New Jack form thrusting their body and acting as the hype man and woman on the stage. They even did the running man a popular 80s dance move where you stand on one spot and move your legs like you are running but to the rhythm of the beat. That was my favourite act as the bass was pumping and I enjoyed his rapping and the dancing.
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And lastly, Razette who later went under the name Lamya and R.I.P. to her she was such a good artist such a shame. She sang her well-known song Ready For Love which was the female answer to Raze’s song Break For Love and sang in French but there is an English version too which I prefer as it’s less orgasmic and more singing.
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Also, there were live DJs on the decks and spinning those records like the Young Carl Cox. He is a British house and techno club DJ, radio DJ and record producer He is now the  Highest-Paid Techno DJ in the World with a massive $16 Million Net Worth but started from the underground DJing in clubs and illegal raves.
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FLYER BOY
At the age of around seven around 1992 and with my mum after she did some successful promoting and was looking to earn some quick change I became a flyer boy. We would stand in the centre of Bristol and give out flyers and tell them where the parties were hosted which was my mum’s and other people’s job since it was now a guarded secret and not something that would be shared with you. The talent of the time included Jungle/Drum and Bass MCs The Ragga Twins, DJ Hype a well-known Jungle and Drum and Bass DJ and Producer, Jungle/Drum and Bass MCs MC Skibadee R.I.P. and MC Shabba D the duo who were always on stage with each other battling each other in a friendly manner with witty one-liners and funny punchlines and Jungle/Drum and Bass Producer and DJ Roni Size and Jungle/Drum and Bass producer and DJ Nicky Blackmarket all came down to see where they were playing next as sometimes it was so hidden not even the people on the roster knew where they were playing next and was up to the promoters and flyer boys and girls to tell them where it was going to be hosted. Even though House wasn’t meant to rival Jungle/Drum and Bass and Jungle/Drum and Bass wasn’t meant to rival House it still was brought up quite a few times the nature of Jungle which was only popular with mainstream who liked Break Hardcore a genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s and combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats. They would bring up the same thing which was it wasn’t as soulful as House and lacked soul but some who liked it said it made them skip. People were more used to House and Dance music which was growing popular around the same time with the songs by Snap – Power released in 1990 and their other track Rhythm Is A Dancer released in 1992 and Nightcrawlers – Push The Feeling On which was released in 1992 and a house track. But at the time House music was being dominated by the Roland 303 Bassline which is commonly known for making Acid House so people were getting tired of the new Acid House sound even though it wasn’t that new but wasn’t as used as seen in the early 90s when Acid House grew popular and most House tracks included the Roland 303 Bassline in their tracks. The two songs that catastrophe Jungle/Drum and Bass are M-Beat featuring General Levy Incredible a Jungle track and released in 1994 and Baby D – Let Me Be Your Fantasy a Drum and Bass track and released in 1992. Both songs made both Jungle and Drum and Bass mainstream and broadened the horizon for the genres and also made it more popular to both listen to and go out raving as there was now a demand for it. Also notable is Goldie who is a Jungle/Drum and Bass producer and DJ of the early 90s when he released his timeless classic Inner City Life in 1994 people were automatically hooked due to the softness of the song is the easiest way to explain it and wasn’t like anything that was made before in both Drum and Bass or Jungle which Jungle is more harder and edgier, especially in older works but so is Drum and Bass really. Even though Inner City Life wasn’t a mainstream chart-topper it was still highly sought after and people couldn’t get enough of the soft tone just the chilling vibe it had to it making it a staple in Drum and Bass and a song that can be played without getting bored of it. But going back a few spaces now I explained some who is who’s so to speak The Firestation was the meeting point for promoters, DJs, up-and-coming artists, A&R, flyer boys and girls you name it. It was called The Firestation as you guessed it, it was once a fire station that got turned into a music studio before they moved to the outskirts of Bristol’s town which is the outskirts of a place in Bristol called St Paul’s. Meetings were held there other than a lot of business chatter and music-making and saw the UK’s top artists of the 90s underground music scene pass through. Bristol is known for its production other than its deep connection with the slave trade and the trans-Atlantic crossover so it wasn’t unusual to see out-of-towners come to Bristol to earn that paycheck or to get connected with their ancestors and has seen some top names just walking around before or after they took the launch but mainly before. The Firestation was no exception and there was always someone famous or about to launch and become famous or was about to make it big time and bring home the fish supper so I was custom to seeing all sorts of people and plus my dad worked for a council and was always at some sort of do so I knew how to be professional. One thing I enjoyed whilst giving out the flyers is looking at the cool graphics they would print on them and made me decide to do something in graphic design when I got older. The picture seen above of the Fantazia New Year’s Party was one I gave out and used to give me the creeps as the highlighter light to the eyes with the cut-off forehead and blank stare really gave me the willies but was my favourite flyer I saw and gave me the idea of becoming a graphic designer.
MUSIC MAKER (PART 1)
As I probably told you in past posts and in my bio of all my socials I learned how to play the piano and keyboard when I was 6-7 when my gran who is an awesome keyboardist and organist taught me how to play. My first keyboard was a portable Casio before my fingers got flexible and I moved on to the piano. I also took piano lessons when I was taken on by a trained piano teacher who taught me warm-ups, scales and playing passages. I spent a lot of time at the Firestation where I used to hang around there during the weekends and also do the flyer round which by nine years old I was doing on my own. They were always so friendly and made me feel welcome but despite this, I felt like the third wheel as when I was just hanging around I was doing nothing and added nothing to the equation like all the people I saw there. This led me to leap into action by being a little helper around the studio and doing my bit to contribute but this still wasn’t enough. For whatever reason which I can’t remember I felt I had to prove myself and I so wanted to play on all the keyboards they had but never dared to just walk up to one and start playing not with the heavy eyes of the crowd who wasn’t saying anything at all and was me being silly. I used to go home and play Incredible and play notes on my Casio mastering the one trick pony playing one or two keys played repetitively over the rhythm of the beat and also coming up with my own house patterns. I also spent time writing songs and raps which I was getting very good at by the time I was seven. The big day came when I finally could prove myself when I blurted out I could play the keyboard as it wasn’t something I mentioned I also told them how I was practising with different songs and rhythms. I also told them how I could play a certain pattern to which they replied go on then. Nervous as now I had a whole crowd looking at me and I used to hate when people stared at you or breathed down your neck which is something they never did. I got on the keyboard and began to play the pattern to which they had nothing but good things to say and started to see my potential immediately after that. Then onwards I used to go there to play on the many keyboards and what started as a little joke of me playing their songs for them or contributing mostly turned into me being allowed to add my own input which included playing the keyboard and songwriting. I was also good at finding the right melody in vocals which is something I’m still good at. Kele Le Roc is a British R’n’B and UK Garage singer who is best known for her UK Garage song she did with Sticky a UK Garage producer Things We Do For Love my favourite UK Garage track and her more famous song here in the UK that you might know if you are into your UK Garage, My Love. UK Garage is part of the rave scene and started early 1990s when the genre started to evolve into what we now recognise as UK garage and speed garage. This evolution occurred when DJs like DJ EZ and DJ Sneak took the original Chicago house sound and combined it with the more aggressive and harder-edged sounds of Detroit techno. Kele was at the Firestation and on the outskirts of town quite a lot and helped make the sound of UK Garage by coming up with melodies and other counterparts for their signature sound and using her voice and what I would call callbacks repeating what the person sang like or tones. At the time I was practising my arpeggios a type of broken chord in which the notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. She liked how it sounded and asked for a recording or it might have been me playing and recording it as my young nimble fingers could glide over the keys nowadays I’m clumsy and I was also fast. The recording and it’s not clear to me if it’s the exact same copy I recorded it doesn’t matter but that later on became part of her most famous UK Garage song called My Love. For this, I got some credit and some street cred and gave me the courage I needed to be more vocal about things and what they said which was basically don’t suffer in silence and never listen to the hating ass skinny bitches which is something I took on all the way to my adult life and beyond.Â
ALGORITHIMS
Before 1998 before my own bump with the internet, I used to go to the library and rent books. I was heavily into computers and it used to amaze me the things you can do with computers although they were still limited. I’d tune into computer shows on TV and get all the facts since I wanted to be a graphic designer or by now work on computers for some fancy high-tech company. I picked up the scent of algorithms after discovering it in an old clip from the 70s where he’s on a computer playing with algorithms. The thought of it being an untouched territory and something you could use with your own voice and music really excited me and had me down to the library in no time to rent some books on algorithms. I really was schooled and learnt a lot even getting a big tip-off from one book which I can’t remember what it was now but whatever it was it’s a dud by nowadays standards. Before I knew it I was a mini algorithm specialist and was tipping the artists to get to grips with algorithms as one day when the algorithm takes over computers and the world their music will be left in the dust. A quick lesson on algorithms they are a set of instructions you give to the computer in order to get some sort of response from it. The more higher the excitement the more it will give out which is how you play the algorithm game. Also by feeding it information like who you are or who your favourite Hollywood star, rapper, singer etc etc is the computer ranks the person in the hierarchy of popularity and gives out a score. That score determines where you are in the popularity hierarchy and rewards you by flushing IE and is the reason why you play the algorithm game promote you by putting you higher up in the search engine for example. The computer knows one thing and that is legendary due to the fact that and after the rise of the internet that person say Michael Jackson got x amount of clicks and was for example through the roof that person must be popular so let’s see what else we can found about him. The computer spends months looking for the best example and the biggest achievements and if it does find something for example Michael Jackson doing the Moonwalk it will scan it and make a copy but also bump them up ten notches as you are now a friend of the computer since you both can work together to a mutual agreement and it thinking you are just like it. The other thing to note and something I discussed heavily with the stars is that in order to get some points you must be known to the computer and you can’t have that one song that blows up or a viral video and get recognized it takes painstaking tasks you feed your computer or algorithm to let it know who you are and how popular you are. This takes a lot of explaining or alternatively, you pick stuff you know the algorithm will like and hopefully do a backend check on you to see where you fit in all this. Shocking the algorithm by picking up how many hateful comments, dislikes or you just have the wrong mould of the body or part of the body could mean being switched off and the algorithm picking someone else it’s been eying up behind your back. It’s quite a judgemental and hateful process and if you mess with it it will start to mess with you.Â
CHILDREN'S TV
I took a job as a cleaner for the hotel chain Holiday Inn when I was 16 after working in The Royal Marriott hotel as a conference and banquette under work experience but was a part-time thing. My main duties as a cleaner for the Holiday Inn were cleaning toilets, cleaning the gym, cleaning the corridors, reception area everywhere but the rooms they had chamber maids for that. I worked there for about a year before I quit but I quickly got back on the horse when I went to the library to use their computers and sign up for an agency which was taking people for TV work around the realm. I didn’t think they would take me as I had no experience in TV work and was losing my confidence every day that passed but long and behold I was accepted and got my first job in Kid’s TV and thereafter in several well-known kids’ shows like Sooty And Sweep which was a right laugh and if you could understand poor Sue trauma. For those who don’t know Sue is a panda and babysitter to the troublesome twins Sooty and Sweep who are not twins Sooty is a yellow bear and Sweep is a dog but are twins as they are so alike. In order to bribe them and to what she thinks will stop them from becoming so hyperactive she gives them a bottle of pop each but every time it backfires and they torment her with certain antics like pieing her or making a terrible mess. Being a Panda known for their anger she gets enraged and she locks them in the basement where she takes a nap and tries to calm down but always forgets about them and leaves them in there for hours at a time. One day she has enough and hires extra help from a nanny who she knows Sooty and Sweep will be the demise of him but is desperate and not to be a burden to her boyfriend when she gets home which you never get to see her at home or her boyfriend. This was all backstory that the makers made up for a bit of fun in the board room and was to bring a bit of adultness into the work field. Working for the TV show Sooty And Sweep was a messy affair and involved cream, water, goo and a lot of other things that I used to stink of going home on the bus but was so funny and fun. I used to be stuck in a small cramped box where I would do multiple tasks while they recorded but was close to the action. I was in the box as I was hidden from the camera’s view and controlled certain things like levers that I would pull. I also worked on shows like The Tweenies, The Fimbles and Topsy Turvy and oh I got the weave for Rosie from CITV’s Rosie And Jim, I told her curly is in she wanted that European hair I was like next she be going strawberry blonde next she’s ginger.
MEETING THE QUEEN
During the time at the agency the Queen or the Queen’s Staff put out a royal invitation to well there was a whole list actually but one of them was calling up the puppeteers a person who controls a puppet to make it appear alive. I had just finished working loosely as a puppeteer under agency work and the director liked how I played the puppet which was loose which is how they like it may I add and was part of the finished product of the show and got ending credits rights my name in the ending credits. Also in my early days, I worked for a man I can’t remember his name but he used to run the Punch & Judy Show a puppet show alongside the sea fronts as it’s an English seaside tradition. He too liked the way I handled the puppets and after the show and whilst putting them away I would have a quick go messing about with them. He taught me certain things like how to manuva my arm and fingers for maximum effect and do things like how to hold an object in the hand of the puppet and how to catch the baby the infamous line Punch uses as he tosses the baby in the air or sorry thrusts the baby in the air. He taught me everything and took me on the road for day trips to sea sides and other places to perform the Punch & Judy show. Thinking about it in the letter with the royal stamp and everything they were looking for people who could perform the Punch & Judy Show and I knew just the person so I took the job to him tracking him down which was the hardest part. He was so happy when I told him he had a royal appointment and I didn’t think I was going to go as I was looking for the next job the agency would give me. But he asked me to come along which I couldn’t refuse as 1. It was a great opportunity and 2. He asked me along and I was kind of privileged for him to ask me since how professional he was and have been doing it for decades now. We went to Glouster where the show was meant to be for one of the royal’s children but they were a no-show. Also to explain we already set it up and were ready to go and the no-show meant there was no one to entertain. But guess who came walking through the door requesting us to carry on with the show the queen. This made both of us feel nervous but doing as we were told and not to waste the time we spent setting it up we carried on and put on the show exclusively to the queen who was the only person apart from us behind the curtain in the room. She enjoyed it laughing at the jokes and even said “Oh no you didn’t” after the “Oh yes I did” line one of us gave and is a back and forth between the crowd and Punch sometimes Judy. That and the fact she requested us to carry on with the show shows showmanship and also showed me a different side to the queen I quickly glanced in the looking mirror and saw a nice kind old woman.Â
AMERICAN UNIVERSTY
Knowing enough about algorithms and being guided by my peers who I look up to I signed up for Harvard University to study algorithms and computer design. They told me so much about the university and one of the attributes which I liked they make leaders who make a difference globally. I actually signed up a couple of years before but never heard anything back from them until around a year or two before September 11th. I flew out not so long after they contacted me after they told me I could be placed on their campus I just had to fly out and see if it was for me and sign the papers. When September 11th happened in 2001 I thought my career was over and I never get to study abroad as planned. In case you are wondering why didn’t I just go to Oxford or Yale well Harvards specialized in Algorithms but especially computer design and none of the other universities had that and I fancied the idea of studying somewhere new and where I could concentrate the most and not be distracted. Plus I saw the ad on TV after the university was heavily discussed by my peers so I grew to fall in love with the university and them being this university that could change your life and damn it did it change my life. Not only did I study algorithms, a bit of psychology and some after-class classes like how to make the perfect drum pattern hard things to do back then and were also knowledgeable and insightful. I walked away with my own algorithm which is all that I explained already but just to recap it was based on old findings that to get some excitement out of the algorithm it had to be legendary and each person or thing gets marked out of points which is ranked and sometimes rewarded if it gets a high reading. Also and most importantly I joined a cause and helped give back to the earth which is something I enjoy doing. My algorithm was partnered with Charities around the globe to make my own impact and is something I am proud to say. My mind is foggy so I can’t remember but I distinctly remember being in a sermon with a black guy who I remember him saying he wanted to become the first black president of America it could have been Barack Obama. For those who don’t know and aren’t American Harvard’s is infernus of having powerful leaders of tomorrow do talks about issues and their own missions to give insight and so you can feel inspired and go on to make your own path of light. Other people, I could have sworn I saw there was Comedian and actor Pete Davidson and the spitting image of female rapper Erica Banks who I believe is her cousin since she was studying management and public relations liaison and said she had a cousin who she was going set up for life but was still very young. Just looked it up Erica was born in 1998 which means if true she would have been four when that conversation happened but I don’t even know if is the same female rapper I was on the hunt for but nonetheless I love and rate her.
SOUND PICKER
Thanks to my time at Harvard they found me a placement with the gaming company Rockstar. Now I don’t need to explain who Rockstar is but just for reference, they made the Grand Theft Auto series as well as Manhunt, Red Dead Redemption, Bully, Max Payne, The Warriors and L. A Noire. Because I now wanted to do something in music, games or computer design they phoned up Rockstar and asked if I could join their team with a placement that was initially a year internship. Around two years before I worked with Rockstar I saw an ad in the black newspaper The Voice which said something like do I like and know my music, are you into computer designing and do I want to become part of the team. I answered yes to all of them and liked the idea of working as a team and something I like to do a lot. So two years before I worked for Rockstar as part-time hours around 5 days per week I answered an ad in a newspaper and didn’t hear anything back from them and wasn’t until I went to Havard that they phoned after the studying bit was over and meant you had to practise then did I got accepted. As I said it was originally an internship but they already knew who I was after going through my application and realising my potential for the knowledge of songs and tastes did they put me to work as a sound picker. My duties were organizing songs and files in order of gameplay but also organizing files into the yes and no piles the yes pile contained all the songs that could be allowed to be used in the game and getting the copywrite owner permission to agree to them using their song or songs in some cases in their gameplay. The no pile were the ones that were refused to use in the gameplay and were never used. Other duties also included playing and organizing songs into categories so the sound development team could play them back and work and find out if they could get the rights and if they could will it sound good in the game, picking the best songs that represented the gameplay and its surroundings. The office was in Warwickshire here in the UK which is 88 miles away, and the journey takes approximately 1 hour and 34 minutes from Bristol. Due to this, I would sleep in a hotel that was paid for and go back on the weekends only to do it all again Monday morning. The project was a secret project in which I had to sign contracts that said I couldn’t talk about any of what I saw or to speak to competitors which was True Crime in this case a Grand Theft Auto rip-off game. It lasted for two years on and off doing one year then coming back 6 months later to do some more work before the games were finished and the makers could sit in the shade for a bit hence how the work dried up. Not only that I was on a mission as they would say so I couldn’t hang around all day and pick and sort music I had places to be which they were aware of and were quite supportive of. Like all the previous places I worked or was at all the people were nice and again a right laugh I was constantly laughing as someone was making jokes and I met some of the characters from the game who were also quite friendly and a laugh to be around same with the development team they were the funniest. I can’t remember what number I was working on but quickly it was getting such a rotten response by mainstream media although it was also getting good reviews. It was unclear to me the knock-on effect of the side effects of the game as it does insights breaking into cars and stealing them at the lower level but on the higher level insights murder which as I said was unheard of even in the 2000s when it grew popular. The fact you could stab someone to death, run someone over until you kill them or even attack people with baseball bats was insight violence and not something I wanted to stick my name to or though after it became the norm and there was no suggestion of it crime rate like knife crime and baseball attacks going up I wanted in and felt more comfortable or though I wasn’t that bad just a bit weary of dire consequences.
MUSIC MAKER (PART 2)
Explaining who is in the UK underground scene comes near the end of my musical journey and to the next bit of the power walk I did. Thanks to the time at the Firestation and the outskirts of Bristol town where I became more intertwined with making music and the relationship I grew with my peers also playing the keyboard for Kele Le Roc and Roni Size a Bristol-based Jungle/Drum and Bass artist from the 90s to present day and like all the Jungle/Drum and Bass acts that are still thankfully here still make guest appearances on stage and doing their own podcast and other podcasts with mix sets and interviews they are still chucka blocked being all pioners of Jungle/Drum and Bass and Kele Le Roc being a pioneer of UK Garage. But thanks to Kele Le Roc and Roni Size after playing on their tracks but they all get a shout as they all helped me along the way every last one of them as I was the growing star and associated with my time being a flyer boy of mostly Jungle/Drum and Bass events but some House and Hardcore as well and also being associated with the Sunrise event all roads led to Rome and riches. My music was evolving and I was always trying something out usually with a tape cassette which meant some of my best work came out over-saturated and leading to a muffle of sound which wasn’t good so I gave that up and just recorded the sounds and it sounded better. I was bursting with ideas and had a lot of different ideas that were and weren’t linked to the music I made but some were master plans that were ruined by change of law, change of perception or change of the internet. So basically thanks to all that and the fact I worked damn hard and helped a lot of people along the way they suggested I should go to America again and work as what is called in the music industry a dummy but to put in a more non slangy word a music assistant. My duties were playing the keyboard over half-finished songs or coming up with suggestions on what or what would make them sound better, and testing music, writing lyrics and song arranging for different groups of people when I was assigned to work with them. Oh the bit I missed out it was known I was the child from Sunrise by most people who knew me or of me in and around Bristol after being spotted with the local talent who came to Bristol who also knew because either I told them or my mum did. In the quick interview where they asked me a few questions and one of them was an unknown name to me for Sunrise Back To The Future which threw everybody off including myself. This led me to be embarrassed as one person was already ushering me to the door whilst calling me in his own words a charlatan and expressing how he’s done with the frauds no joke. This led me to confess I never heard of the word before and was actually from Chicago. Oh, this is now in America on the outskirts of Hollywood on the safer bit of Hollywood LA. I was surprised how quickly came down after I confessed I didn’t know the slang term and went on to prove it by telling him something that only a person there would have seen and known unless you paid whatever the price it was to get the exclusive recorded footage that was recorded throughout the rave event from start to finish but my mum never got the video due to it becoming unpopular in the press and mainstream Britain I think. Also to mention the neighbouring label which was just a stone thrown away literally down the corridor the record company Atlantic Records owned some offices and studios within the same compound of the record company we were on which I can’t remember what it was called now I would like to say Ant Records but that may be incorrect but it ran alongside Defected Records the giant House label or I worked with Defected Artists to come up with something like song lyrics and I wrote a lot of songs over the time I was there and working with them. Do you know how many famous artists I saw just walking around in the corridors it was quite a few Toni Braxton comes to mind who I briefly passed and her on-fire publicist who was putting out the word out that Toni’s vocals were for sale which means giving you the rights to some of her most famous song acapella versions. One was sold to someone in our section of the offices and studio the artist and track Shadow Child – So High which uses one of my favourite Toni Braxton songs apart from Freeway but the Toni Braxton song was called You’re Making Me High if you didn’t guess what the song title was from the Shadow Child title. The main artist I worked with is Dusky a House producer and like all good House and Jungle/Drum and Bass producers he’s also a DJ. I worked with him on finishing unfinished tracks, and coming up with melodies on the keyboard. testing music to an unknown audience in a place like Times Square and coming up with one-liners for others to record and use in his works, it was fun but nerve-wracking at times especially testing the music on the unsuspected audience. I remember playing What I Never Knew first Dusky’s dark but melodic track and then a couple of days later to change the past a little I played Nobody Else to people who were just walking by getting on with whatever they were doing I did feel like a lemon but not by the content I was an outside me being English and everyone around me as nearly American so I felt like I stood out plus I had to carry this small but heavy and loudspeaker that would blast the music so I was essentially making myself a target or that’s what it felt like. But it ended up alright as the music being played got a good response and after a while, I grew used to having to be the centre of attention even though that’s not me at all. I was paired with several Defected artists and other artists on the label I was working for but was really under Defected if I remember correctly. The track Dummy by Dusky apparently was named after my job after I expressed concerns even laughing at times that one was going to believe my roll sheet and especially that I helped make the tracks so he kindly agreed to name one of his songs after my job of being a dummy. The pay was good and they had so many benefits to go alongside the pay and could save you a bit of money and there were always opportunities which is the next bit.Â
MUSIC MAKER (PART 3)
The next thing that came my way started around 1996 when I was when I was 11 and I was sent on my first quest. There was news given to me by my peers that there was a new genre of rave music was in its first process and Supa D a DJ was looking for people to help with the final process of playing the keyboard and coming up with melodies and test lyrics to test the styles of vocals used on the track. The quest as told by my peers meant flying out to somewhere in Spain I think it was Majorca to hunt for this DJ and sign up for the program which is what they are called or one name for it. But there was one trouble I was only 11 and Majorca never was the choice destination when my dad went on holiday and as he pointed out he was too busy working to go on a silly quest that he thought was going nowhere and I don’t blame him for that. I came up with the solution of me flying out to Majorca on this one-off mini holiday/quest at first he opposed to the idea and full out told me to stop going on about it. But the more I explained this was my payout and my chance to shine it was like he could see what I was saying and in the end he said yes I could but only once which I was and still am grateful for that. Flying out to Majorca with friends from my secondary school Fairfield Grammar where I found the bar eventually after a couple of days and tries and it felt at times like I wasted my time. Someone gave me the name of the bar and street name which I jotted down beforehand which I found the bar after finding the correct street name and bar name which is why they call it a quest as it’s a hunt for something and a proper estursion. The next bit was a bit tricky as I didn’t just walk up to him and say hi such and such I hung back in the crowd and I was unsure if it was him or not so I thought I double check before I made the error of judgment. For whatever reason he might have seen me count beats as I always had a habit of working out what BPM they were using for that track that was playing and to do that you count beats in the song and work it out that way and I had a cheat sheet of doing much quicker and more importantly, more accurately which worked so it was always fun to do. After I went through several BPM check tests he waved me over and greeted me and welcomed me along. He explained that I wasn’t needed just yet and the final tests wouldn’t be until around 2003 and this was in 1996 so I was relieved not to be turned down for being too young being eleven at the time. Fast forward to the end of the last chapter, it was 2003 and as I waved goodbye or saw the end of my time with the record company I was under and Defected which as the well was drying up and I lost the original team I started with I felt isolated and alone and knew I wasn’t going to last due to my ongoing mental health problems and at times was making it worse plus the excessive of drinking and going out till late only having to be up early in the morning, stresses of workload as it was quite demanding I knew I had to quit quite soon anyway it was only part-time solutions. I came across Supa D again either back in the UK or over in America I really can’t remember but he said it was ready to be tested and the Bristol base was already in the process of starting testing so I began to test keyboards over tribal beats over the next couple of months also working the BPM range from fastest to slowest.
LAUNCH PARTY
Around April 2004 there was the launch party for the new rave genre UK Funky which ended successfully and with tracks to follow in and upcoming years to follow the launch was to celebrate the making of the nearly 10-year project that apparently didn’t go without any hiccups along the way like getting the beat to sit on top of the mix and the tribal bongo drum would lose its sharpness losing it’s distinct sound along the way. The launch party was held at my current address and a flat I have lived in since I was nearly 18 and I’m 40 in March. What started as a bit of music playing loudly and with a few people loitering outside later turned into a sea of people covering a football field of people. The launch party just one of many was held at my flat to prove to the haters what I was doing and also the windows were a one sheet that you could slide all the way back apparently it was a good choice to host a party with the speakers and sound system that wouldn’t smash the window. It was on the verge of new laws coming in that dealt with how many people could gather or the licence you needed to host such parties so it was lucky really that it happened. It was hosted by the record company I was working for and saw some big names come down to this party after I gave out an invitation to them as an RSVP something I did not think they would take the invitation but they did and I was blown away by who was just hanging around in my living room and outside my flat. Thanks to the outputs of my internet connection they were able to hook up the sound system and a direct feed to Hollywood which meant live feeds were able to happen and also gadgets from the record company like the monitors and lights were put up there were also cables running downstairs from my living room where is where the sound system was and the speaker’s which was rested near the windows. It got busy at about noon where it brought quite a big crowd some people were just passing and saw what was going on and pulled up their cars to come and party and some people were on their way to work but pulled a sickie. It also brought all my neighbours out who couldn’t believe what was happening and who they were seeing it was so funny. I was hosting so I was making sure everyone was having a good time and they had a drink in their hand because there was a lot of alcohol just lying around and was paid for by the record company which meant free drinks for everyone and as much as you could drink which was nice. The party lasted until the next day around sometime in the morning when it died down and people were getting tired it was decided to call it a day and we packed up. It also brought all the A&R staff and artists and also some well-known DJs did a set so there were a lot of well-known people there. It was if not the best party I went to and I really can’t forget it in a hurry I still can’t believe it was hosted in my flat.   Â
END OF ERA
Unfortunately due to my mental health and the ever-growing changes I had to give it all up and settle for a more chilled life where down the years I forgot about all the stuff I had done and it wasn’t until more recent years did I remembered which got me back on music making. I did all these things whilst battling with my mental health and up until that point was manageable. It was either keep going and working for the record company which was demanding and full throttle or try and recover from past stresses and I chose my health over money which I kind of regret to this day but I’m happy with what I did and know I had to give it a rest at some point or be driven to the ground. Most of it was done in secret and was something I didn’t tell that many people as they would always hate and think less of me or say I was lying which was the main theme throughout my rise and fall. It was a different time back then and in the world, due to bass what others would call the rave scene there was a land of opportunities and being in the right circle meant I had access to those opportunities which I am thankful to have had. Nowadays those opportunities are gone and with the rise of the internet a different world to say the 90s and early 2000s in how you went about getting seen and heard. People would speculate about what I did and if you didn’t know about things like promoting a good way to get your foot in the door they wouldn’t know how easy it was to get those opportunities and how it built me up to my own success but of course came with the haters and naysayers who would say I was too young or even too stupid to get such opportunities but that never bothered me as I knew what I did and had the proof it laid in myself and to know they were just jealous of me and knew what I as doing but the hate was real.Â
However, Ice Spice was recently heavily pressed on YouTube with tiles like The End Of Ice Spice and YouTube commentaries talking about her two ex-friends who claim Ice Spice was horrible to and treated them dirty on tour and in their personal life and one of them claims she was bullied by Ice Spice in school. Also, the heavily talked about text conversations where Ice Spice called Niki Minaj being like her mum ungrateful but that’s again a whole new topic. Ice Spice uses the rap style of Drill music no no no actually drills are used on the tracks it’s a repetitive but catchy style that is used in New York Drill music and also UK Drill which replaced UK Grime here in the UK. In portions it’s enjoyable and something I personally can listen to for around two hours without getting bored of the same style of rapping. This is the case for Ice Spice who since her breakout track Munch has gone on to do the same song with a different beat with the same Drill style every song feels the same. The other thing that was talked about Ice Spice was accused of using the drug Ozempic to lose weight. For those who don’t know the drug is intended for people with Diabetes and also something I forgot to mention people fell in love with her assets her curves and ass so when she lost weight and lost those assets people mocked her and straight out told her we don’t like you any more now, you are a twig. Also, people began to notice the pattern of poo references in her music in one track she raps I don’t need a Diaper but I’m Miss Poopy and in another one, she raps and is the title of the track you think you’re the shit you’re not even a fart and has a fart sound on the track which was apparently a diss to fellow female rapper Latto in an ongoing beef between the two. This brings me to the next thing people have been talking about a lot and Ice Spice and Latto is one of them being flavours IE Bi-racial and pretty privileged. For those who don’t know Hollywood and the music industry you might as well say mainstream media have a preference and that’s either white or bi-racial people with killer looks and cheekbones and assets. The media is perpetuated with these images and rarely shares people with dark complexions or gives them chances. Thanks to things like slavery and also the repressions around the world black people as a whole don’t get given a fair chance and this is included in their day-to-day life too especially in Hollywood and in the music industry. Since the ancient days, people with lighter skin were seen as more attractive and seen as things like more trustworthy or friendly and also the soaps were used to become just like them and have a fairer chance or to become quote-unquote pretty. The psychological effect of bad history and the imagery of what must seemed like a white-dominated world in Hollywood and the media and also the effect of seeing racist imagery like black face and stereotypical stuff like being slow or eating watermelon thankfully people in the present day are starting to question and push back from making everyone accountable for what was said and done even if that meant digging in the vault and looking for evidence or making your favourite entertainer accountable for their actions. Tyra Banks is someone who comes to mind when talking about controversy and being made accountable. For those who don’t know who Tyra Banks is she’s a black supermodel and host to the infamous America’s Next Top Model TV show where contestants compete to have a shoot with Vouge and earn some money as well. Now I won’t talk about the black face incident where the white women were made to use cosmetics to briefly change their skin colour as I believe that was done in good intent and should be an experience all non-racial people should experience. I was more thinking of the time Tyra told one contestant in the elimination process she was to straighten her hair as it was too curly and in another bit she said she was acting too black and that was the feedback she was getting from others. This is the problem in Hollywood, the music industry and in mainstream media as a whole and is not something I don’t care for or entertain. Being Bi-racial with both African and Scottish roots and with an understanding of who I am and where I came from and also the uphill struggle of black and bi-racial people as a whole I found that hard to watch when it first aired in the 2000s and it’s funny actually how it was brought up cos I was outraged and started to question Tyra’s alliance with her own people and the state of the model world when first watching it. I still believe prettiness comes in all shapes and sizes and skin tones. I see a lot of black women and think they are attractive they seriously don’t know what they are on about and that happens quite frequently. I really don’t understand why people could say that person can’t be attractive as they are too dark it doesn’t make sense to me whatsoever. There was a complete attack on bi-racial people all over social media and debates on mostly YouTube and TikTok saying we hated black people, we could do whatever we liked, we were not suppressed, we think a lot of ourselves and that was hard to watch. There was evidence of this with countless stupid bi-racial people being racist and being all that my gran would say pretty pretty in front of the camera and that was annoying as I hate people who make a show of themselves on camera and are obsessed with their looks it’s so annoying and also are racists, especially to their own race. I do understand though the complexity of it all and have seen for myself being me as an example of favouritism and unfair treatment but like I said I never did and never will stand for it and get called out and worked on as I hate unfair treatment and I hate the fact some people hate me because of my skin colour cos that’s the other thing I get it from both ends and beyond.
Jeffery Star a YouTube makeup guru and before that a singer on My Space and known for his controversial lyrics and imagery and is now known for his pallets of Makeup he formalises and does himself apparently got cancelled for past videos of him being racist to a passer-by and involved battery acid which is shocking as who would say such a thing. Throwing acid in someone’s face is something that has no words to describe as for saying that even for a joke and shouldn’t be entertained in the least not to mention using violent and aggressive language and bad body language is a no-no even if you were wasted and you couldn’t control yourself. Since then he has been cancelled many times for a set of reasons but still, manages to climb his way back to most of the viewer’s eyes. His bad bitch persona and his ever-growing apologies videos where he apologises for his actions says he’s been disgraceful and holds himself accountable but still makes the same mistakes he said sorry for and keeps it moving rubs a lot of people up the wrong way and his name leaves a bitter taste in some mouths judging by the venom of the tone of voice or what and how they said it. To sum up his success he is the YouTube makeup guru’s Michael Jackson and his makeup pallets sell very well selling out in most cases in the day and has also or used to have quite a following before all the incidents came to light and people saw a toxic side of him rather than what was fed to them a package good boy deal. 
J