PDC STUDIOS

I'm sitting here recovering a little today. I thought this dastardly flu that I had, had decided to move on and harass another poor human. Unfortunately for me being out in the cold yesterday seems to have brought it all back. However while I sniffle into a tissue i'm still happy that yesterday went the way it did.
The early afternoon started with me meeting Poetic Pilgrimage at St Pauls to get some snaps of them for my Hijab project. Whilst there I learnt that the Rev Jesse Jackson was coming to Occupy London Stock Exchange at St Pauls. I decided despite the cold to hang around. I'll go into detail later in another blog post.
You would think photographing Poetic Pilgrimage and impromptu chance to photograph Jesse Jackson would have been enough for me. No not for this photographer. I still had to make my way across town into the heart of Brixton to visit Jaja Soze at his Brixton based studio.

Jaja recently viewed my blog and I must humbly say liked my work. For me this was fantastic as I actually wanted to talk to him about a project I want to do during the summer, as well as other business opportunities.

For those of you that know of Jaja Soze you can understand why I wasn't sure what to expect. Jaja's reputation and music proceeds him. Ex gang member ,revert to Islam,, Author, active community member,highly charges rapper and a Business man. Which jaja would I be meeting? And how would the experience pan out?

When I arrived at the studios things were pretty busy with young artists dropping in for the studio sessions. It was great to see kids actually taking the art form seriously and dropping some wicked tracks. I could clearly see that not only was the PDC studios offering them a place to nurture their creativity but also encouragement, support and a lot of love. when I initially walked in I found Jaja passing on his hard earned business accuem to a young lady looking to start her own business. As I sat back and observed I could hear some of the straight talking advice he was dishing as well as the encouragement.

When I finally managed to tear Jaja away from advice giving and encouragement for a little chat I found him to be an interesting and vibrant person. On one hand we discussed Islam and his conversion in Egypt to his past in gangs and how it led him to where he is today. I can see from talking to him why he is a role model for a young post riot generation. He understands their struggles, he took the wrong path but with hard work and dedication has become a successful artist and business man. I personally believe we need more role models like this for todays youth. People that they can relate to but that can also explain that success comes with hard work and not by instant gratification.

Needless to say the meeting went well and inshallah if things go well you may see Jaja appearing in my next project.

I can't really end this article without giving a massive shout out to Uncle Frank!! Yep the man behind the screen. You will see him in some of the images posted below. Uncle Frank isn't what you would really call an Uncle as he's only 27 but he's PDC magician...the Sound engineer. And I guess his encouraging nature has earned him that name.

For further information on PDC check out the following link
http://pdcent.com/

Check out some images of the boys at work

JAJA THINKING HARD

UNCLE FRANKS CONCENTRATION FACE

SOME DOWN TIME

JAJA

DIAMOND