Sitting in my grandmother’s living room in Hackney, East London, I vividly remember seeing the advert on BBC One signalling the forming of a new radio station within its network that would cater solely to Black music. I was 12 years old at the time, and already a huge fan of pirate radio grime.
With shots of kids riding BMXs, two guys in a drop-top Benz, council estates and girls in big hooped-earrings, the station’s positioning was ‘Street Music’—which, at the time, was a broad, umbrella term but it also meant that there were no barriers when it came to the music offering. This was twenty years ago. Fast forward a decade and some change, I found myself working with the station on a project as they prepared for their popular 1Xtra Live series in Cardiff, Nottingham and Manchester. The station that I saw being born had now played a small part in my own career—and…
