Excalibah

Excalibah kick started the hip-hop show "Tales from the Legend" on London pirate station Juice 102.5fm in 1999.Before that, Excalibah had a brief stint on Destiny fm in South London.The radio show "Tales from the Legend" had a format that included Underground / Independent and British Hip-Hop and encompassed both MC'ing and DJ'ing with freestyles, mixes and of course Excalibah's dry sense of humour. Excalibah presented TFTL for over six years and the show was nominated in the "Best Underground UK Hip-Hop Radio Presenter" category at the UK Hip-Hop Awards 2001 and 2002. In the last two years the show has been nominated as "Best Radio Show".At 18 Excalibah was the first signing to the BBC's nationwide digital Black music station 1Xtra. During his time at the station he helped kick start the careers of many hip-hop artists in the UK: Estelle, Sway, Plan B, Dirty Diggers, Shameless, Swiss and Yungun to name a few.The show since joining 1Xtra was voted Best Hip-Hop Show in Undercover magazine for 2003, it also came 3rd in HHC for the same year. In 2004 and 2005 Excalibah won Best Radio Show and Best Radio Presenter in most of the top hip-hop press.Excalibah has also presented three shows and one documentary on BBC Radio One as well as filling in for other shows on 1Xtra, hip-hop or not.In August 2005 Excalibah left 1Xtra. See www.ukhh.com, www.hiphopgame.co.uk and www.rapnews.co.uk for the exclusive interviews on the reasons for his departure and the future of TFTL.Last February he presented a one off show on BBC 6 Music.Excalibah is now presenting a half hour slot every month on the Nationwide Galaxy Network alongside DJ Diggz.Excalibah has been producing for about six years now and as well as personal projects he has previously had his own production released on Ottomanelf Music ("£2" with vocals by Willo from the Colony), worked with Troy Scalpels (the National U.K. Hip-Hop Freestyle Champion 2001), Shameless and Out Da Ville and contributed a remix to the latest LP from the Colony alongside Ghost and Evil Ed.Excalibah has also been asked to contribute new music for the new Shameless EP, DJ Mentat's Remix LP, MC Trips solo projects and Dom G's solo album as well as putting together his own EP.Excalibah has compiled 5 previous mix CD's, all commercially available. The first CD was released with the September 2001 issue of HHC (which rapidly sold out, and is now highly sought after), the second was the Big Dada compilation "Extra Yard" released Oct 21st 2002. Following the success of these Excalibah was asked to do another mix for HHC called "We Got Next" focusing on the new wave of UK artists. This came free with the August edition in 2004.In May 2004 Excalibah released his first official mix album through Dat Sound."The Ex Files (Doc. 1)" was a landmark on Excalibah's journey to expose and promote everything that really is Hip Hop. "The Ex Files (Doc 1)" garnered the respect of magazines such as Undercover and Touch (who voted it album of the month).Last year Excalibah released his second mix cd on the Dat Sound label "UK Dubstate the Mixtape" which features the cream of the UK's Hip Hop scene; Sway, Plan B, Doc Brown, Lowkey, TaskForce, Lethal, Broke N English, C-Mone, Braintax, Kyza, Swiss and more all make an appearance dropping 100% exclusive rhymes on some of the biggest stateside beats.Excalibah has just released another free cd in conjunction with Alize and HHC.During his career DJ Excalibah has appeared in numerous publications including; Hip-Hop Connection (front cover twice), Rago, Untold, Rewind, Variety (USA) The Voice, Mugshot (USA), The Sunday Times, Big Smoke, Undercover, Manchester Evening Post, The Guardian, MORE, 19, The New York Times and the international music publication Vibrations.Excalibah currently writes for HHC and Big Smoke.He has also had his own writing published in the Sunday Telegraph, Knowledge and IDJ.8 years ago DJ Excalibah set up the aforementioned entertainment company. The first event held was "Live from the Legend" at (the old) Deal Real Records, London on the 11th of November '99. It was essentially a showcase held every other month. The show was a combination of PA's, Music and Freestyles. Excalibah himself has hosted these events as well as numerous guests such as General (Homegrown).The 4th event was part of the London Hip-Hop festival which took place during May 2000 and also included Choice FM's 279 and Kiss FM's Shortee Blitz (the Chubby Kids).More recently "Excalibah Presents" has moved into new territory, weird eclectic events in bars like The Pleasure Unit where Excalibah showcases the best in psychedelic beats and psychological entertainment (ala Derren Brown) at a night called "Mystic Rhythms".The most recent additions to 'Excalibah Presents' is 'Tales from the Legend – Live Lounge' (this is a monthly event showcasing up and coming talent in the UK) and the 'Sunday Selection' (an old skool Variety Night with modern performers).As well as musically directing small workshops and projects with companies such as Cardboard Citizens and the NAYT, Excalibah has been involved with two Contemporary Musical Theatre productions with the Theatre Royal (Stratford East).Excalibah was Musical Director for both, the first of which took place early July 2000 called "Ask the Mayor". The director of this piece was Jonzi-D who you may know from the Apricot Jam sessions with DJ Pogo or Aeroplane Man (which Excalibah also starred in).The second was a much larger project called "Da Boyz…" Directed by jet setting designer/director Ultz, The project began in the summer of 2000 and hit the stage in 2003. "Da Boyz…" is a hip-hop interpretation of Roger and Harts "The Boys from Syracuse". This was the first time in history that the rights to a Richard Rogers play had been given over for adaptation."Da Boyz…" included an all-star cast with artists such as Rodney P, Mystro, Black Twang, Demolition Man and Kyza treading the boards. The play was quite possibly the first of its kind, combining all the elements of a concert with the narrative and plot of the original story."Da Boyz..." was widely recognized as a groundbreaking play and received coverage in publications including The New York Times (USA), The Guardian, Variety (USA), BBC Radio 5 BBCLDN News and The Times.As well as currently being the youngest member on the board of directors at the Theatre Royal, in 2001 Excalibah completed the only course in the U.K that teaches musical direction and musical writing. In 2005 he returned to complete the postgraduate course.He's currently working on two new musicals one is a version of Dracula and the other is a highly controversial play called "The Blacks" by the infamous French writer and political activist Jean Genet, so stay tuned!Excalibah has played, and continues to play, a lot of one off club nights such as Pogo's Lyrical Lounge and Rhythmology, Lost for Words, Fabric Live, Fire Blaze, Spit kingdom (Paris), Rawganics (Cambridge), Ravers Paradise, Bugging, C'mon Feet (Manchester), Ghryme and Tricks o' the Trade (Reading) and the Tenerife Festival of Colors.Some of the clubs Excalibah has played at include: Ocean (Hackney) Aquarium (Southwark) Tudor Rose (Greenford), Coliseum (Vauxhall), Fabric (Farringdon), Po Na Na and Banus (Sheffield), The Level (Bristol), Toucan Club (Cardiff), The Other Rooms (Newcastle), Stratford Circus (Stratford) WKD (Camden) Bla (Norway) and the Bomb (Nottingham).In May of 2003 Excalibah toured the country with Titan Sounds / Riddim Killa which are the respective labels of DJ Skitz and Rodney P. Excalibah also toured the UK again with the BBC working on a documentary about the independent hip-hop scene for Radio 1. In 2004 Excalibah toured alongside the Dat Sound family and Underground Alliance, in 2005/2006 he once again toured with various artists to promote his new release "UK Dubstate the Mixtape"