REPRESENTING QUALITY SOUL AND HIP HOP...
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Anna Nathanson, 24, is a journalist and music publicist based in London. She currently freelances and writes regularly for publications such as TOUCH and Big Smoke, as well as having a monthly opinion piece on hip hop website www.rapnews.co.uk.
She also sings and writes poetry.
In addition to this, Anna also does some independent music PR.
She had the opportunity to be schooled in the in and outs of this industry by two gurus in the game, during her time at Fire Media and then Mojona Ltd.
Akosua Anobil-Dodo, head of Fire Media, also has a regular Saturday morning show on London’s leading mainstream station for black music, 96.9 Choice FM. As well as this, her day job is providing front-page content and a regular column to New Nation, Britain’s leading national black newspaper.
A&R supremo, Suzy Zenouzi, of Mojona Ltd, has helped break acts such as Lupe Fiasco and Safronya in the UK, and has also served years in the industry.
Anna worked closely with both these people and gained a lot of knowledge and insight into the game by what they taught her.
“You remind me of a younger version of myselfâ€, Akosua once said to Anna, and to this day, this remains one of Anna’s most appreciated compliments.
Anna also learnt a lot from working at Suzy’s South London office in 2007, otherwise known as the Mojona Ltd HQ.
Here she got the unique chance of dealing with high profile US names, through Suzy’s affiliation with people like Memphis Bleek, DJ Green Lantern, Hydro, Nas’ DJ L.E.S, to name but a few.
This also lead her on some interesting journeys, for example to various radio studios where her artists would be interviewed by the likes of Tim Westwood on a Saturday night. This would be followed by a few drinks at a members club, on invitation of the DJ himself.
Anna has also played a role within the City Showcase enterprise, which has previously helped to break quality UK acts such as Amy Winehouse, The Kooks and Dizzee Rascal, in days gone by.
Now Anna helps to sort through the massive influx of demos they receive, concentrating particularly on her area of expertise. She has also sat on the judging panel during City Showcase events, alongside individuals like Danny from Embrace and James Foley, Music Editor of Record of the Day.
Of the artists she has seen perform at Showcase events, she has particularly supported Stig of the Dump and Jeannine Glasgow, with Anna’s review of Jeannine’s breath taking track Unbelievable, being selected and reviewed by Anna for ROTD, way back in April 2007, before anyone in the mainstream had ever heard it, and before DJ Ras Kwame played it on his popular ‘Homegrown’ show on bbc 1Xtra.
Anna has a passion for identifying and helping budding talent, and is currently hoping to work with the Kraftsmen, whose members include Frantic Frank, Prodigal Son and Manic Madnick.
They are a crew of extremely raw and exciting South London rappers, ready to take the industry by storm. “Good luck to the industry when it has to cope with me!†Frantic Frank defiantly says on the track ‘Mockery’.
She is also working alongside more established talent, such as veteran UK rapper Blak Twang, phenomenal drummer and producer Cassell the Beatmaker (who drums for Plan B and Akala), as well as songstrell on the rise Danielle Senior (whose most recent work includes collaborations with Juelz Santana and 40 Cal of Dipset).
Other artists she supports and would like to work more closely with include:
Necro,
Jeannine Glasgow,
L’Marie,
Noel McKoy,
Logic and Lowkey,
Klashnekoff,
Scriblah,
and Notes to Self.
Anna is very particular on the music she likes and listens to. To find out more, just ask her.
Anna currently writes a monthly opinion-piece style column on hiphop website www.rapnews.co.uk.
She also freelances for a number of publications, mostly TOUCH, Big Smoke, www.rapnews.co.uk and www.allhiphop.com.
Anna's first foray into the world of journalism came at the age of 19 where she began a placement at Conde Nast Traveller Magazine, during which she got to do her first interview, with the editor of GQ Magazine (based in the same building) about his views on the representation of women in the media. Her first proper introduction into the music industry came a year later after a chance meeting with Ade Adeyemi, an up and coming music director, who she met at an industry seminar. At the time Anna was very much into documentary film making and so she worked very closely with artists on the Backbone Music label spearheaded by Skillz, legendary member of Nigerian supercrew JJC and the 419 Squad. Here she got a chance to assist on music video shoots as well as make video diaries of artists such as Danielle Senior, Blemish Blackstorm, dancehall artist Stylo G, and Nigerian superstar D'Banj. During her time as a documentarist, she also made a film about gypsies in Cambridge along with her Sussex University colleagues, as well as placements at ITV and TSI post production, and then later Lambent Productions, based at the Brighton Media Centre.
This was just after graduating from Sussex University with a first class honours degree in Media and Cultural studies, one of the few care leavers who graduated that year, in 2005. She then studied at the London School of Jornalism after completing her BA degree at Sussex.
After her degree, Anna moved back to her hometown of London where she embarked on a internship at TOUCH Magazine, one of the UK's longest running 'urban' lifestyle publications. Impressed with her drive and ambition, the editor soon offered her a permanent position of editing the infamous 411 Girls page, covering celebrity parties, events and concerts, as well as providing the hottest 'urban' news and gossip.
As well as this, Anna continued to be a regular contributor to TOUCH, as well as freelancing for over 20 other publications.
In the past Anna has also worked as a Taste Maker for 3 Mobile, identifying and supplying some of the hottest tracks from the UK Hip hop movement, and getting them heard by the masses.
Anna is currently News Editor @ Big Smoke magazine, and used to be the regular music news provider for online super-site www.7digital.com
She has also been published in the London Paper, Asian Woman magazine, the daily Mirror, Pyro Radio, g3 and Out in the City, and is affiliated with industry Bible, ROTD.
Although widely recognised as a hip hop journalist, Anna has written on a vast variety of topics, including:
Gun crime in London,
Psychotropic substances,
Death,
Gang culture,
Homosexuality in the Asian community (for the internationally sold Asian Woman magazine),
Voxpox feature on the BNP, in Dagenham (TOUCH magazine),
Life in local authority care,
Homophobia in ragga music,
Health and beauty features,
Horoscopes,
Love and relationships,
Property features,
Letters pages in magazines and listings section,
and filler material in magazines.
Outside of music, Anna has many interests, including astrology, numerology, singing, dancing, poetry, reading, drama, music production, tarot, spirituality and psychology. It is a little known fact that Anna's great great uncle was the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud.
Artists Anna would most love to interview in the future include:
Nas,
Amy Winehouse,
Sarah Jessica Parker,
Simon Amstell,
DMX,
Tony Robins,
Deepak Chopra,
Naomi Klein,
Mariah Carey,
Christina Aquilera,
Drew Barrymore,
Shane from the L Word,
Woody Allen,
and UK DJs such as DJ Kyper, Greenpeace, Joe Christie, DJ Turkish, Excalibah, Mentat and more.
Anna's first major music interview was with Questlove of the Roots, by chance in a Brighton club, and to date, Anna has interviewed artists like:
Common,
Lupe Fiasco,
The Game,
Klashnekoff,
Dead Prez,
Ziggy Marley,
and Plan B.
She has also reviewed people like Mary J Blige, Jay Z, Erykah Badu, Pharoah Monch, Janet Jackson, Foreign Beggars and Ty.
Anna’s mission is to set up a music-based company that will deal exclusively with good quality soul and hiphop music, with the design to take it to the mainstream and allow it to be heard. Artists currently on her proposed roster would include:
The Kraftsmen,
Danielle Senior,
Blak Twang,
Jeannine Glasgow,
and
Necro.
She would also have a roster of about 10 quality journalists, all of whom should be committed, reliable and damn good.
So when one of these artists need a good write up, they come to Anna, and if Anna can’t do it, she can refer them on to one of her writers.
In the meantime she’d contact one of the publications, and link them up with a brilliant artist, as well as a brilliant journalist (who’d have to be as good or better than Anna) and bang- they’ll have a good-to-go feature. “That’s my visionâ€, Anna says.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CHECK OUT:
www.myspace.com/miragemusicpress
www.myspace.com/miragesounds
www.myspace.com/anna_nathanson
www.rapnews.co.uk/words
www.miragemusic.org