True to form, DJ Semtex tells it straight and tells it real: hip hop raised him. It’s the music, the culture, that spoke to him as a kid in Manchester.

As he once wrote: “It’s the most exciting, innovative, living, breathing art form: it inspired me to do what I do today. It plugged gaps in the education system, inspired my creative and entrepreneurial spirits, and helped me find my path in the world in the coolest way imaginable.” And then some.

Radio DJ, club DJ, festival DJ, touring DJ. Artist producer, artist mentor. Acclaimed interviewer, the scene authority with whom all the big hitters choose to sit down for rare and/or one-off conversations: Kanye West, Drake, Jay-Z, Eminem.

Tall-walking, ordinarily hard-to-get talents who routinely say: “If I’m going to discuss my new project in the media, I’ll only do it with DJ Semtex.”

Onstage performer with the Wu-Tang Clan, Rick Ross, Nas, Migos, Travis Scott, Skepta, Dizzee Rascal and the cast of Black Panther. 

On-air trailblazer, first with his groundbreaking, 15-year-strong show on BBC 1Xtra, then with Capital Xtra. Online pioneer, as host of Spotify’s Who We Be Talks_ . Critically acclaimed author, the mighty pen behind 2016’s big-picture, deep-thinking, far-reaching memoir-cum-definitive history, Hip Hop Raised Me.

DJ Semtex has been there, done that. And he’s still going there, doing that, restlessly, urgently pushing on with his exploration and celebration of the music and the artists he loves.

Presenting, then, for his next endeavour: The Hip Hop Raised Me Podcast. As Sem describes this new series of exclusive interviews, “these are in-depth conversations with artists across the globe, no-holds-barred, no agenda. New cutting-edge artists. A-list artists. Architects of sound. Moguls. Icons.” Everything, then, that matters, delivered in his trademark style: knowledgeable, enthusiastic, engaged.