After graduating from the London Contemporary Dance School, Jonzi D’s early theatre pieces included Lyrikal Fearta (1995) and Aeroplane Man (1999). In 2004 he founded Breakin’ Convention, an annual festival of hip-hop dance theatre, and in 2007 he was listed as one of the top 10 black musical role models by Mobo. In 2011 he was offered an MBE for services to British dance: he turned it down because of the link between empire and colonialism, and used it as inspiration for his acclaimed 2013 solo show, The Letter. His TV credits include Def Poetry Jam (HBO) and Faking It (Channel 4). This year’s Breakin’ Convention is at Sadler’s Wells on 29 and 30 April, ahead of a UK tour in May.
1 | Film
Everyone should see this. It’s a psychological thriller about a black guy and a white girl, and him going to meet her parents in suburbia. It comes from a perspective of familiarity for me, of being subjected to racism, which you never really see represented in Hollywood. I loved how [director Jordan Peele] made a fantasy horror out of it, but it was steeped in reality. There’s a scene somewhere called the Sunken Place where the black character can’t say anything, no one’s listening to him. That reminded me of the narratives going on today, with black people saying, “Look, black lives matter”, and people saying, “All lives matter”, disregarding the fact that racism exists.
2 | Event
This happens every Thursday at Mau Mau Bar in Portobello Road, London. They feature a lot of young, cutting-edge jazz musicians in a very small bar. It does feel too small for the size of the vision they have: it can be absolutely ram-packed and sweaty and uncomfortable, but then you get some really chilled nights. It’s not so much traditional jazz. They tend to connect with people exploring hip-hop beats and sampling. But at the same time there’s live instrumentalists working with that. What’s interesting is that they connect the dots to jazz and the developments of music today. I saw Brother’s Testament there recently and they were amazing.
3 | TV
This is an American sitcom I discovered recently. I’ve been a bit disillusioned with sitcoms, but this reignited the genre for me: it’s the sharpness of the writing and the fact that it has genuinely progressive racial politics. It’s about a black family who live in suburbia, and there’s a sense that they’re constantly trying to hold on to their cultural identity despite being middle-class black people. Laurence Fishburne is an executive producer. It’s been written really well, and they cover ground that isn’t so stereotypical, or at least they work with stereotypes and make fun of them.
4 | Music
A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service
I’m a die-hard Tribe fan. Every album they’ve come out with has been good. Some better than others, but they always go above that threshold. I love the new album – they’re a relatively old-school act, but they’ve been able to come back and really bring the heat. One member of the group, Phife Dawg, died early last year. I always worry about these posthumous albums, because I remember Tupac “released” two or three albums after he died. But they did it flawlessly: it’s beautiful, and I think they honoured his death. They’re very current, very political. There’s a track called We the People that is really, really strong.
5 | Gig
Slick Rick at O2 Kentish Town Forum
I hosted a concert with Slick Rick last year. He’s a classic MC – I’ve met quite a few hip-hop icons, but he really stands out. It was such a buzz, man. A lot of old schoolers came out, over-40s hip-hop heads I’ve been seeing on the scene for years. Unlike a lot of rap shows, he had a full-on stage show: costume changes, background singers, a revolving sofa. And his clothes, his style, his jewellery – all iconic stuff from the 80s golden era. I rocked out in my fur coat – faux fur it has to be said, as I can’t afford real and I wouldn’t wear it anyway – while I was hosting. With Slick Rick you’re allowed that kind of opulent staging.
6 | Festival
Just the other day, I went to the Parc de la Villette in Paris, where they were doing a festival called 100% Afrique. We saw an artist called Ivan Blackstock – his company is called SWNSNG – who did this piece called Trap Lord of the Flyz. It’s a powerful piece of hip-hop theatre – he’s using grime music and MC-ing, but there’s lots of physical theatre imagery. They work with krump dance as well, and I was really happy to see that it brought the house down in Paris. It’s a month-long festival, and throughout they’ve got loads of different events, music, dance, acrobatics, circus, all focused on African artists and the African diaspora.
7 | Restaurant
South Avenue Grill, Kingston, Jamaica
I don’t really do restaurants, because my wife is an amazing cook, but this place was phenomenal. You walk in and there’s a swimming pool in the middle of the restaurant, and a bridge you walk over and go to the place where you get your food. They do à la carte Jamaican cuisine. I thoroughly enjoyed their rasta pasta, which is made of ackee, noodles, callaloo, and spiced lightly with bell peppers. That was to die for. And I had a gorgeous jerk lobster, which I’d never had before. We bought loads of food in the hope we’d take some home in a doggie bag. Didn’t work like that — we ended up eating everything, it tasted so good.
