Honestly, I actually think that Tim Westwood is an alright bloke. As Pharrell Williams said, “the people who don’t know him don’t know nothing. F*** them: everyone else get your shit together”. For Insight.
As well as coining phrases like “that rust game is intense!” on his Pimp My Ride UK show, Tim is one of this country’s finest, most passionate, experienced, committed and respected DJs in Britain. Radio 1’s longest-standing DJ, he has been Hip Hop’s most passionate propagandist since he was DJing at the Gossip club in the early 80s and helping to launch Kiss FM in its days as a pirate radio station, a time when Hip Hop was written off as fad. Tim has never just stood at the sidelines of the culture, though: he organized early Def Jam stars like Beastie Boys’ UK tours, sold over 2m albums and has teaches young offenders at Feltham prison how to control the ones and twos. That’s something you don’t see Steve Lamacq doing.
It is this, and his infectious, school-boy enthusiasm for rap music in all its forms that has earned him the praise of the rap community – Hip Hop Connection Magazine (who know a thing or two about this) have voted him Best Radio DJ every year since 1992, and everyone from 50 Cent to Pharrell Williams, who once said “The people who don’t know him don’t know nothing. Fuck them: everyone else get your shit together,” to Pete Rock, who called Tim “A Hip Hop brother,” count him as a mate. You ever laughed at him for “talking like a rapper”? He talks like that because he’s been hanging about with rappers for 25 years. He’s in town for the Brighton City Festival, and as Snoop Dogg recently pointed out “you can can’t come to the kingdom and not see the prince.” Yet again, we couldn’t agree more with the Doggfather, so Insight chatted to a surprisingly humble and mild mannered Tim Westwood the other week. Big Things!
So you’re coming to Brighton in October? Yeah man, I’ve been down Brighton a lot. Used to play at – what was that spot called? – the Zap Club. People are really good there, they wanna party, people love the magazine they know what time.
You were with Hip Hop since the early days, weren’t you? Yeah, man! I got into it when I heard Rapper’s Delight by Sugarhill in ’79. Back then, man, it was just fun music, party music you know. I was working a club called Gossip back then, the time of Spoony Rap, Cold Crush and all that. You could really identify with the records – you could just see the power of the music then. It was street music, party music. Dancing, breakdancing was real big then. A lot of people really knew about it – it was big.
How has Hip Hop changed since then? It’s the most dominant youth culture on the planet now. It has its own sneakers, fashion lines, culture, everything. When it becomes “the voice of youth” you know that it has its own responsibilities as well.
Is this where your work with the young offenders comes in? Yeah… I mean that’s no big thing at all; everyone does something like that. [pause] I mean, it’s such a phenomenal blessing to work in the game that – I’ve been blessed, you know? – you’ve got to pass some of what you’ve learned along. Hip hop has that duty built into it though – everyone is involved with community projects, rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. It’s community music, so the players are community aware.
Your father was Bishop of Peterborough, and you’ve previously talked about how proud you both (as self-made men) are of each other; and you seem to hold very strict morals. Isn’t it ironic that you work with what is seen as a very amoral or immoral music, yet you don’t drink or take drugs, and you don’t allow profanity on the air? I hope there is a moral obligation there – my father’s a very good man. But many players in the game don’t drink or blaze either. Funkmaster Flex was something of a mentor to me, and he doesn’t touch that: he is that focused. A lot of artists don’t party though. Time was when you’d be able to do all that, smoke weed, drink, you know, but now the work is so crazy hard that if you were out late you just couldn’t handle it.
What’s on the horizon for Hip Hop? Hip Hop right now is very creative, but records just ain’t selling. Time was when, with all the Kanye / 50 thing going down, [Kanye West and 50 Cent recently went head-head, both releasing their albums on the same day. Kanye West “won”] their records would have done millions but now the struggle to sell a tenth of that. Still the creative energy is there. At the most we’re in a real party Hip Hop phase – it’s all very Dirrty South at the moment. It is always moving forward this culture.
Tim Westwood plays the Brighton City Festival on the 25th October. The Festival will be held at various venues around town. Tickets £15. brightoncityfestival.com
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