Jamal Edwards ... the Acton kid and his media empire

High ambition: "I'm more than just grime," says Jamal Edwards. "I'm into music in general, entertainment, fashion, sport -everything about the youth lifestyle"
Rajvir Rai10 April 2012

Jamal Edwards was once late to meet Richard Branson, so it is hardly surprising he is not on time to meet me or, worse, more than four hours late meeting the photographer. "Sorry man, I was bare drunk last night. It was Ed Sheeran's album launch party yesterday. Everyone was there, Wretch 32, Pixie Lott, it was mad," he says casually upon arrival.

Eating a Greggs pizza and holding a bottle of Ribena, Jamal doesn't look like the CEO of a company that has turned over £110,000 so far this year. Then again, he is only 21.

In six years he has gone from filming foxes in his back garden to interviewing stars like Kelly Rowland, Bruno Mars, Nicki Minaj and Jessie J.
With 67 million YouTube hits, 100,000 channel subscribers, nearly 84,000 Facebook "likes" and more than 41,000 Twitter followers, SB.TV (Smokey Bars was his rapping name), the online broadcast company Jamal established five years ago, is now a major industry force and its founder is one of Britain's hottest young entrepreneurs.

Increasingly he is also one of its most politicised. On Monday he met Prime Minister David Cameron for a second time as a Spirit of London Ambassador. "Cameron is cool. I had a lot more to say to him this year. I don't think he sees what is happening, he doesn't walk down Tottenham High Road, in Acton or around the estates he is cutting money from. I want to be that link from the youth to him because he has maybe got some people around him who don't know what they are talking about. They may say stuff but they have never lived there."

Jamal can count Labour leader Ed Miliband as a Twitter follower and was one of "20 influential adults" - alongside deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats Simon Hughes, MP Tim Loughton and lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone - invited by Radio 1 last week to debate the impact of the summer riots with 70 young people.

A founding principle of SB.TV was to give young people a platform to voice their opinions, and Jamal says in light of recent events the response has been phenomenal. A recurring theme is bewilderment at funding cuts for local youth clubs. "Every day I had something to do: quadbiking one day, paintballing another, go-karting, cinema, adventure playground. Is it too much to keep them open compared to the amount of money lost in the riots? They keep kids off the street and I know that for a fact."

He is hoping that by adding politics to his ever-widening repertoire of skills, he will finally lose the tag "Grime's Simon Cowell".

"Simon is wicked, man. I showed him SB.TV and he was like 'that is amazing' which inspires me to keep going, but I'm more than just grime," he says. "I'm into music in general, entertainment, fashion, sport - everything about the youth lifestyle."

Earlier this year Jamal signed deals with Sony RCA making him CEO of his own music company, Just Jam Records, and the New Era Cap Company, to release two SB.TV styled hats and become its first and only European flagbearer. His US counterparts include hip-hop group N*E*R*D and a host of Major League Baseball stars.

Google Chrome, the third largest web browser in the world, captured his rise to fame in a new 90-second advert that premiered during the launch of this year's X Factor last month. The SB.TV site subsequently crashed as close to a million people googled "Jamal Edwards".

"They had just done adverts with Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga and wanted to do one which was more urban," he explains. "Five minutes before it aired, I was like 'Oh my God'. Something like 12.3 million people watched it. That was one of my proudest moments, like ever."

Although, if a venture with Richard Branson, whom he met a few months ago after being voted a Virgin Media Pioneer, becomes reality, that will be his most profitable achievement.

All this from a kid who grew upon on a South Acton estate in west London and gained just six GCSEs - including three D grades and one E. He went on to complete a national diploma in moving image media production at Ealing College, where he was threatened with expulsion more than once.

Jamal admits his childhood was tough, made all the harder by not knowing his father. He has developed a good relationship with his stepfather, however, who moved in with mum Brenda and younger sister Tanisha when he was six.

"One day someone from school got killed so we didn't have to go in. My teachers used to say, 'You are only going to work in Safeways', and it just made me want to prove them wrong."

He still lives in Acton with his family but on a different estate and he is quick to credit Brenda, who came fourth on the second series of X Factor in 2005, as one of his inspirations. Just as rapidly he dismisses claims his success is down to her contacts. "My mum didn't give me any links, she doesn't know Skepta [a UK grime artist who has featured on SB.TV] and that, I got those links myself."

His career began when he got a camera for Christmas at 15. "I was filming things like foxes in my garden - I thought I was Steve Irwin. I uploaded it to YouTube and got 1,000 views and was like rah I could do something here, so I went on my estate and filmed local rappers.

"I started sneaking into raves to get bigger acts and messaging record labels to get interview time with their artists, but back then it was hard as they were like 'You are an urban channel, we don't want our artist to be associated with that'. I wasn't earning money either, so I worked in Topman for four years until I was 18 or 19. But I was filming because it was my passion."

For the channel to take off he had to bring in a wider crowd, and Jamal's big break came when he scored his first non- grime interview with Kelly Rowland. "From there I got Trey Songs and Bruno Mars and used that when approaching other people saying 'I got these guys, why can't your act do it too?'"

The company has morphed from a one-man guerrilla operation into a 10-strong professional outfit funded by online adverts and charging people to shoot videos. It is based in Mornington Crescent, down the road from MTV, to whom Jamal says "better watch out".

"In every area we are in I want to be in the top 10, at least. So in clothing there is adidas, Puma, Nike and I want SB.TV in that list too. In broadcasting, MTV, ITV, BBC and SB.TV too. I want to challenge all the top brands."

Alongside plans to expand to New York, Jamal, whose indulgence is Thomas Sabo jewellery, has hopes for his record label and believes its first artist, east London MC Maxsta, will be as big as Mobo-winning Tinie Tempah. Yet what most excites him is inspiring young people, which he plans to do through school workshops. "I want to tell them you only live once and not to be afraid to get told no."

He wants to take subscription to SB.TV from 100,000 to one million.

A goal too far perhaps? "The word impossible is not in my dictionary," he says, so authoritatively it's easy to see why he is becoming as big a star in his own right as those on the other side of his camera.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in