Can You ID The Man In A Police Music Video?

[Sabresonic]

Not an easy question to answer.

My opinion would be that from 1984 - 1994 he had the best Hip Hop radio show in the world.
From LWR to Kiss FM to Capital Radio he had the pick of American premieres, debuting some American tracks before the USA, plus the pick of the UK secene
He interviewed many major artists and label owners, promoted some brilliant concerts, and even dabbled at his own record label.

His unusual persona was very much muted at first, and he paid homage to the history of the music by playing the Funk and Soul tunes that hip Hop derived from.
He rightly played some Soul and Go Go too, and demo tapes that were sent in to him.

From about 1995 onward she went for a more populist approach, playing more commercial Hip Hip and dabbling in Reggae, then heavily promoting some Grime and Drill as these came along.

A big knock against him was that he overlooked too much UK music from the late 1980's until the late 1990's, something that could not be said of him after 2000.

Also that he was a "Culture vulture", a white East Anglian who had moved to London and tried to be the head of it's Hip Hop scene.

But to me that has some racism in both ways....some of it jealousy, but who knows if Capital selected him as a "safe white" option to host their Hip Hop show?
I'd hope that he was chosen because he was adept at what he did.

The more genuine criticism of him can be that he has acted a bit of a fool on stage, doing some sexually suggestive dancing with women far younger than him.
And that he has played too much British music associated with gang violence and murder.

He also bizarrely criticised Rodney P's rhyming ability, which was daft as Westwood had Rodney on his show as a frequent guest and at his concerts too.

Excellent post and Tim was a bit of a name back in the 80's to mid 90s even through he was fake with his accent but maybe no different to Joe Strummer with Punk BUT once he started doing that Cribs bollocks he can F.O. also he seemed about to be totally just Hip Hop and not other music genres.
Its funny but Hip Hop in the UK seemed quite lame as it was people like Haircut 100 with "Favourite Girl's", Modern Romance with "Queen of The Rapping Scene" in 1981 and Wham's "Wham Rap" (all great songs to me) and then you had Mick Allen on Capitol Radio who was like the Aland Partridge of UK Rap LOL.
https://images.app.goo.gl/PBR8SpzTzbGTEZfH7

 

[Sabresonic]

Forgot to say like the Go-Go reference ....can not stand Rap music now and haven't like it since the mid 90's but in the 80's it was a different beast as it included other forms like Electro, Miami Bass and Detroit sound which would become Techno.

 

[Victory]

@Sabresonic

Yes a number of UK pop/post Punk bands made rap tunes, at the same time that a UK Hip Hop scene emerged.

You can add Ian Dury and The Blockheads, The Clash, Adam and the Ants, Kenny Everett, Roland Rat etc.

The early UK hip Hop scene was hampered by some imitation American accents and record labels not getting behidn the artists they signed.

There was no lo lack of talent, just lack of budgets.
Blade, London Posse, Demon Boyz, Hijack, Hardnoise etc all had beats and rhymes that made me part with my cash.
At an age when I didn't have much cash to part with.

The tipping point for the reording industry was mid 1990s when both The Brotherhood and Kaliphz were given decent marketing and recording budgets.
Neither though did well commercially.

In reality it took the very talented late 1990's generation of artists to break through i.e Roots Manuva, Skinny Man.

But by the time they did so, along came Eski/Grime and birthed a new scene which became far far larger.
Self reliant, and able to use the internet, camera phones and social media for promotion on a tight budget in ways almost unimaginable a decade earlier.

 

[Shady]

I thought it was Harry Potters dad.

 

[Victory]

Sadly after this thread was started, there have been allegations that Westwood pressured at least six women into sex.
Most of them were young but none were under age.

The allegations go back 20 years, and none of the women reported him to the police at the time.

He has left his Capital Radio DJ job and his DJ gigs have been cancelled.

It remains to be seen whether criminal charges will be filed.