Bashy
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Bashy |
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Ashley Thomas (born 4 February, 1985 in Chiswick, West London) better known by his stage name Bashy, is a British hip hop/grime artist. He rose to prominence in 2007 after the release of his controversial track Black Boys. He was the assistant music supervisor for the film Adulthood for which he also recorded the theme track entitled Kidulthood to Adulthood.
Biography
Early life
Ashley was born in Chiswick, West London at the Queen Charlotte Hospital. He is the first born son to a Jamaican Mother & Dominican Father. He attended St Mary’s of the Angels RC Primary School, where he excelled rapidly in English which was noted by his teachers, he was then given extra classes to help nurture his development. Due to his ability he frequently became bored & therefore became extremely disruptive, resulting in suspension. His furious father flew him to the Dominica to finish his education in order to instill discipline. On his return aged eleven his family moved to Kensal Rise, North West London and he attended the Cardinal Hinsley School for Boys in Harlesden.
Whilst in Dominica he achieved very highly in English, Geography & Drama. He was also on the school football and athletic team. His lyrical sparring first began in the playground during break time, where at the age of 14, the confident youngster battled the older kids in the school who in his own words he ‘destroyed’.
This soon got his peers talking and the word spread beyond the gates of the playground and into his local community. He soon found himself in demand at local clubs and house parties where he earned yet more stripes battling other hood hero’s of the time. He considers Terry Wogan as a major role model.
is absolutely awsome
Ur Mum Volume One
In 2004 he released the mixtape Ur Mum Volume One. This received attention because of the name alone. It displayed his ability to talk about his surroundings & give vivid, almost cinematic depictions through his words. My Manor was a local hit amongst North West & West London’s young people.
The Chupa Chups Mixtape
In 2006 he left a management situation he was unhappy with and formed Ragz2Richez along with his friend & cousin. He recorded The Chupa Chups Mixtape as was to keep his name relevant. The mixtape is critically acclaimed by many. He sold over 5000 copies in the first few months. In order to market the mixtape in an innovative way he stuck Chupa Chups lollies to them so they would stand out among the rapidly growing mixtape market. The three most talked about tracks were My Nightmare where he took The Streets’ track Blinded by the Lights & told a new story. This displayed his extremely vivid almost cinematic story telling ability once again. 679 Recordings were livid that the instrumental was available & phoned Kiss 100 DJ Logan Sama demanding to know why Bashy had the backing track, as Logan was the only one who had been given it. Logan Sama didn’t actually give him the track, Bashy downloaded it from Bearshare. 4 O’Clock was another. The most loved and talked about track was entitled ‘How to Pick A Wifey’ which is over Flukes’(one half of Crazy Cousins) wifey riddem. In this track he gave a step by step guide on how to pick a girlfriend. This track was loved by males & females because of the funny but ever so serious take on relationships.
Working Life
During the release of the Chupa Chups Mixtape he was still a struggling independent musician, so applied to the Royal Mail[1] to become a Postman. He worked there for a year to save money then left to pursue his music career full time. The money he saved was soon spent as music career did not take off as planned & he began living off his over draft then started doing various different things in order to survive. It was during this time he decided to become a Bus Driver. He drove the 114, 183 & 292. He has been very vocal about his being a bus driver in order to promote to young people that working is cool.
Black Boys
In 2007 he released the song ‘Black Boys’. It was this track that propelled Bashy into the nation's consciousness, catching the imagination of a country suffering from many incidents of violence amongst its inner-city youth. With frequent reports of shootings and stabbings on news bulletins, and with the media continually focusing on the lack of role models in certain communities, he felt that the nation’s inner city youth needed a reminder that they had a number of positive figureheads they could look to. His debut single was surrounded by controversy, as some people were calling the track racist. This prompted the governing body OFCOM to investigate. Rumours soon started to circulate that the track had been banned from T.V. Certain sections of the black community were outraged; groups were set up on the social networking site Facebook in order to fight the ban. Racist videos were put up as responses to the track on Youtube. Men dressed a Klu Klux Klan members would hurl abuse towards black people with Black Boys playing in the background. This then prompted people of all races to get behind and support Bashy, in a united stand against racism. It was off the back of this that Bashy was invited to perform at the Love Music Hate Racism Rally in 2008 at Victoria Park, to a crowd of 100,000. He was asked to take the main stage alongside Damon Albarn.[2] Bashy persuaded some of the country's brightest stars to come together, at a point when the scene was gripped by a culture of division, to share their views on the subject. Nolay, Skinnyman, Ty, Big Narstie, Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32, Chipmunk, Swiss, J2k, Skepta, Sincere, Akala and Scorcher featured on the track.
Kidulthood to Adulthood
Bashy soon found himself at the heart of another hugely successful project – AdULTHOOD.
Noel Clarke, director and star of the AdULTHOOD film first encountered Ashley when he was passed a copy of his earlier mixtapes which contained samples from his previous Kidulthood film. Noel was so impressed by what he heard his thoughts soon drifted from copyright protection onto thinking how to get this amazing talent involved in the follow up.
He soon asked Ashley to submit a track to be included on the soundtrack, he delivered Kidulthood to Adulthood. Ashley’s belief in helping others in order to build a scene was shown by him not just submitting tracks from himself but by delving into the scene and gathering music from other artists for Noel to listen to. Noel was so impressed by his efforts he asked him to act as assistant music supervisor for the entire project.
The movie went onto gross millions at the box office and secure a place in the UK movie charts for weeks to follow.
Kidulthood to Adulthood also enjoyed success hitting over a million plays on youtube. The track really set the mood for the film and even entered the National Chart for two weeks inside the top one hundred.[3]
Catch Me If You Can
The highly anticipated debut album was released by Bashy on June 1 2009. Hiphop.com rated the album 'good' saying 'Catch Me If You Can is a debut album that perfectly encapsulates how hip hop has become the world's local music. With vocal accents, lyrical references, swagger and varied production styles that will take a minute for the non-Brit to get their head around, much of this likable and well-intentioned set still deserves wider attention.'[1]
Bashy re-recorded the video for single 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' in July 2009 with young people taking part in creative workshops in Newham for BBC Blast. The students, from New Vic College, East London, were set the challenge by Blast and MTV Music Video Award winning director Jake Nava to create 3 music videos for Bashy's single. The students, under expert supervision of director Emil Nava and Music Video Treatment writer Greta Wynn-Davies, had 3 days to brainstorm, write, organise props/costume, shoot and edit the music video. The 3 music videos were premiered by BBC Blast at the Mayor's Newham Show Sunday 12 July 2009 in a Q&A session with Bashy, Emil and Jake (hosted by Daniel Lambden).
Discography
Albums
- Catch Me If You Can (1 June 2009) Ragz2Richez/GGI
Mixtapes
- Ur Mum Volume One (10 January 2004)
- The Chupa Chups Mixtape (21 January 2006)
- Bashy.com (17 November 2008)
Singles
Physical Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | |||||||||||||
| 2008 | "Black Boys" | 34 | Catch Me If You Can | ||||||||||
| "Kidulthood To Adulthood" | 86 | ||||||||||||
| 2009 | "Who Wants To be A Millionaire" | - | Catch Me If You Can | ||||||||||
| "Your Wish Is My Command" | -
External linksAwards and nominations
References |