Deep Feedback with Elijah

David Rodigan has been playing Reggae on British radio for fifty years. I spoke to him about his new compilation ‘House of Roots’ for Defected Records at their office in London, where Shy FX, Clipz and Prince Fatty reimagine house music classics. I asked him about his beginnings representing Jamaican music on commercial radio, and how different music communities have embraced him across the decades.

If you have never seen him in sound clash mode. Watch these:

Ruby Justice Thelot is a cyberethnographer & artist living in NYC. His work is a commentary on how we live online, taste, aesthetics and culture backed by a deep knowledge of art history.

We met in London after his lecture ‘Why are there no new aesthetics?’ and we discussed AI slop, enshitification, and his personal media consumption rules and how they shape his worldview.

Ruby’s work on YouTube has an amazing mix of lectures, interviews and art. This is my favourite: The content creator as (algorithmic) folk artist

Deep Feedback is produced by New Strange

Namesbliss is a rapper from London and his debut album Where's Bliss? Is out now. I Interviewed him in the Patta store in London in August 2026 in front of some of his supporters, and we spoke about the project, how he writes, breaking through on his own terms and ADHD.

He came onto my radar in 2022 dropping freestyle videos on Instagram, and his approach mirrored one of my 🟨's: New Music Won't Blow Through Old Distribution. He was using Reels and Tik Tok to break through and build an audience in a way that centred the music. I went to his debut headline show in 2024, and it was special to see that what had been developing online, was also connecting in person.

It completes a mini internal series of interviews with break through rappers as part of this podcast, following episodes with Kibo and Ceebo. Across all of these conversations you can learn about their different approaches to writing, scene building, and where they see themselves in the contemporary landscape. My connection to MC culture is rooted in my beginnings as a Grime DJ on Rinse FM in 2008, and I wanted to use the podcast as an opportunity to connect with the next generation.

Kibo is a rapper from Harrow, London and has just released his debut project Kwengletaria:Ragamyff. I spoke to him in front of a live audience in Finsbury Park in July 2026 about how he writes lyrics, world builds, how he approaches Grime sets vs Rap cyphers and how WWE influences his work.

I reference this set in the conversation. 18 mins of Kibo in action for Victory Lap

Last year I did a set with him using WWE themes on Rinse FM:

If you enjoy this conversation, check out one I released with another rapper on the rise, Ceebo earlier this year.

Candice Carty-Williams is a best selling author and showrunner. She has recently released 'Queenie's working on it', the follow up to the 2019 best seller 'Queenie'. She worked with Swindle on the soundtrack for the TV adaptation of Queenie, and a musical drama ‘Champion’ created with the BBC.

I am knee deep in writing ‘book 2’ and ‘book 3’ and I wanted to speak to Candice about character building, writing for television and how music is embedded within her work.

We also spoke about how our second home Jamaica received her work and the state of black British publishing in 2026.

Deep Feedback is produced by New Strange

Symeon Brown is a journalist and broadcaster for Channel 4 News. We discuss his new book ‘The Good, The Black & The Boujee on the black middle class.

Deep Feedback is produced by New Strange

Jayden Ali is the founder of JA Projects, an architecture and design studio with offices in London and New York. We discuss how art and architecture exist together, and how Grime has shaped that, his work for V&A East, the differences between New York and London and how he is drawn to performance as a vessel to showcase new ideas.

Dr Aleema Gray is a Jamaican - British historian who co curated the British Library's exhibition 'Beyond The Bassline: 500 Years of Black British music in 2024. I visited when I was being publicly critical of BBC 1xtra, Capital Xtra and now Kiss Xtra's representation of our music in their daytime selection, and I credit this exhibition as one of the sparks behind my writing at that time and the phrase I use - 'What The Man Dem Put Up The Aerials For' 🟨. A salutation to those that built the foundations that we are still working on top of today.

We speak about the starting point for the exhibition, John Blanke, what curating and archiving is, the term ‘Black British’ and it’s evolution and the modern connection between the UK and Jamaica. Dr Gray also runs a research studio House of Dread, and lives between London and Jamaica

Deep Feedback is produced by New Strange

Swindle has been producing and releasing music for over 20 years, and we've been working together on and off for 16 of those. I talk to him about his artistic journey, and his current skill stack he uses to produce music today for film and tv, developing artists and teaching his children how to make.

Max Lee is a booking agent from United Talent Agency, and has represented DJs and live acts for over ten years. He gives us an insight into how agents, bookings and the live circuit works.