Tiffany Calver: Living the dream

Calver has understandably by no means cared a lot for speaking about her profession when it comes to what’s it like being a lady in a male-dominated trade, however she’s conscious it’s meant having to show herself to quite a lot of most people. “Individuals used to say, ‘She will need to have completed this, she will need to have completed that to get this job’ once I took over the Rap Present,” she says. “I virtually really feel sorry for them. I empathise that folks have by no means seen a lady on this area earlier than, in order that they don’t know to take her severely as a broadcaster or a journalist. However that doesn’t occur as a lot anymore, as a result of now individuals see me and my work and so they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s Tiffany Calver’.”

Her ambition can also be rooted in a real love for music. We speak at size about our technology rising up alongside Odd Future, about how thrilling UK rap is correct now, about French MCs, about how she used to DJ for £50 and take three evening buses house afterwards, and the way she found American music she’d by no means heard of shopping for bootleg CDs as a child dwelling in St Vincent and the Grenadines. This ardour is one thing she largely owes to her household, she says: “My dad was a music head, my grandma had collectible figurines of Michael Jackson, my different nan now has a tattoo of Drake…”

It’s her mum, although, who appears to have performed probably the most influential half on her style. “She was 19 when she had me, we have been finest buddies. She opened my eyes as much as music. Her and her buddies have been nonetheless younger, they have been celebration women so there was at all times music on — so music has at all times been a contented factor for me.”

Calver remembers occurring roadtrips to a pub in Wolverhampton known as Cider Home together with her mum, enjoying on the slides with different youngsters whereas the venue performed UK storage. She additionally remembers how, typically when her mum couldn’t get a babysitter, the 2 of them would spend Saturday nights dancing round at house to The Rap Present. “Within the West Midlands we didn’t have quite a bit, so we listened to quite a lot of radio — and I used to take heed to that present religiously. So figuring out that I’m now the host!? Nah.”

Whereas she is already fulfilling a complete bunch of childhood desires, Calver remains to be busy lining up the subsequent steps in her journey. She’s beginning a label, placing collectively a mixtape, and exploring methods to advocate for higher psychological well being provisions and authorized assist for artists.

Over the past decade, Tiffany Calver has been persistently flying the flag, doing a lot for rap, UK and past. Doesn’t she need a little bit of a break? “It’s so humorous, individuals might be like, ‘Oh, your work ethic is loopy’, ‘Oh, you’re employed so onerous’. Yeah, I do. However what’s totally different now? I get to Uber there now, I can eat or I get to sleep in a five-star resort. Earlier than, I used to be crashing on flooring, I used to be taking coaches to Paris, I used to be sitting subsequent to individuals smoking crack on the evening bus. I used to be working quite a bit more durable again then! So now when persons are like, ‘How are you gonna deal with all the things?’” She laughs, “I’m like, you haven’t any thought. I’ll be tremendous.”

Tiffany Calver has made a particular combine for DJ Magazine, celebrating the music of “all the girls I grew up on, grew up with, and proceed to develop alongside”. Test it out under.