Ras Kwame
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Ras Kwame started in the music industry as a club DJ playing hip hop, RnB and reggae in the early nineties. He then moved on to promoting for Kiss 100's groundbreaking Starlight Club night and the Mean Fiddler’s Subterranea club, bringing over talent from the US and promoting local talent. The Subterranea gigs saw Kwame take control of the turntables for artists such as Gang Starr, Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, The London Posse and the Fugees. During that time, Ras also undertook remix work for Chante Moore, George McCrae and the 49ers.
Kwame founded West London’s Sugar Shack record shop in 1993 and from 1994-2000 he had formed Baby Shack Recordings and his UK Garage production outfit M-Dubs. As a garage producer, Kwame made several innovative underground club anthems for the flourishing UKG scene, such as ‘Over Here’ featuring Ritchie Dan, ‘Bump and Grind’ featuring Lady Saw and the underground smash ‘Body Killin’ by The Vincent Alvis Project. In 2001, Kwame launched the International Rude Bwoy Recordings operation, the label maintains a UK black music output with a variety of styles ranging from hip hop to garage.
Ras Kwame joined BBC 1Xtra at launch in 2002 with the 100% Homegrown show every Sunday evening. The show is dedicated to the sound of UK black music and has provided a live platform for talent and given major support to new acts like Lethal B, Skinnyman and Estelle.
In 2004 Kwame won Best Radio DJ at the Urban Music Awards and started a new music show called Showtime with Ras Kwame on Channel U.
In February 2005, Ras Kwame was brought into BBC Radio 1 to host one of the three OneMusic shows that succeeded the John Peel slot. The other OneMusic hosts were Rob da Bank and Huw Stephens. Kwame's show now goes out live every Tuesday night at 2am-4am on BBC Radio 1 and on Sundays from 5pm-7pm on 1Xtra BBC.
