DJ Semtex
AUTHOR

DJ Semtex

Biographies & Memoirs
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World-class DJ, producer, radio titan, and celebrated author – DJ Semtex wears many hats. To fans, he is a trusted authority, to peers, he is a creative force advancing the culture. Still, none of these titles is complex enough to describe what he means to the music that raised him – Hip Hop. He first cut his teeth as a DJ in his hometown, Manchester. In the years since, he has become one of the premier DJs in hip hop, touring, opening, and performing onstage with the likes of Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Rick Ross, Travis Scott, Skepta, Migos, and Dizzee Rascal. DJ Semtex feels a kinship with artists because he is one: producing and releasing his own music under his label Seminal Sound. His client roster these days is motley. With recent work featuring Backroad Gee, Kwesi Arthur, Cozz, Twitch 4EVA, Boy Nash, and Nixxxsta – with whom he released the music-NFT RIOT. A thrilling experimentalist, Semtex is constantly inspired by the crowds he plays for to craft potent hip hop tracks that could shut down any show. And his musical boosterism knows few bounds. When the genre urgently needed an advocate in the UK, he stepped up to the plate as its leading voice. On-air, he made his mark as a thought-provoking interviewer, turning his 15-year-strong slot on BBC 1Xtra and then a show on Capital Xtra into must-visits for artists. Anchored by an impulse to share hip-hop’s story, as a radio personality he is known to coax unusual realness out of closed-off megastars like Kanye West, Drake, Jay-Z, and Eminem. In his interviews he meets his subjects where they’re at, helping shape the narrative and relevance of the music we love. Over the years, he has equally dedicated his platform to making room on mainstream radio for a new class of emerging hip-hop acts who deserve the leg up. Like UK Rapper Dave, whose exclusive debut appearance on Semtex’s radio show as an underground artist primed him for unprecedented international superstardom –In 2022, Semtex marked this legacy-making encounter by joining Dave on his sold-out European tour. A dedicated, knowledgeable hip-hop head, DJ Semtex certified himself as one of the most potent voices in the scene when he penned the pioneering book, 2016’s Hip Hop Raised Me. Then, in 2020, he expanded his broadcast portfolio by turning the critically-lauded memoir-cum-definitive history into his own interview series, the Hip Hop Raised Me Podcast. On the podcast, far-ranging guests from rap royalty Busta Rhymes and Chuck D to rising game changers Pop Smoke and Slowthai and international acts like Sarkodie and Show Dem Camp get the Semtex treatment: “In-depth conversations with artists across the globe, no-holds-barred, no agenda. New cutting-edge artists. A-list artists. Architects of sound. Moguls. Icons.” And with more international collaborations and creative moments in the pipeline, DJ Semtex continues pushing the culture forward.
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