It’s been a long time since I’ve hit up Jams blog. *sings* “It feels like foreverrrrr” (is that even a real song)… never mind. As I was saying, it’s been ages and I miss the little image icon thingy that Jam Jam has on the corner of the page when you refresh it so I’m backkkk bishessssssss.

Do we remember the post I did a while ago about having a show on Rinse Fm every sunday? (11am-1pm, lock in… safe). I think I mentioned that I can’t mix records to save my life. I couldn’t. In fact I don’t even think I’d even touched a deck before (Disclaimer: This might be an exaggeration – if you have a pic of me touching a deck then… don’t quote me). So having a show was wicked and I was glad Rinse had given me and Julie the chance to play some exciting new music and chat about… stuff… on their station. Now it’s about six months down the line, (methinks) and Rinse have their legal licence (WHOOP WHOOP) so in celebration of this. And just because I thought it’d be useful and fun to know how, I decided to learn how to mix. If you’re a beginner then listen up, just follow these steps and you’ll be a badderman deejay in NO TIME!

Step 1: Find Skilliam (Rinse FM badder man DJ) and lock him in a room with you and Julie for two hours with CDJ’s and multiple CD’s.

Step 2: Find DJ JJ (Rinse FM’s badder BADDERMAN DJ) and get him to use his connects to magically hook you up with some CDJ’s.

Step 3: Take them home and ring (any which badderman DJ above) and learn how to hook the wires up to the mixers.

Step 4: Stare dumbfounded at the mixers and flashing lights, squint your eyes really hard and try to remember what Skilliam and JJ taught you.

Step 5: I can’t help you with, this is the part where you need to put your musical knowledge, and your concentration along with your common sense together and work out A) Your tune selection. B) The tempos of your tunes C) How all the channels and cross faders work. Play around a little bit, get to know your music properly, every beat, where the beat drops, where the lyrics begin… EVERYTHING and then spend some time getting comfortable with the equipment.

Step 6: Announce on Twitter (tweet tweet) that you’re going to attempt to deejay and then bobs your uncle (INSERT FLYERS HERE) you’re booked at some NEXT HYPE raves.

Step 7: Realise you’re actually moving way to fast for your own good and feel a bit sickly and panic that you’re about to embarrass your whole entire life when you flop the mix in front of everyone at the bookings.

Step 8: PRACTISE! FOR HOURS/DAYS/WEEKS/MONTHS/YEARS (In my case days)

Now I was prepared (and by prepared I mean I hyped so much that I couldn’t back down) I cheated though. I wrote down all the songs I was going to play and practised the hour long set over and over again for four hours straight. I went to the booking and BLAM! The CDJ’s were NOT the ones I had been practising with. CRINGE. I panicked. The amazing DJ Motive calmed my life down and I put my CDs in the mixer and waited… and waited… and waited… and… nothing happened. The CD’s DIDN’T WORK. So as you can guess, that was a flop. (No par to me the profession DJ Complex after me had the same problem).

Step 9: Rant on Twitter about what happened and be a moany cow till the very lovely promoter of The Bang Bang event contacts you and tells you to come to his event later on that day and do the warm up set. Accept it and arrive at your destination.

This is the part where you realise this is NOT your bedroom, the speakers are VERY loud and the decks are up 5 foot 8 high and you’re 5 foot 6. See that the rave is infact a Hip Hop rave and although you have Hip Hop CD’s with you you’ve never mixed Hip Hop in your life, realise the venue is fast filling up and (yup you guessed it)… PANIC.

Step 10: DO THE DAMN THING!

Now I wanted to chicken out. Soooo badly. But I thought “what’s the worst that can happen”. The worst that could happen… happened. The mixers were not starting on beat. I wheeled up the tings dem, cue’d it, and started a funky tune. The left deck decided it was going to start playing automatically and you’ve got the cross fader in the middle so everyone can hear what’s just happened.

Step 11: DON’T PANIC

Everyones seen you now, it’s now or never, in the words of Dizzee Rascal… Fix Up Look Sharp. So I did the damn thing, someone came and tweaked the decks a little bit so the tune started at the right time and I was off! DJ Joel (who was “wow” on the decks) was by my side just in case I flopped and helped me with the mix for the first couple when I did…flop. BUT people were vybzing to my selection! Best feeling in the world (other then the feeling you get when you’re eating red velvet cake… yum) and I played half an hour of funky, grime and dubstep…UNTIL some woman came and asked me to turn it down because she’s “trying to have a conversation and she can’t hear herself think”. I had the pleasure of informing her the bar is now a rave. Had giggle at her frustrated expression and then switched up the set to … HIP HOP.

Step 12: Common sense!

Apply everything you practised at this point. It would be silly to not mix them if possible. I was in the groove and thought “what the heck… I may as well try” and I selected a couple tunes that were similar speed, IT WORKED! I mixed four Hip Hop tunes, perfectly! The DJ Yasmin came. We got chatting. I forgot I was supposed to be mixing and she had to quickly lean over the decks (which were facing me NOT her) and listen into the headphones to hear what tune was next on the CD, mess with the tempo a bit and then the cross fader and then the bass and then the volume and BLAM! the tune mixed. She mixed the tune when all the equipment was facing the other way. In a dim light… I don’t need to say it do I? Yeah I do… BADMAN!

So all in all, I clanged a few times, panicked a few times and mixed perfectly a few times. There was a healthy balance. So whilst you were all (hopefully) locked into the Radio 1 & 1Xtra clash (If you wasn’t listen back here:)  I was DJing at my first ever booking. It felt brilliant.

I’ve got a long way to go in learning, and I’m going to try and learn properly because it’s really fun but I have the utmost respect to a lot of DJ’s now, it’s definitely not easy, the pressure, the tune selection, getting the mix right, it might sound simple, but it’s definitely an art, one you have to master. So big up all the DJs. I’m not trying to be a DJ as a career, it’s just loads of fun and I love music so sharing the music I love with other people is very worthwhile to me.

Last night my winning tunes were:
Young Mad B – Superfly
Cleo Sol & Davinche – Addicted
Meleka – Miss Me
Roses Gabor & Redlight – Stupid
Katy B – Katy On A Mission
P Money, True Tiger + Kelly Rowland – Commander
Jay Z – D.O.A
Beyonce – Upgrade U
Cam’rom – Hey Ma
Luniz – I Got Five On It
M.I.A – Paper Planes
Drake Ft Lil Wayne – I’m Going In

That’s all folks.

P.s prize for the person who can correctly guess how many “DJ terms” I used up there. Dun-know-the-lingo.com <http://Dun-know-the-lingo.com>

Catch me here next saturday anyway. It’s going to be wicked (believe I’m practising hard)

Toodles

x

Sarah Young explores the journey of the DJ and reports from the BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Relay world record attempt.

DJ’S are much  like art curators, in the sense that an art curators job is to select a collection of art  and position it together in the most flattering way that makes visual sense, much the same as a DJ who’s job is to take a bunch of music artists work and position it together to make it sound different, interesting, and sometimes even better.

Back in the day it always used to be that geeky dude in the glasses who spent hours in his room fiddling around with dials and playing around with vinyls. Kinda nerdy, kinda uncool. But fast forward 20 years, now everyone and their Mum wants to be a DJ.

Cool, connected, skilled and friends with just about every ultra sick, ultra talented artist out there; we are seeing DJ’s such as Radio 1Xtra and Roll Deep’s DJ Target not only reach Number 1 in the national charts but also host very successful, critically acclaimed radio shows. DJ’s are also getting involved with other high profile projects within the music and media industries such as tours, t-shirt lines and book deals – we are seeing DJ’s transforming themselves into entrepreneurs and even forming their own successful business empires.

We are also seeing a whole new enthusiastic vibe spreading throughout the industry for us female DJ’s. So with all this buzz around the profession of selection, you can imagine how a new DJ like myself felt at the prospect of attending an event on the scale of the BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Relay World Record attempt.

Arriving at  the venue at around 4 pm and the event was in full swing. The concept of the day being to make an attempt at breaking the world record for the longest beat matching session.

More than 80 UK DJS mixing one track each into the next with a perfect beat match – no scratching, no cutting, just pure beat matching. Sounds pretty simple right? I mean it shouldn’t be so hard for the selected DJ’s, to put it in perspective, these are individuals who DJ every single day and have been doing so for years, most of them are what you would call music industry veterans. Talking about veterans, not long after I arrived I got chatting with Dancehall Reggae DJ Legend Robbo Ranx, who informed me about the level of pressure each DJ was under: “Its not the actual task of beat matching that is daunting to most of the DJs here, its the fact we are playing in front of all the DJs here! There are some serious legends in the crowd, you know, arms crossed analysing your technique, its hard not to be nervous to be honest, even for the ones who have been doing this for years!”

I also got chatting to Professor Greens’ DJ, IQ who agreed:”Its a lot of pressure, and yeah we do this everyday and we only have to mix in one track, but its hard because if your the one who messes up, well that’s it! I really hope I don’t f**k it up!”

He didn’t just for the record… get it , record, get it?

ANYWAY, DJ nerves aside, and talking about records, the world record attempt was successful and in the end broken, thats not to say there wasn’t any slip ups during the process. To give you an idea of the official set up, as well as the main stage, there was a practice area and back up mix inside the venue, and apparently one DJ whilst mixing on the backup mix made a big time mistake , as he was mixing the next track in his earphones he could hear the beats were matched and it all sounded pretty perfect, but alas, he forgot to put the fader up, so all that came out of the main speakers was silence and so it all had to start again! Doh! Epic epic fail! But Robbo was right, it just shows how nerves can even get the better of the best!

The event, however, was much more than just a record attempt, it was an opportunity for like minded creative people in the industry to come together to chat, network and generally compare and contrast music, mixes, and stories.

The most interesting aspect of the event was to witness the old skool DJ’s mixing with the new skool crew. I got chatting to one fellow new school DJ, DJ Motive, who as well as being ‘nervous as hell’ told me how the UK music scene was having its moment: “This sort of event just represents what musical talent the UK has, its great to see so much talent in one area, kinda scary too!!”

He was right, every which way you looked there were UK music heroes such as Terror Danjah, MJ Cole, Wookie and Donaeo who told me how much the music industry had changed:

“It’s interesting to see all these new DJ’s and artists here, the industry was dramatically different when I began producing and mc-ing. Music changes fast, but that growth is the best part of it, change is good.”

He was right change IS good, But when some of these well known names started out in the UK music industry it was a completely different place. Grime, Garage, and UK Hip-Hop were all genres of music relatively unknown to the wider, mainstream audience. These were ‘niche/specialist’ genres which never got mainstream radio air play. BBC Radio 1Xtra didn’t even exist, so hearing this type of music was only available to individuals who knew pirate radio station frequencies or who could stay awake for late night specialist music shows.

There were no other interactive mediums to listen to these genres either, no myspace, no facebook, no twitter, no itunes, no youtube, hell, no internet!  From then to now it has been a true organic growth. Artists like Dizzee Rascal and Wiley and who were truly underground (sometimes literally e.g  making music in Jammers basement back in the early 2000′s) are now in the the Top 10 UK Charts and with urban music  saturating the market, internet and even fashion industry, these new skool DJs, artists and producers that I chatted to at the DJ relay have many more platforms to share new music , and as a result, the UK is finally receiving international recognition on a mainstream level.

But despite UK music going international, the one thing that was represented and reiterated at the BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ relay was that the UK music scene is a tight community of people who stick together, we have a strong sense of identity and ambition that never seems to falter, and we embrace new and fresh talent.

In the past few weeks we have seen Roll Deep, Tinnie Tempah and Dizzee Rascal at Number 1 in the Top 10, but it is important to remember without the new and old skool DJ’s plugging these tracks on the radio and playing them in the clubs, no one would even know about these artists and their work.  DJ’s are in no doubt the unsung heros of the music industry but for any MCs, artists, Producers and anyone directly or indirectly involved in the scene, it is a very exciting time to be in the UK music business.

For the UK music industry now, the sky is pretty much the limit, and the world is definitely our oyster, and in 2010 I think DJ’s and artists alike are ready to crank up the volume in more ways than one! Question is, are you ready?

Find Sarah  HERE!
Follow Sarah HERE

Ever since the nightmare that was Trexx and Flipside (my sincerest apologies to all for that. Life lessons learned from the experience – I have deep scars that will heal in time from it and I actually may never act again); I’ve been interested to see what the BBC would do next when it comes to comedy with an ‘urban’ edge because, lets be honest, since The Real McCoy finished in the 90′s, we haven’t had anything really decent (The Crouches anyone..?).

The real problem I found while filming T&F is that, on the broadest terms, the producers and exec producers just didn’t quite get ‘us’. Even with us (being the cast) telling them (being the producers) that a lot of the language, situations and reactions weren’t real and therefore weren’t funny, they didn’t listen and unfortunately we were left with what we were left with rather than the hilarious show we’d all signed up to do on the strength of the initial scripts.

Imagine my delight when one of my favourite comedians at the moment Rufus Hound tweeted about a new show vehicle for another one of my current favourite comedians Jason Lewis called ingeniously ‘Sniggers With Attitude’ and on the strength of the preview, seems that Jason didn’t have the same production problems we did with Trexx & Flipside.

If you’re not familiar with Jason’s hilarious work to date, just google him. His impressions of Jay-Z & Giggs alone will have you in stitches. Check out the trailer here:

Rufus Hound, Paul Whitehouse, Noel Clarke, Adam Deacon and Jason Lewis? Definitely worth a watch. Apparently it’s coming soon to BBC Comedy’s YouTube channel. Here’s hoping it gets a TV commission…

Say no more.

Alarm bells are ringing in my head after the article in The Metro on the 23rd March entitled “Being ignored online is as bad as cyber bullying”.

Did you get that? Seriously, did you understand what that headline meant? It means that if you @ your favourite artist, or your mate, or a stranger even, on Twitter and they do not reply, they are cyber-bullying you. (even typing this has got me wetting myself with laughter). If you add an old mate on Facebook, or hit someone up on HI5 and they do not reply… they’re classed as bullies!

Being the fantastic journalist that I am (hold the applause) I’m fully aware that the headline was put there to make me think the above and then read it (now clap). So in true media puppet form, I had a nosy at the article and saw (excuse my patois) a whole leap ah suttin about statistics. Bore.

Confession; I don’t think it’s a bore. I studied psychology and I think it’s the most interesting thing in the world. Sidebar: Here’s a secret (don’t tell no one obviously) but when you’re told “50% of people thought *insert product here* was the best they ever used” it’s a big fat con! They’ve asked 10 people and made sure 5 people said what they wanted to hear. And as for the 10 people,  it’s ANY 10 people! They don’t even have to be objective! They could have been 10 workers from the actual company. They could have been paid to say it… Anything! Yeah they asked 10 people, but they didn’t tell you WHAT 10 people… dur. So the statistical part turns to sleep.

Anyways – back on track. So I read the article and it seems “Those who suffered online ostracism felt their confidence and sense of belonging substantially threatened”. Recently there’s been a lot of apologies flying around social networking sites from artists regarding not being about to reply to each and every fan, which is obvious, why should they? They actually have lives (we hope). So I’m thinking, to save the state of minds of millions of kids out there, artists should all us delete their Social Networking Sites and become inaccessible again like what they used to be in the olden dates.

Make music mysterious and fun again. I remember how much I used to love actually listening to the radio to see what’s out next and watching Top Of The Pops to see the latest music. It was exciting. Now I know I can just go on Twitter and see everything and anything.

Make music exciting again. Delete social networking sites!!!

Toodles

Sian.

P.s Obviously this is a crap idea cause no one really rates the charts anymore, but I do think the artists themselves shouldn’t have social networking sites if they can’t reply to everyone. They should make like Cheryl Cole and just have a fan page!!!

I’m trying not to give a damn about Lil Kim the 2nd but it’s pretty damn hard when that’s all I’m hearing about on Twitter/Facebook/The Radio and now on the We Are Young Money album I purchased in order to drool over Lil Wayne and Drakes voices! (When I say ‘purchased’ what I really mean was downloaded from MPE via Umusic PR – thanks Shane O Neil) – Anyway, it seems as though everyone’s got some “It’s Barbie Bitch” fever and apparently it’s due to this Minaj chick.

So I YouTube her (as you do) and the first lyric I heard from her tune “Biggest Freak”, is… is… I can’t even type it, it’s too disgusting. Along with a picture of her.. wearing… more-or-less nothing and erm *ahem* sucking on a lollipop. Now can I just put it out there – I used to love those lollipops when I went to the funfair with my mates aged 16. After seeing that picture I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to look at a lollipop again in the same way. *No connotations intended*.

[**UPDATE - The photo Sian uploaded to Photobucket above is the famous Nicki Minaj does Lil' Kim on the front cover of the hardcore album legs akimbo squat so you can see her hoo hah while licking a lollipop shot you can see here - the fact that it violates Photobucket's terms of use under "unsuitable content" speaks volumes]

This is the point where I ask myself. “Is this what we’re promoting in life?” I know this is hypocritical, considering my iTunes consists of various tunes entitled “Suck Your Mum”, “I Slapped Your Girl” and “Champs and Weed”, but at least it’s UK music and at least it’s not an absolute disgrace to females all over the world. I’ve got a little cousin, who is aged 15, if she ever, and I mean ever comes home wearing a pink leotard reciting lyrics from Minajs tune “Sticks In My Bum”, then I swear on my beautiful mac laptop’s life she will be calling the NSPCC after I get my hands on her.

In the wonderful words of Bashy during an unreleased interview I had with him last week “We should all just listen to Bob Marley”. Maybe then we’d find actual love, instead of Ann Summers coupons (I mean vouchers right? See what this chick is doing to me?) then we can all hold hands under the apple tree (No Adam & Eve) and sing pretty songs about shooting the sheriff instead.

Anyway – can a Minaj fan just clear up the whole “Minaj hype” for me please and maybe give me a reason (other than to drool at her polystyrene breasts) to watch her music videos and endorse her sound.

Thanks

P.s. Remember a recent MistaJam blogpost I did where I asked you all wether female emcee Lady Leshurr is the new Nikki Minaj? I take the question back… the answer is NO. Not unless she’s looking to get her tits out, and if she is.. uhr… llow it.

Toodles

Sian xxx

Rinse.FM Sunday 11am-1pm is where you’ll find me now. Every week. Jealous? Thought so. We’re on our third show at the moment, when I say “we” I obviously mean my partner in all things non sexual, Julie Adenuga. We contacted Rinse about a year ago about getting a show but we didn’t really get anywhere. I mean we’d never really done radio before. A couple guest shows on LBC with Tre Azam and Nick Connrad and various other radio stations but we’d never actually hosted one. And DJing? Phahahaaa. As if we could DJ. So naturally we didn’t get a great response about having a show.

During the “Sian’s a rude blogger who says hilariously mean things about music on her blog” stage of my life, I was invited on BANG radio by the lovely and amazing Tahirah Edwards where myself and Loukia “HIYA”d up the place and talked all things rude boys, sex and the music industry”. Anyway blah blah blah was contacted by Scratcha DVA who hosts a hilarious morning show on Rinse FM. Smacked that up in my normal grime-rude-girl stylee and BLAM. Me and Julie get a show.

On our first show we had the experienced and mixing genius DJ JJ to support us as we hosted, Twitted, shouted out the phone number and played some exclusive grime tuneages. It was amazing fun! Our last show was on valentines day. And in true give-a-f*ck-about-valentines-day form we entered the Rinse building ready to basically take the p*ss out of the people in love.

Sidebar: How funny is this?

We’ve got a monthly playlist of amazing music, (also known as tunes that me and Julie have on our iPhones on repeat), have a look at our playlist it’s fantastic. Then we made an agony aunt section where we respond to peoples problems using tunes. It’s probably the funniest part of the show. Imagine being told your girlfriends having a baby by your twin brother and we tell you to get some nuts via “Blacks ft Jammer – Timid”. Julie made an agony aunt terms and conditions; I very nearly wet myself with laughter when I heard it.

The bottom line is; radio is fantastic. We’ve even learnt to DJ as well. Julies on vinyl and I’m on CDJ’s. Proof that if you lock myself and Julie in a room with anything we’ll have the basics on lock in under 24 hours.

P.s Grime Forum tw*ts who reckon (iQuote) “What have they done to deserve a Rinse show? there’s more deserving DJ’s”. – Get a show on Rinse and THEN holla. Thanks.

Toodles

Sian x

[Getting a show on radio and keeping it and learning the art of DJing is a lot harder than Sian makes out in this post which is essentially full of lies & more gas than Calor. Rinse don't even broadcast live between 11 & 1 on Sunday, they just tell the girls they're on air to stop them from going Tempa T in the Rinse offices. Trust me, I know - Jam]

My problem with the PC was “when I’m 20 the worlds not going to be running on a PC”, and now look. I’m running on iMovie. Pricks. I promised myself that if the next two weeks of my life weren’t spent constructively I’d go back to college. That was three years ago, and I haven’t looked back… Until now.

I’ve been thinking recently, about school, education and my journey in life.

Old friends have been updating their Facebook status’ recently about how exciting university life is and I’ve found myself wondering if it would make more sense to drop out of working life and go back to college or uni.

It’s kind of life a life path isn’t it? You go primary school, secondary school, college, uni, then you wait five years, get a highly paid job, have kids go back to work and eventually you die and get eaten by maggots, but it must be easier than being 19 and a freelancer of all things media.

I love the music and media industry, the buzz and energy is what makes it so entertaining. But the thought of being 20 years old, with no set job, is pretty scary.

I get shit loads of freelance work, enough to keep me in Ugg boots, Pauls Boutique coats and frequent nights out, but I’ve suddenly thought what happens when there’s  no freelance work left that I enjoy? I mean I’ve never had a job interview in my life yet I’ve had about 200 media related freelance jobs. Sidebar: This proves it’s definitely a lot of who you know integrated with what you know.

I’d really like to be a Psychologist. I was so good with cognitive psychology, eye witness testaments psychological theories and all of the rest of it. Believe me when I say Alan Baddeley’s proposal on ‘components of a working memory’ gave me sleepless nights for weeks on end! But now I’m wondering whether it’s even worth another five years minimum of my life to go back to education and qualify to do it and whether I’m even the type of person who can do an everyday 9-5 without the glitz, glam, goss and greatness of music-bizz.

I need inspiration people… hit me! I wanna know the ups and downs of uni, what 9-5 ish is like and whether the education being taught now is even going to help me later in life if I did decide to go back to it.

If I do go back though, I’m definitely getting rid of the secondary school hairstyle!

Toodles.

Sian x

I’m also not a strong believer in magic, or should I say I wasn’t a strong believer, not until I turned up to a mates party and met Dynamo Magician. Now we’d met before, quite a few times, and I’d seen him perform magic on more than one occasion, but they were alcohol filled occasions so I brushed off the supposed magic and put it down to what my good old mate talktofrank.com said “Alcohol will often exaggerate whatever mood you’re in when you start drinking.” This time though, I was very much so sober.

“Hold out your hands”. said Dynamo. I followed the instruction. He placed a chocolate from the christmas tree in my palm, waved his own hand across mine and the chocolate disappeared. Look, I know what you’re all thinking. “Why has MistaJam give this crazy girl access to his blog”. But seriously. I’m not lying. It definitely happened. Anyway his next comment was “Why have you got chocolate on your shoulder?” I turned – as you do, to find the chocolate perched on my shoulder. As you can imagine. I screamed. Inside I’m still screaming. It was first scary, then amazing, then exciting and now it’s just scary again!

We got chatting a bit more and he revealed he’s filming a new TV show this summer which will feature some well know faces and some incredible brand new magic. I’m petrified already. Seeing it live is one thing but on television is a completely different kettle of fish. (Or whatever the phrase is)

I’m going to admit, by this stage I needed a drink, Sidebar: drink responsibly. So I grabbed a bottle of wine and sat back down. Now the whole room was intrigued. They were all asking to see him make more magic. He casually took five lottery tickets out of his jacket pocket.

PAUSE: This is where, for me, the alarm bells totally started ringing. Who in their right mind walks around with five lottery tickets in their pockets?

He showed us all five, folded them in half and as he turned them, they were suddenly £20 notes. Can I just put it out there again. I AM NOT CRAZY. About 10 other people witnessed this too! Then he put them back in his pocket, casually and leaned back in his chair.

When asked when he thinks of David Blaine, his good friend and comedian Jamie Howard replied, “He put him in a box”. I  swear to you I haven’t laughed that much since John and Edward performed Oops I Did It Again on X Factor.

Have a look at his showreel anyway, he made actress Lindsay Lohan levitate and pulled a chain out of his neck in front of N.E.R.D member Pharrell.

Follow him on Twitter HERE to keep up with the crazy things he does. You will be amazed, honestly, cause I, a former non magic believer, was left stunned!!

Toodles

Sian x