Having left his radio show on Kiss FM in March 2014 to work on his own KeepinItGrimy site, as well as maintaining a 60 minute slot on the radio during MistaJam’s BBC 1Xtra show, Matt Tarr caught up with legendary grime DJ Logan Sama to talk about the past 10 months and what we can expect from him in 2015 and beyond…
About his radio show on Kiss FM…
Logan: It was the only dedicated grime show on mainstream radio. It was the highest rated show of that type and had the most social interaction. Obviously the video content we were doing was of a very high standard and the views were very high as well. There’s a notable absence of a dedicated grime show on mainstream radio now. Cameo does the UKG show, Charlie Sloth does the UK rap show, Target does a homegrown show and obviously MistaJam does his show as well, but they all play across the board. Obviously Spyro has the grime show and that’s brilliant; it’s a great show and Spyro is a legend who’s been on Rinse for ten years or something like that now. But there is a notable absence on the BBC, Kiss, Capital or whatever and I think the music warrants a show.
On what he’s been up to since leaving Kiss…
Logan: No one has offered me anything since I left my Kiss show. But it is what it is. I’ve been interested in the multimedia stuff cos I feel that’s an important platform. Releasing music is a lot different now than it used to be; it’s more of a long term project. How my label used to work was that I’d find a track from an artist that I like that they had no plans to release and I’d get that out as a one off thing, but thats not really beneficial for anyone these days. Unless you’re working with an artist in an all round situation with management and live and all that sort of stuff, putting out one track is more of a hobby, plus the artists are more than capable of getting stuff out themselves now anyway. So I’ve been working on my web portal.
On the upcoming launch of his updated Keepin It Grimy website…
Logan: The Keeping It Grimy brand is something that I set up in 2008 and it mainly focused on the YouTube channel really. Obviously it’s got roots in bringing grime to a wider audience via a multimedia platform already. I’ve always felt that there’s been a lack of aggregated news, updates and information for grime, not just for the fans, but for people who may have an interest in grime but might not know where to go to find out about it. So really I just wanted to create a website that you can go on and find out what’s been going on in the grime scene, be it this week, this month, this year, or throughout an artist’s career, all that sort of stuff. Those are the sort of things that we really want to focus on; getting all the information out there to a wider audience in an organised and structured way.
What the site will feature and how it will help change perceptions…
Logan: One of the problems about not having as much mainstream coverage of the scene is that there is coverage of singles and specific artists but there’s not really that mainstream scene coverage that you used to have from my show on Kiss, for example, as a dedicated platform. So for me it’s important to give people that access in an easy to digest way. We’re looking at putting together well produced pieces and insightful pieces that really reflect the artistry of the people that make this music. I still feel there’s a problem in terms of the perception of MC based music in general in this country and the lack of respect that these artists receive for their spoken word work. I feel there is still a lot of ignorance among British people of the skill and artistry of MCing. It’s still very stereotypical and we still have the sort of Ali G image of people that rap or spit bars and it’s not respected on the same level as a band or a singer maybe. I feel that by putting out well produced content that expresses that side of things and shows what these people are doing on a day to day basis will help change the perception.
Inspiring the next generation of MC’s…
Another thing I wanna do is show the kids that are getting into this that there are avenues for them to make the music they wanna make and actually do alright from it. This unrealistic expectation of being a millionaire from music, for example, a handful of artists can only ever attain. But for kids off the estate to earn approaching a six figure income a year from doing something you love is more than most people can dream of in this day and age and I want to show people that that is attainable. There’s not enough examples of successful independent artists and obviously JME is a shining example and there are more and more coming through and we want to use those artists that are really laying the blueprint down for the next generation of artists to come through and work independently, understand their revenue streams, understand how they can earn a living make the music they wanna make rather than having to really accommodate a different audience by changing their artistic vision.
What else we can expect from Logan in 2015…
Logan: I’m really running with the Keepin It Grimy brand; it just does exactly what it says on the tin and it’s what I’ve always done. In the twelve years that I’ve been on radio, I’ve always done that and you know what you’re gonna get from me, whereas when grime might not be as fashionable or as profitable for people and they’ve strayed off, you know Logan Sama has always kept it grimy and that’s what the website is about. It’s about showcasing the scene. It’s not about me, it’s not logansama.com, it’s keepinitgrimey.com, it’s about the scene, the culture and the music. I wanna do as many interesting projects off the back of that as possible.
Make sure you check out the new site once it launches, but in the meantime make sure you follow Logan Sama on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news and information directly from the man himself.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Photo courtesy of David Townhill.
Matt Tarr
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