EPISODE 8
THE RISE OF GRIME: THE REALITY OF UK RAP CULTURE
BRITISH RAPPER & DJ, IRONIK
James Christian Charters burst onto the music scene in relative youth, scoring Top 10 singles as the DJ and rapper ‘Ironik’, soon learning the joys of success, and the dark side of fame and notoriety…
Ironik’s influence has contributed to the rise of UK rap artists in the charts, and behind the artist is a genuine, gracious man who’s handled pressure, survived a horrifying attack, and grown as an artist & human being.
This episode covers:
Ironik’s early entry into DJ-ing and music production
Working with music icons like Chipmunk & Wiley
The story behind huge hits like Stay With Me and Tiny Dancer
Signing a Warner Music record deal aged 20
The darker side of fame & the celebrity lifestyle
Surviving a shock attack and how it’s affected Ironik in the years since
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
“Around Halloween time, two people ran up to me in balaclavas or masks, but I kind of thought it was a Halloween prank or something it was just someone messing around so I laughed. Then he punched me or barged me, and I thought, ‘Okay one of my friends wouldn’t do that’, so then everyone started running.”
39:15 - Ironik
——
“The school that I went to was a very troubled school. There were a lot of people causing trouble, but my mum always taught me to never follow other people. So when they were causing trouble after school, I'd go home and make some beats or try to do something creative.” - 4:10 - Ironik
——
“Masterstepz actually took this song that I made on Music 2000 and played it the next week on Choice FM at that time. That was the first time I felt I could be a producer and make beats, someone's actually paying attention. I think I've still got him playing it on the radio on tape as well. My mom keeps everything. So from there, I was like, ‘This is cool, I can get into producing’.” - 10:15 - Ironik
——
“At the start it was lovely. Everyone’s going crazy, the girls are going crazy, and you want that attention when you’re young. Then you get hate with it, though. The trolls. This was before you could troll on social media, so this was physically in person when you go out to a club, which was hard for me to take.” - 15:30 - Ironik
——
“I never depended on alcohol, but I remember I always used to think I needed a drink to do a show or to perform, to calm myself a bit. I used to have like a bottle of wine before I got on stage.” - 19:45 - Ironik
——
“I feel like the label knew the direction they wanted me to go, and they wanted me to be this superstar of UK rap. So my A&R said, ‘Trust me, this song will work’. We recorded Tiny Dancer, and it hit Top 3 on the charts. It should have been number one but I think Gaga or someone was in front, which is fair enough…” - 26:30 - Ironik
——
“When I came up there were 4/5 main artists, like Chipmunk, Tinchy, N-Dubz. Whereas now there's 100 artists, I could probably name 30-40. So it definitely has become more oversaturated I think, because you're not your own unique identity. You're just another one of the artists that are out there, unless you're like Stormzy, J Hus or Dave, a golden child.” - 32:45 - Ironik
——
“Up until now, I’m messed up from that situation. I know people from the streets, I've never been involved with it but I’ve always got along with people from the streets, always had a good relationship. If you know me, you know I'm not here to cause any harm to anyone. So when it happened to me, I was confused, and so was everyone else.” - 41:20 - Ironik
——
“I learned a lot from that situation. It was a bad thing that happened but loads of good came out of it - learning those morals, meeting my fiance, learning life lessons, knowing who I can trust, cutting down my circle of friends - I learned a lot from it.” - 50:30 - Ironik