Hackney

If you're going to, let's say, finish your spare room with a little bit of a better office set up, where are you going? What are you looking for?

We went to this flea market that was in Hackney a few years ago, the one that's sort of under the flyover.

Hackney Flea Market.

Hackney, oh, is that what it's called? We found some amazing stuff.

And everyone says you have to get there early.

That's not true.

So this is my old mother's turf.

This is Hackney, Bethnal Green, Victoria Park.

This is proper, proper Cockney East London.

And that's where Nettle Market is.

Um, but no, we're gonna play Equator Song.

I first found this in the imitable Atlantis Records in Hackney.

I must go if you haven't gone, and I've not gone for a little while.

Um, yeah, Equator Song.

it like i'm a very clumsy person like people always make fun of me they're like oh where's jabril he probably like tripped and fell into a drain or something i remember uh i started working i've never thought of you as that but it's so funny it's uh i'll tell you the story i i one of my jobs here, I was working for this sync music library and I joined in like mid November.

So I guess two, three weeks after joining was their Christmas do Christmas social.

Um, and I had a bit to drink, but I didn't have that much to drink, but we were walking in Hackney along the canal.

Um, like from what's it called? Um, Is it four quarters? Do you know four quarters in Hackney? So I was walking from there down to the bridge and there aren't any lights there.

As I said, that's out on the 20th of November on Gondwana Records.

And Rory Green is going to be playing on the 28th of October, so tomorrow, at Earth in Hackney.

And then he's also going to be playing 17th of November at Coco in Camden, which I think I'm really going to try to get tickets for because everything that's come out of Rory Green from that album so far is just beautiful.

And yes, after that, we moved into Joyce Moreno.

and it finds the Rio-born singer-guitarist and composer at her most reflective.

And as I said, that track that we heard was Aldea de Ogum, out on Far Out Recordings, never too soon, on the 30th of October.

And amazingly, she's going to be playing the 15th of November at Earth in Hackney as well.

And what we've got in the background here is music from Telemachus featuring Flying Lotus, Miguel Atwood Ferguson, The Center Eye is the name of the track.

I love baby bananas.

But also they have tender coconuts, which are like, a coconut tree in Hackney could go down great.

Yeah, it would.

A vibe.

Here are our team leading the interview in the studio.

Jay Weathers is a multi-platinum music producer, songwriter and creative director from Hackney in East London.

with a catalogue that has amassed over a billion streams.

He has become one of the UK's most respected producers, working across hip-hop, R&B, Afrobeats, pop and soul.

Shout out, mum.

And she even influenced my music in a lot of ways as well.

Single parent mum, growing up in Hackney, when Hackney was like rough.

Now it's not so rough.

are, so everyone just thinks... because i know there are a few things that are i just won't touch anything you know i

had a guy once i used to forage loads of wild garlic and i found a massive haul of it in hackney marshes just like filled up my bag and then i um we had it on a dish at dudley's where i was head chef a while ago and i was telling the guy about he's like i'm not eating wild garlic from Hackney Marshes he's like that's nasty bro he's like you know what people do there it's like do you know what you mentioned it yeah but all food's coming out of the dirt and usually just covered in manure you know that's how it grows it fertilises yeah dogs pissed on it maybe but we've washed it you'll survive that's where your food comes from yeah it's funny when someone puts it in perspective like that because in his mind he's like you know everyone's been to a rave in Hackney Marshes or like just gone and drunk beers in the sun and to be honest if you've ever kissed

someone There's probably...

Well,

There's so many good restaurants, so many close friends.

Yeah, I'd say

anywhere from Hackney, I guess.

Yeah, it'd have to be.

Sometimes the way black communities might be talked about, particularly in London, haven't always been done with the tenderness I think they deserve.

If you think about Hackney back in the day, people were terrified of Hackney, scared of Hackney.

There was a lot of gang culture.

Same with South London, including Peckham.