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Summer was fun for me for a number of reasons:
- The 3 weeks of hot weather we had in the UK meant I didn't need to go abroad to catch some rays
- The festivals (One Big Weekend and Creamfields being my obvious highlights)
- People finally got to see (and love or hate) Trexx and Flipside
- 1Xtra Loves Summer & Carnival doing it way big (even though I witnessed it all online rather than in the flesh)
- Finally copping some Forum High's in a US 14 (the size I have to wear in Adidas - I've been after a pair for ages)

But we're now in September and Summer is well and truly over. BUT...Autumn is here!
- Schools/Universities & Colleges are starting new terms (Universities across the country, be aware that I will be touching down at many a Fresher's Ball)
- Brand new TV schedules are about to begin (really looking forward to the second series of "Secret Diary of a Call Girl")
- My radio show will be 1 Year Old on the 10th Sept
And finally, but most importantly SEPTEMBER IS FRESH AND NEW MONTH ON MY RADIO SHOW!!

You should know by now that "The Key To The Underground" (as we call it) is also your one stop shop for all the best in live black music too. Well, each week for the month of September, we will be doing things overweight style. As Semtex would say, the swagger meter is set to high.

Every week, I will have a sizzling FRESH Session Of The Week:

1st - 5th Sept - LEON JEAN MARIE - hot new UK artist bringing electic rnb sounds to the street. Featuring tracks from his debut album 'Bent Out Of Shape', live in session.

8th - 12th Sept - NATALIE WILLIAMS - the soulful seductress who brought us This Girl, is back with a new album set to drop in October, the follow up to her second album 'Secret garden'.

15th - 19th Sept - BLAK TWANG - An undoubted UK HipHop legend, Tony Rotton aka Taipanic aka Blak Twan showcases his long awaited new album exclusively for 1Xtra.

22nd - 26th Sept - WRETCH 32 - Finally, the Mixtape King of grime has put together a full length album. 'Wretchtrospective' is coming this season. Hear what it sounds like LIVE - first on 1Xtra.

AND each Wednesday for the month of September I will ALSO bring you 4 (count them) 4 installments of THE JAM SESSIONS - exclusive 100% live music sessions brought to you directly from the world famous ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Maida Vale studios.

Wednesday 3rd Sept - ROLL DEEP - The Big Money Sound is back in full effect. They kick off our month of The Jam Session specials LIVE from Maida Vale this coming Wednesday.

Wednesday 10th Sept - SWAY - We've been waiting for 'The Signature' album ever since 'This Is My Mixtape' well, just ahead of the new album hitting the streets, we give you a sneak preview of what to expect LIVE AND EXCLUSIVE from Maida Vale.

Wednesday 17th Sept - BASHY - Black Boys blew us away and brought the sound of a new era of freedom fighters to the airwaves. Hear brand new sounds from the self proclaimed "Street Commentator" LIVE on The Jam Sessions.

So make sure you tell a friend to tell a friend to lock in and lock on. "The Key To The Underground" every weekday from 7-10pm with me MistaJam on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 1Xtra. And on that note, I'm off to bed - I'll need rest to keep up! Happy September folks!

This week I sat in for Gilles Peterson on his ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 1 show while he's off in Cuba and Ibiza (alright for some eh?). Kept it with the Gilles left of centre vibe for the first hour of the show:

• Gil Scott Heron - 'Angel Dust' (Strata East)
• The Game ft Common - 'Angel Dust' (White)
• Scratch ft Music Soul Child - 'Tonight' (WMD Ltd)
• Kid Cudi ft Wale - 'Is There Any Love' (Fools Gold)
• Onra - 'The Anthem'
• Koushik - 'Lying In The Sun' (Stones Throw)
• Mujava - 'Township Funk' (Warp)
• Exchange Bureau - 'Spookie Ookie' (Third Ear)
• W Beeza - 'Heavy Stuff' (Bang N Trouble)
• Little Dragon - 'Twice' (Aaron Jerome remix)
• Aaron Jerome Maida Vale Session
• Aaron Jerome ft Yungun - 'Late Night Mission' (In Session)
• Bunny Mack - Let Me Love You (Bugz In The Attic Bruk Vox Mix) (Defected)
• Illmana - 'Mother Africa' (Test)
• P-Money ft Vince Harder - 'Everything' (Dirty Records)
• Chase & Status - 'Eastern Jam' (RAM Records)
• Caper - 'Hybrid' (Studio Rockers)
• Raphael Saadiq - 'Be Easy'(Sony)
• Raphael Saadiq - 'Hundred Yard Dash' (Sony)
• Jasmine Sullivan - 'Bust Your Windows' (Sony/BMG)
• Jasmine Sullivan - 'Need You Bad' (Sony/BMG)

Then I took the opportunity to dig some classics out -

I'm going through the process of converting over to to DJ
with and one of the first things I put on the mac was my old school reggae selection. Thought covering Gilles' show would be the perfect opportunity to draw for them!

• Errol Dunkley - 'A Little Way Different' (Arawak)
• Dennis Brown - 'Sitting And Watching' (Island)
• The Tamlins - 'Baltimore' (Taxi)
• Johnny Osbourne - 'Truth and Rights' (Studio One)
• Dennis Brown - 'Revolution' (VP)
• Barrington Levy - 'Here I Come' (Spectrum)
• Cornell Campbell - 'Queen Of The Minstrels' (Studio One)
• The Jays - 'King Of The Minstrels' (Channel One)
• Jacob Miller - 'Tenement Yard' (Island)
• The Abyssinians - 'Satta Massagana' (Clinch)
• Dennis Brown - 'Money In My Pocket' (Amalgamated)
• The Mighty Diamonds - 'Right Time' (Virgin)
• Carrol Thompson - 'I'm So Sorry' (Carib Jems)
• Aswad - 'Warrior Charge' (Takoma)
• Aswad - 'Mosman Skank' (Island)
• Dennis Brown - 'Promised Land' (Blood & Fire)
• Maxi Priest - 'Should I' (Virgin)
• Tenor Saw - 'The Golden Hen'
• Eek-A-Mouse - 'Wa Do Dem' (Greensleeves)
• Althea & Donna - 'Uptown Top Ranking' (Frontline)
• Ini Kamoze - 'World -A-Reggae' (Taxi)

Check it here for the next 7 days. Absolutely loved playing some real reggae gems I remember my family playing during my childhood on national radio - shouts to Beccy and Niamh!

Remember Jodeci?

Remember K-Ci & JoJo?

How the mighty have fallen...literally. 1:43 is where it is at...

Many bloggers speculated the fall was due to alcohol and drug use. Well, my boys Cipha Sounds & Rosenberg managed to get K-Ci on the phone from Australia on their show on Hot 97 in New York City.

Did K-Ci really say he hates Bill Gates because he invented the internet???
IGNANT COMMENT OF THE CENTURY!!

Donaeo's Devil In A Blue Dress Video has been finished...

After helping with the search for the devil, you know your boy MistaJam had to get the excloose!

from on .

What do you think?

Every week I pick one record that isn't just hot, it's Jam Hot and I play it every day on the show. Week 35 and the honour goes to a dirty slab of electro tinged funky house from a collective with a lot of promise SodaBoys "Everybody Cha Cha"

• The Soda Boys are a collective of like minded artists and producers utilizing music, art, fashion, culture and lifestyle to plant the seeds of what they call "a N.E.W. Movement"
• They called themselves the Soda Boys as they say that "anything refreshing is like a cold can of Soda" and took on the names Black Fantastic, Schweppes Incorporated, Smith the Mister, Rembo, Mountain Jew, Fizzgod The Robot, Juice Jones and Liquid Disco.
• They're currently not signed to any major label, instead putting music out under their independent imprint L.A.D Productions. I have no clue when it's going to be released but the Jam Hot is the first single from the crew - it was a former exclusive on this show and it's apparently got it's own dance too - "Everybody Cha Cha"
• It features the vocals of Fizzgod The Robot who we know better as Dave from the legendary HipHop crew De La Soul
• For more info on the boys, dun know the

Big shout out to Uche for hooking me up with this record in the first place - I'm loving it, passed it on to Zane who's loving it and from the response I've had since I've started to play it, you're loving it too!

The Soda Boys themselves will be passing through the 1X studio on thursday night to perform the track and tell us more about the movement.

I've never been to Creamfields before. I definitely want to go again. I was there this past saturday and tasked with the hard job of opening up the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Introducing bus at the festival. After a quick chat on Radio 1 with my girl Annie Mac, the gates were opened and I started my set.

I'll bring you more info and more photos from the event soon (there were some SIGHTS!!) in the meanwhile, check Annie Mac's blog on the Radio 1 site.

Every week I pick one record which isn't just hot, it's Jam Hot and I play it every day on the show. Week 34 and this week, it's a UK club banger and the lead single from Wretch 32's long awaited album "Be Cool"

• Wretch 32 (real name Jermaine Sinclair) is a grime MC and rapper from Tottenham, North London.
• He was a member of the grime collective "Combination Chain Gang", before forming The Movement with Scorcher, Ghetto, Devlin and Lightning.
• His first mixtape 'Learn From My Mixtape' was released in 2006 to much critical acclaim - even winning the "Most Street Heat" award in 1Xtra's Mixtape awards
• His solo mixtapes 'Teachers Training Day' and 'Verses 3 and 2 Chapter Wretch' as well as various appearances alongside his Movement crew and collabos with the likes of The Streets and Faith SFX followed Learn From My Mixtape and established Wretch as one to watch.
• "Be Cool" is the first single to be taken from his album 'Wretchrospective' which is due to be released on 6th October.

You can hear 'Be Cool' every day this week on my show, and Wretch will be passing through on Thursday to chat about 'Wretchrospective', perform 'Be Cool' and who knows, he may even bring an exclusive from the album...??

Bet you thought I'd forgotten right? NEVER!!

Let's kick this week's selection of old skool classics off with the sample source for Sway's new record featuring Lemar "Saturday Night Hustle" - It's Cherrelle ft Alexander O'Neal's "Saturday Love". This takes me back to when I was really really little, my uncle did me a tape of Janet Jackson's 'Control' album and on the other side, put some other 80's soul tunes on there. Cameo's "She's Strange", Connie's "Funky Little Beat" and this were in full e-f-f-e-c-t on that tape!

Back in the days before MTV, we had The Chart Show on ITV on Saturday mornings that showed the latest videos. I only ever caught the last minute of this video - thanks to the joys of YouTube, here it is - a little out of sync but still a classic! UK Apache & Shy FX - Original Nuttah:

And finally, not as Old Skool - it's only from 8 years ago - but it's still a BIG tune that I haven't heard in years and having seen Jamelia recently on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 3 documentary about hair extensions, I thought it was a good excuse to post this. Jamelia ft Beenie Man - Money:

More to come next week.

So the cat is out the bag - from October I will have the honour of also bringing you a show on 1Xtra's sister station Radio 1. The show will be called the 1Xtra Mixtape with MistaJam and will go out on Saturday nights from 3-5am. I'm really looking forward to bringing a flavour of what I do weekdays on 1Xtra.

In the meanwhile, I'm off to book mine and MissisJam's trip to Tenerife for Christmas as recommended by Chris Moyles this morning (go to 3:03). Maybe we can work on the kiddie Jams while there...

Earlier today, I passed through Ace & Vis' show to kick start their Alternative Olympics - basically I'll be setting the pair challenges throughout Olympic season to see who deserves the gold medal of best troublemaker - Ace or Vis. Today there were 2 challenges:

Challenge 1 - The Banana Race
The first challenge was basically a time trial between the pair. Both of them were given 50p by their producer Neil and they had to run from the 1Xtra studio, up a flight of stairs, out the building to the nearest shop where they had to buy a banana and then come back with it in the shortest time. Aceafa Powell went first and managed a very impressive 1min 47 secs bringing back with him a pretty poor with the top half hanging off but he still managed to bring back a banana. Then it was Vis' turn. This is where it all goes a bit Dwain Chambers. Vis managed to run out the building, run into the café near 1Xtra towers and then run back in 56 seconds. However, he did it all with the banana that Ace had brought back in his pocket.

He pleaded ignorance however here's the photographic proof:

Exibit 1 - the banana that Vis claims he bought next to the tip of the banana that Ace had brought back to the studio.

Exibit 2 - notice how the tip of Ace's banana fits perfectly onto Vis' alleged banana (pause)

Exibit 3 - the guilty face

Challenge 2 - Virtual Street Fighter
Based on the classic Capcom arcade/NES/SNES/Sega Mega Drive game Street Fighter. Just watch the video...

More Ace & Vis Alternate Olympics with Judge Jam on Friday

Every week I pick one record which isn't just hot, it's Jam Hot and I play it every day on the show.Week 33 of 2008 and the honour goes to a UK emcee who's been bubbling under for a good while now - will this record cross him over? Professor Green "Just Be Good To Me"

• Professor Green first came to prominence as a battle emcee, 8 Mile style, taking out opponents with his freestyle ability and precise dissing skills
• In his career he won over 100 battles and broke records becoming the first and only rapper to win at MC battle mecca The Jump Off 7 weeks in a row, completing the feat twice. He also represented at the Power Summit $50k battle in the Bahamas, losing out to favourite Jin in the final after beating many other of America, and the Worlds, top MCs.
• He was signed by Mike Skinner from The Streets' label 'The Beats' after putting out his own mixtape 'Lecture #1' and was working on his debut album until the label went under at the start of the year - but after a stint presenting on our sister station Radio 1 as one of their In New DJ's we trust - he's back behind the mic and has been back in the studio
• Just Be Good To Me is his current offering and was a former exclusive on this show. It's an update of the Beats International/SOS Band classic and is Jam Hot this week.

He'll be passing through the studio on Thursday to PA the track and tell us what's to come!

New feature on the blog (lets see how long this one lasts...!!) - every Sunday I'll post you a couple of old skool classic videos. Just like my radio show, some you'll know, some you'll get to know; but all are bonafide certified MistaJam classics from back in the day!

Let's kick it off with the record that's sparked the feature in my brain while I was loading it in to Serato - some classic dancehall business from 1994 - Terror Fabulous ft Nadine Sutherland's "Action"

Next up, a record that you can tell influenced the current Funky/UK House scene - especially seeing as how most of the producers in the scene are around my age and will have the same little kid memories of this track. For more evidence, check the drum pattern, the ragga bassline, the synth line... Brilliant record and it still kills a dance even though it came out in 1993. Reel 2 Real ft The Mad Stuntman "I Like To Move It"

Finally, a record that is 18 years old but causes mass break outs of the running man dance whenever it's played in a club: Bel Biv Devoe's "Poison"

What kind of memories do these bring out of you?

In case you haven't seen it splashed all over the other blogs today, on the second NY Madison Square Garden date of Kanye West's Glow In The Dark tour; Kanye asked the audience if he could play a beat that he'd done in Hawaii for Jay-Z. As the beat began, Jay took to the stage and this is the result - "Jockin' Jay-Z"

***DISCLAIMER: THIS CONTAINS SERIOUS SWAGGER, KANYE WITH A BEARD LIKE MINE AT THE MOMENT AND SWEAR WORDS THAT PEOPLE MAY FIND OFFENSIVE**

from on .

Game, set and match Jiggaman. I know it's only a snippet and it's not the best in quality but this could be another 99 Problems for Jay in the UK (i.e. a big mainstream hit). From the forthcoming album 'Blueprint 3' which allegedly will be produced in it's entirety by Kanye which would be interesting.

I have to agree with his views too. That Jennifer Metcalfe is a very good actress and without a doubt, now Trexx and Flipside has finished, Hollyoaks is the best TV programme we have in the UK with Dragon's Den coming a close second. Yeah, I said it. Hollyoaks is that chillin-on-a-sunday-morning-drinking-tea-in-your-undercrackers ish! Completely beats any other other soaps (Deadenders stopped being good when Dirty Den came back, Emmerdale bores me to tears and Coronation Street is just a Mancunian sitcom) and the eye candy per minute ratio (for both sexes) beats 90% of the other shows on TV.

Where are all my other closet Hollyoaks fans...or is it just me and the missis?