20 years of 1Xtra: Amplifying black culture 5 Minutes On
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- Daily News
On the 16th of August 2002, the BBC launched a brand new radio station dedicated to contemporary black music and culture. It was unlike any other station there’d ever been. Radio 1Xtra was born. It was raw, it was real, it was authentic.
And it went on to help catapult the careers of countless artists, from Stormzy and Ed Sheeran, to Jorja Smith and Little Simz. It’s helped bring genres like Grime, Afrobeat and Drill into mainstream music, and given UK rap a major platform. It’s given its listeners a voice, reflecting their lives and the big cultural issues that matter to them, like BLM.
This is the story of 20 years of 1Xtra, told by two of its presenters… Remi Burgz and DJ Target.
Photo credit: Sarah Jeynes/BBC
On the 16th of August 2002, the BBC launched a brand new radio station dedicated to contemporary black music and culture. It was unlike any other station there’d ever been. Radio 1Xtra was born. It was raw, it was real, it was authentic.
And it went on to help catapult the careers of countless artists, from Stormzy and Ed Sheeran, to Jorja Smith and Little Simz. It’s helped bring genres like Grime, Afrobeat and Drill into mainstream music, and given UK rap a major platform. It’s given its listeners a voice, reflecting their lives and the big cultural issues that matter to them, like BLM.
This is the story of 20 years of 1Xtra, told by two of its presenters… Remi Burgz and DJ Target.
Photo credit: Sarah Jeynes/BBC