I’m Jade Zoe and this is Keys To The City.
We’re here to show you London,
a city that’s well-known as one of the
creative capitals of the world
and to find out more about
its constant hustle, effortless cool,
and endless opportunity.
We’ll be linking up with some locals
to help us uncover the amazing fashion,
food, music and culture that the city
has to offer and to find out all the
reasons why so many people flock here.
First up, we connect with award-winning
R&B singer RAY BLK at a vintage store
in East London’s Brick Lane.
You're the winner of BBC's Sound of 2017,
how did it feel winning that?
Yeah it was great, it was a surprise to me
And it was an incredible feeling.
It was that moment where it felt like
hard work had paid off.
It's a crazy alumni to be a part of.
But it just makes me
more excited, because at the time
when those artists also won the award
like Adele, Jessie J they were still
just starting.
So they saw some potential in them to
become the global stars that they have.
How do you think the fashion in London
represents the culture and the lifestyle?
Just effortless, it's just naturally cool.
People from London, we're very relaxed
and we're not over the top.
I think that's the same with our fashion.
Where we can be stylish but it doesn't
need to be garish or really in your face.
And that's just how we are,
British people, where we're a bit quieter,
we're a bit more reserved and I think
you see that in our London fashion.
You've mentioned your songs tend to be
about women, confidence and strength.
How important do you think it is
that women have songs like that?
I think very important, music has such a
big influence on people's lives I think,
and for so many people music is a source
of enrichment, or makes them feel better,
or gives them strength, or helps them
get over a break up.
I think it's important to have strong
positive messages for women.
Next, we meet up with Kitty Cowell,
a stylist and co-founder of blog
The Unisex Mode.
We hit Sneakersnstuff on
Shoreditch High Street, to talk about
London’s unique style and how to
make it in the city.
What do you think of fashion
as a way to express yourself?
I mean it’s the only way I know how.
I’m dyslexic, really really dyslexic,
so my way of expressing myself has
always been artistic or creative in
some way or form.
And growing up in the middle of nowhere
in the countryside I was nowhere near
cool shops.
So, I used to customise everything.
I used to rip up my jeans, spray paint
them, screen print t-shirts, so it’s a
massive part of showing who I am.
And where do you see style and fashion
going in the future?
It’s a bit like a massive school where
you’ve got the punk rockers and the
skaters, and you’ve got the fashionistas
who are very prim and proper, and you’ve
got streetwear kids and sneaker heads.
Where that all used to be very separated,
I have friends that just listen to
heavy metal, you wouldn’t have seen them
dead in anything but a pair of Dr. Martens
or Vans.
That was their life, but they’ve
really really gotten into sneaker culture
because Vans and Dr. Martens have
collaborated with those brands which has
made that scene interested in
another scene.
There’s so many creative people in London
what do you think it is about London
that produces them or attracts them to
come to this city?
There are two things. With London people
come here because they like opportunity,
it's the biggest city,
the most exciting city,
it's the capital, everybody comes
here to find a job. Personally,
the reason I had to is because my job
doesn't exist elsewhere.
Being a fashion stylist I had to be here.
There's no way out.
If you're moving here you've got
that really high rent to deal with,
meeting new people, trying to get that job
and if it's creative everybody wants that
job that you're after.
If you're not nice, kind, honest,
people will realise that in two minutes
in London, and at the same time
you've just gotta be strong and know
what you're after and go out and get it.
In Shoreditch, we catch up with Lilo Blues
and Jessy Rose from Irish rap group
Hare Squead to discuss their origins,
and what draws them to a city like London.
You met Jessy and Tony over the internet
and you guys kind of started making music
over Facetime, can you tell me how that
happened and how you
brought the band together?
I knew of Jesse through Facebook
because he used to put up covers and I
used to put up rap covers as well.
The music scene in Dublin is pretty small
so everybody knows each other.
One day we were in town and then
we bumped into each other and I was like
“oh, you're that guy who puts up covers”
and he was like “you're that guy” and we
started making music from there.
We're from Ireland, so Ireland is formerly
known for shamrocks and leprechauns,
but we're black people from Ireland.
That in itself is already a cultural shock
We're first generation Irish people.
A lot of first generation Irish people are
bringing something new to the country.
I feel like we've been sponges and we've
soaked in a lot of different places.
We randomly know the Florida scene,
and I probably know one or two artists
from Australia and a couple in the UK,
and then Congo, Nigeria, just everywhere.
We're not from any of these specific
scenes and our places doesn't have a real
kind of you know.
So it's kind of just bubbling.
Do you think there are more opportunities
in London than there are back home?
There's opportunity at home, but to do
what we're trying to do you have to
go everywhere.
You can't just limit yourself to London,
you can't limit yourself to New York,
or Australia.
You’ve got to be everywhere man.
Next, we take the tube to Brixton, and
meet up with rapper Ty to check out the
records at Lion Vibes in Brixton Village.
Ty we're in Brixton and you've taken me
to this record store, can you tell me why
you took us to this record store?
This is the mighty Lion Vibes, it's become
the hub of somewhere to come if you're
an aficionado about reggae.
I'm a Brixtonite born and bred, so I love
the feel that I get when I'm in these type
of establishments that celebrate
reggae culture, black culture.
And they celebrate unapologetically,
it doesn't matter where you come from,
we love what we love, so we listen to it.
And this is a spot that people come
to get that.
The music scene in Brixton is always
part and parcel of more.
People live here and make music.
Basement Jaxx's studio is down the road.
Section Boyz all are from the Manor,
from the area.
Giggs is from down the road, Peckham.
Brixton is one of those places
where you're very likely to see an aunty
shopping, as well as to see a superstar
walking around having coffee.
It's that type of place.
Moving on, Brixtonite and Soca MC
Trinigladiata takes us to Fish Wings and
Tings to talk Notting Hill Carnival,
and London’s Caribbean connection.
A lot of people would know it for
Caribbean food and of course we've come
here to a Caribbean spot, but nowadays
it's everything you can think of.
And it's almost become a food destination
as well, a lot of people would come say
“yo, we’re gonna go to Brixton”,
you can get anything you want,
eat whatever you want and then,
go out and party and so on as well.
It's sort of a good hub for us, where
you know you say, Fish, Wings and Tings,
Friday at 7 o'clock, even though most
people would arrive 8, 8:30 even though
you say 7.
But you know that's the spot to meet,
eat, chill, relax or lime as we
say in Trinidad, which is to hang out,
to lime is to hang out, to come and lime,
have some rum and then move
on to whatever's next.
Carnival is the last Bank holiday
weekend of August.
It's one of the biggest parties
you've ever seen and it's actually
a free party, so you know,
a lot of festivals in Oz, I've been to
quite a few or wherever, you need to
pay a big fee to go see all these people.
but in Notting Hill Carnival it's just
in the streets.
And that's where it started from,
a street party, block parties
carnival parades, soca parades.
So you can see everybody from the biggest
soca artists, to people like Craig David
and Shy FX, to BBK,
to whoever else is around,
in the heart of West London for free.
Carnival is the most, it's one of the most
fun occasions you can have as an artist
because I remember coming when I was 16
16, 17, and Rewind was just starting off.
So I came to carnival with my mates,
we'd driven up, I was in the middle
of the crowd, found one of the biggest
sound systems, with huge speakers towering
up into the sky.
We're there just chilling and vibing,
and then next thing the DJ plays
♪ "enter selecta" ♪
and it goes into Rewind.
and we're looking at each other
and we're gassed.
And then we're looking around, there was
so many people, hardest guys turning up,
beautiful girls all singing
♪ “Craig David all over your…” ♪
I'm standing there like, I'm just gassed,
this is mad.
And then I never got the opportunity to do
Carnival until about 2 or 3 years ago when
Shy FX asked me to come to his stage
and I was like, I actually feel like
I'm that kid again.
And I play Rewind as my first tune,
and to see the people go off, I was like
one minute I was back in the crowd,
and then I was back DJing,
and it was unbelievable.
How does London bring out your creativity?
London has this ability of meshing
different sounds and styles together,
so when I grew up I was listening to
drum & bass, jungle really, which was
more kind of dancehall, then drum & bass
And then if you listen to grime music
that's going on now, because of the tempos
of grime being at 140 bpm, really
it's like halftime, 70bpm, is gonna be
a trap tune.
So, then you're seeing why there's a real
connection between trap artists.
You're seeing like say Drake and Giggs
hooking up because they can work on
the same record together, because it
feels natural.
And I think that's what I love, because
everyone's like, you know what,
if you wanna throw a little dancehall
in the middle of a grime tune,
it's ok, there's like no barriers.
London brings out that grit. It's real.
I mean Miami is beautiful to live,
you wanna enjoy the palm trees
enjoy the sun and the beach
don't get me wrong my home is still there
but London it's about, are you about this?
I wanna see the lighter crew.
I wanna see the gun finger crew.
I wanna see people are just mosh pitting.
It's a different kind of feel than what I
experienced when I was in a hot climate
because I felt like musically I became
a little bit lethargic, a little bit slow
about things.
Here it's fast paced, are you coming?
Are you jumping on the train?
because the train's leaving...are you?
But the way I'm going on with things
at the moment, it's like man's the
conductor, the driver of the train
and the ticket collector,
so my train is going.
To finish up one of the forefathers
of grime, Lethal Bizzle, joins us over
some jerk chicken at Cotton’s Rum Shack
to talk about how the UK music scene
has changed in his time in the game.
I feel maybe grime's been at the forefront
maybe the longest in terms of just the
identity of the artists and their success.
You know, now we've got Stormzy,
who's here and he's killing it.
There's just so much creative people here
and I think we're so much appreciative
to new sounds, from jungle to drum & bass,
to garage which formed into grime
then dubstep came in – which I feel was
just a cousin of grime.
And now we've got this afroswing vibe,
I don't know what they want to call it,
afrobeats, afroswing, what a J Hus is,
and that will evolve into something else,
and I just think maybe it's
the different cultures.
Obviously London's a multicultural place
so everyone just wants to hustle,
and I think now more importantly
there's examples of what your hustle
can achieve.
Where I think before when we was doing it
we was shooting in the dark, because me,
Wiley, Dizzee, Kano, even when I started
Skepta wasn't even a rapper.
Skepta was a DJ when I started, he used to
DJ for JME.
Like I said we didn't really know how far
this thing could go, so we were just
having fun, enjoying it, seeing how far
it would take us.
But now people like Stormzy can look
and be like “rah, look at Dizzy or look at
Bizzle or look at Wiley or look at Skepta”
There is a career in this now, so I think
it's just gonna keep evolving.
With one busy day in London down, we look
ahead to exploring the bustling city
even further with the help of Lady Leshurr
DJ Semtex, Lotto Boyzz and more
in the next episode of Keys To The City.