In this day and age, true renaissance men in entertainment are rare. MistaJam aka Pete Dalton is one of these rare few and like all true renaissance men, he started early. He inherited a love of music from his parents who bought him a Fisher Price record deck aged two upon which he would spin a rather eclectic collection of 7†vinyl singles appropriated from various family members and the local corner shop. This love blossomed into a deejay hobby, a record collecting habit and a burgeoning deejay career: joining sound systems and paying his dues in his teens at various house parties and youth club jams in and around his home town of Nottingham. He ended up hooking up with a local HipHop crew (OutDaVille) in his early teens and hit the road as their deejay and hype man. With looks betraying his years DJ Jam (as he was then known) was able to spin in places such as Manchester’s legendary Hacienda, London’s Subterranea and the Radio 1 stage at the Notting Hill Carnival with the bouncers not giving him any trouble.
The newly re-christened MistaJam then managed to blag his way onto his local Uni’s radio station even though he was only studying for his GCSE’s at the time. By chance he hooked up with music producer and promoter Joe Buhdha and began writing for the now defunct Grandslam Magazine, adding the journalist string to MistaJam’s bow. After the success of various club nights, special events and DJ tours, Jam and Buhdha started the annual UK Takeover British HipHop event which has grown to become the biggest one of its kind and has enjoyed coverage from international media outlets such as MTV, BET in the US and the UK’s only national black music radio station BBC Radio 1Xtra.
Through the relationship generated via UK Takeover, MistaJam was asked to pilot for a show on 1Xtra. Having always had the ambition to be on national radio, Jam jumped at the chance and was soon offered a contract with the network.