Stories about London, Culture & Creativity

In October last year Pavan and I were working out how to meet up but things kept coming up and we had to keep re booking until one day in early December I’m scrolling Instagram and I see a sleepy faced Pavan, head resting on some boxes in a car basically saying goodbye to the UK. I didn’t want to get to him right away I thought I’d let whatever happen lie for a week or two and then we spoke, Foreign Beggars had dropped their last album, and this meant his visa was done… He was heading back to Dubai..

We chatted, it was a bit of a mind fuck for me, I’ve known Pavan for maybe 15yrs not properly but in stores, shared friends, jams etc, loving the music from the iconic Asylum Speakers album but you’d think I’dda known that he was on a visa, I’m nosey.. I needed to know and wanted the story for the archive, Pavan has done so much!. We booked a date, opened up skype and got chatting, its dope, honest, inspiring and I now have a complete new found respect for Foreign Beggars after having this chat.. they worked…. This is part of Pavan’s story and some of his interactions with London, culture and creativity, enjoy this is F24.

This week Marcus Barnes, an author, music journalist and graffiti artist. His graffiti name has been in my vision for about 15 years now, a prolific train painter from South London. We met a couple times over the years but never properly and having him come round here was dope. The last time we spoke was at Aset’s funeral and I talk about it towards the end of the podcast, that conversation made me really want to know more about him and I’ve so grateful he came round and shared his story with us.
Another dope insight to a creatives life and path so far. We get through loads from his really interesting upbringing full of inspirational people, finding graffiti and the moral grounds he had to explore in order to do it, his working life and experiences with Lad Mags to the Daily Mail and his massive passion for music. We also chat about the pointless and yet extensive court case brought upon him by Colin Saycell and BTP for his publication of his magazine Keep the Faith. He travelled the city, painted trains with some of the best and now writes beautifully about music for MixMag.
It’s a dope chat, I loved it.. I’ll tell you more about him at the end of the podcast, for now check him out @mgoldenbarnes on Instagram whist you listen.
Enjoy.. This is f24.

I’ve been away working on an amazing project in Dublin, my second building for the Iconic Offices company over there and with help from my good friend Omin, my Irish OG, I built a great team to work with me on the artwork I designed and also work alongside a wide array of dope Irish artists to produce their own work also throughout the refurbished building.
I had a great time, dope team and beautiful city.. I loved it, my mums from there also, so some roots were felt.
Whilst I was there, I recorded this, I wanted to record more but we were putting in 16hr days but I did get this, a chat with two legends, one from just outside Dublin, Rask and one from Belfast, Moves.
This was dope, it came together as King Rask knew I was in town working and hollered about painting on the one day I had off so I ended up doing a wall in town with Moves who painted the word Toar, he dropped me a couple colours and we schemed pieces and backgrounded the wall. We had some amazing convo whilst painting and when we were done we went back to my airnbnb and recorded a very interesting conversation about their come ups in the graffiti culture, its effect on what was going on in Ireland and Northern Ireland in everyday life, religion and society and how being part of this culture forged relationships larger than their surroundings.
A real privilege getting this time with these Kings of the culture.. I loved it.. Enjoy.

Back again… and this week I had Mysdiggi and as some of you know him by Mystro, UK Hip Hop legend, he’s been in the game for years and surpassed the 10’000 hour rule years ago.. he’s a pro and I’ve been a fan
but never had the chance to really chat to Mys before. We’ve crossed paths, seen each other about and when I saw him at Teach’s show in December I hollered straight away and we worked it out. We have a bit of a different chat this week, for the hour or so there is a lot about current affairs, thoughts on issues, flat earth and community. Mys tells us his experience with Iowaska and we compare with therapy which I love and eventually we get his story and hid first interactions within the UK music scene, near death experiences, MCing to Jungle and Hip Hop, making music, touring the world and his time with Lowlife. We also chat about his music in length, the words he speaks and the messages he pushes through on his different releases and genres.

A real dope honest open chat, a lot of on the spot thinking and exploring.

Go check him at @mysdiggi on instagram whilst you listen..
This is F24..

This week Tom Inkfestish Blackford came over and we had an amazing chat. Tom is an artist, an illustrator by trade and also paints graffiti. He came into the culture from a different angle and it was great to hear the journey. We chat about North London, getting into Manga, clubbing, drugs and being a self-employed artist. We also chat about mental health and have a really open and honest conversation. A really great chat, this is his story of London, Culture and Creativity. Enjoy!