 | It has been suggested that this article be merged with Lex Johnson . (Discuss) Proposed since December 2023. |
Vector Meldrew is a British artist and creative executive. He was a former lecturer at the Swedish design institute Hyper Island, and the creator of grime website RWD Magazine, as well as the associated RWD Forum. He is an established crypto artist and has auctioned his work at Bonhams. [1] [2]
In 2001, Vector became founding member of RWD magazine created to push UK garage, grime and dubstep, and RWD became the first platform to champion grime music and feature UK artists Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Tinchy Stryder. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
During this period the website received London Business of the Year, UK Garage Awards : Best Website 2002 and Sidewinder Peoples Choice Awards : Best Magazine 2003 "Ernst & Young Future 100" Award in 2011. [8]
Channel U commissioned Vector's first animation series working in collaboration with Matt Mason (writer) and Julian Johnson (Art). Taking hints from underground music culture and the intersection between UK Garage and Grime, the 3 episode web series [9] was shortly co-signed by Missy Elliott after her PR team asked to feature the artist as part of the campaign for her hit single 'Work It'. [10] [11] [12] The series then acquired a 6-episode deal on Channel U [13] (now named Total Country) and recorded a music video with UK Garage producer 'Sticky' [14] [15] known for hits such as Ms Dynamite's track (also named) 'Boo'. Music publication Ransom Note cited the series as the first 'grime comedy' saying it was 'essentially a proto(type) version of People Just Do Nothing" [16]
Vector worked as a motion graphics director with video game developer Eurocom , commissioned by Activision to work with the James Bond franchise to develop GoldenEye 007 and 007 Legends . [17]
From 2009 to 2013 Vector worked as a freelance consultant providing strategy for various fashion brands [18] creating campaigns such as the 'adidas About to Blow London Olympics 2012' campaign featuring Tinie Tempah and Mo Farah. [19] He created a handful of films entitled 'Monotone' 'Monkey Business' and 'Do Not Feed The Horses'. Screenings include : AniFest, Resfest, British Film Council and Channel Frederator [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] The business school Hyper Island recruited Vector between 2014–2017 to teach 'storytelling' to the motion creative course in Stockholm/Karlskrona. [25]
Vector was responsible for design collaborations with dubstep / techno artists such as Appleblim, Headhunter, Pinch, Komonazmuk, Joker (Kapsize) and 2562.[ citation needed ] The most notable being an Audio Visual live show with Headhunter (Tempa) now called Addison Groove. [26] [27] He also directed music videos for Appleblim and Addison Groove. [28] [29] The most notable was 'Changa' which premiered on the Adult Swim YouTube Channel [30] and gained official selection status and was nominated for awards at Aesthetica, London Short Film Festival, Berlin Music Video Awards, The Smalls, Stockholm Independent Film Festival. [31] His work has been mentioned in books including: Dubstep Graphics [32] [33] and Contemporary Colour Theory. [34] [35] Artwork has been featured in Vice [36] Adult Swim [37] Tech Crunch [38] and includes collaborations with musician Tinie Tempah. [39]
In 2021 this led to an auction at Bonhams [40] [41] As part of a (now known to be fake) art residency created by some traditional art world grifters. [42] [43] He also launched a street art treasure hunt to for an art activity during the pandemic [44] [45] [46] Art auctioneer Simon De Pury described the residency on a podcast with ArtNet. [47] On April 5, 2022, Vector appeared on the popular talk show Waxing Lyrical, with fellow NFT legend Waxbones.
UK rap, also known as British hip hop or UK hip hop, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/Hip-Hop. British hip hop can also be referred to as Brit-hop, a term coined and popularised mainly by British Vogue magazine and the BBC. British hip hop was originally influenced by the dub/toasting introduced to the United Kingdom by Jamaican migrants in the 1950s–70s, who eventually developed uniquely influenced rapping in order to match the rhythm of the ever-increasing pace and aggression of Jamaican-influenced dub in the UK. Toasting and soundsystem cultures were also influential in genres outside of hip hop that still included rapping – such as grime, jungle, and UK garage.
Now 70s is a British free-to-air music television channel, owned by All Around the World Productions, available through Sky UK, Freeview and Virgin Media within the UK. It focuses on music from the 1970s, being the third decade-oriented channel in the Now portfolio, along with Now 80s and Now 90s.
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken beat, grime, and drum and bass. In the United Kingdom, the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s.
RWD Magazine is a British-based magazine which features music, style, sport, gaming, film, technology, news, interviews and charts on hip hop, grime, dubstep, R&B, UK garage, drum and bass and U.S. house music. Running from 2001–2014 It was released monthly, distributing 98,300 copies each time and was ABC certified. It was considered the largest magazine on youth music and lifestyle in the United Kingdom.
Chris Reed, also known as Plastician, is an electronic musician from Thornton Heath in the London Borough of Croydon.
Jahmaal Noel Fyffe, better known by his stage name Chip, is a British rapper and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. In the past 14 years he has collaborated with the likes of Skepta, T.I., Meek Mill, Young Adz and many others. In 2009, he released his debut album, I Am Chipmunk, featuring four songs which peaked in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, including the chart-topping "Oopsy Daisy". In 2011, Chipmunk released his follow-up album, the American hip hop-influenced Transition. It included the single "Champion" featuring Chris Brown, which peaked at #2 on the UK Singles Chart.
Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu, better known by his stage name Tinie, is a British rapper and singer. He has been signed to Parlophone since 2009, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his own entertainment company Disturbing London in 2006, along with his cousin Dumi Oburota.
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 21st century continued to expand and develop new subgenres and fusions. While talent show contestants were one of the major forces in pop music, British soul maintained and even extended its high-profile with figures like Joss Stone, Estelle, Duffy and Adele, while a new group of singer-songwriters led by Amy Winehouse and Westlife achieved international success. New forms of dance music emerged, including grime and dubstep. There was also a revival of garage rock and post-punk, which when mixed with electronic music produced new rave.
"Pow 2011" is a song by grime MC Lethal Bizzle, featuring fellow grime artists Jme, Wiley, Chipmunk, Face, P Money, Ghetts and Kano – who are usually credited as 'Grime All Stars'. The song is a sequel of Lethal Bizzle's hit single "Pow! (Forward)" which was released in 2004. "Pow 2011" was released as a single on 6 February 2011 for digital download and was produced by Teddy, also known as Silencer. It was the first single from Bizzle's compilation album, Best of Bizzle. Soccer AM used the song for the background music to a part of the show called "Frimponged".
"R.I.P." is a song by English singer Rita Ora featuring British rapper Tinie Tempah from her debut studio album, Ora (2012). The song was written by Aubrey Graham (Drake), F. Samadzada, Mikkel Eriksen, Nneka Egbuna, Renee Wisdom, Saul Milton, Tinie Tempah, Tor Erik Hermansen and William Kennard, and produced by Chase & Status and Stargate. It was released as the second single from the album for digital download and streaming by Columbia and Roc Nation in various countries on 6 May 2012. Sampling Chase & Status' remix of Nneka's "Heartbeat" (2008), it is a dubstep and pop song, incorporating R&B, rave and rock elements. Its lyrics are an ode to a lost love and the process to overcome that situation.
Isra Andja-Diumi Lohata, better known as Wizzy Wow, is a songwriter, musician and music-producer under the Renowned Label. He is responsible for such songs as Chipmunk's "Role Model" off the platinum-selling debut album "I Am Chipmunk", Wretch 32's "Never Be Me" featuring Angel from gold-certified "Black and White", Tinie Tempah's "Lucky Cunt" featuring Big Sean off the "Happy Birthday mixtape", Chrisette Michele's "Cherades" featuring 2 Chainz and Taio Cruz's "Dirty Picture" featuring Ke$ha. Other artists he has produced for include Estelle, Roll Deep, Boy Better Know, Mz Bratt and Kano.
Youngers is a British comedy drama series created by Benjamin Kuffuor and Levi David Addai. It began airing on E4 on 20 March 2013. It is produced by Big Talk Productions. The series has been picked up for international distribution by BBC Worldwide.
Raoul Lionel Chen, better known as Diztortion, is a Dutch-born songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with the UK artists Stylo G, Lethal Bizzle, Tinie Tempah and Sigma.
Matt Mason is an English author and creative executive. He is the former chief content officer for BitTorrent Inc. and studio head at 1-800-N0TH1NG, an innovation lab financed by Sony Pictures Entertainment. He is the author of The Pirate's Dilemma and the founding editor-in-chief of RWD Magazine. He has written for VICE, The Observer, Complex, and other publications in more than twenty countries.
Channel U was a British digital satellite TV music channel that focused on the British grime scene which ran from February 2003 to June 2018.
Tony Williams, better known as Addison Groove, is an electronic music artist from Bristol, United Kingdom. Noted for his fusion of styles such as Techno, Jungle, Soul, Juke and Dubstep, he released his first album 'Nomad' on Tempa in 2008.
The Booo Krooo started life as a comic strip and then turned into a web-series and then a UK adult animated sitcom created by Matt Mason, Alex Donne Johnson and Julian Johnson for the now defunct British TV network Channel U . The series follows the mis-adventures of three up-and-coming grime/rap MCs who are constantly trying to find ways to get famous, get girls or save the world.
Lex Johnson is a British designer, director and creative executive. He is the founder of creative agency DAZZLE SHIP, a former lecturer at Swedish design institute Hyper Island, and the founding online director of RWD magazine and RWD Forum.
GRM Daily, formerly Grime Daily, is a British urban music outlet and entertainment platform. As the name suggests, the platform is an outlet for UK rap and its various genres, such as UK drill, afroswing, trap, and British hip hop. The platform also serves electronic genres such as UK garage and grime.
Sticky is a UK garage DJ and producer. He is best known for his 2001 hit "Booo!" featuring Ms. Dynamite, which peaked at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the UK Dance Singles Chart, and for the tracks "Triplets" and "Things We Do" featuring Kele Le Roc.
