User:JodieAlixTonks/sandbox

StayFresh is an urban record label/production company based in the West Midlands that releases primarily grime, hip-hop and urban music. The StayFresh was founded Jamie Dred and Despa and the roster consists of nine vocalists; Macca, Raider, Movez, J1, Saf-1, Deadly, Pressure, Don Menna and Casper and two in-house producers; Swifta Beater and Jay. Together the team boasts years of industry experience, having supported acts such as Chipmunk, N-Dubz, Soulja Boy and Tyga.

StayFresh have a nationwide fan base and have been heavily supported by 1Xtra, Radio 1, Choice FM, Kiss FM, Rinse FM and many other local and national legal, pirate and Internet stations. Their music is frequently played by DJ’s such as Mista Jam, Ace & Vis, DJ Target, Logan Sama, Big Mikee, Semtex, Cameo, Scratcha DVA and DJ Q to name a few. They have several videos and features on hugely popular urban TV channels, Channel AKA and Flava TV; and have also featured in Mixmag & RWD print magazines and numerous online blogs. The StayFresh movement began in late 2008 when StayFresh founders Despa and Jamie Dred decided to bring together some of the Midlands most talented up and coming artists to work together under the StayFresh label. The first StayFresh mixtape was a Valentine’s day release in 2009, called ‘Fresh Love’. This really put StayFresh on the map locally and was so well received that they released a sequel in the following year.

By the start of 2010 people were starting to take notice of StayFresh’s work on a national basis due to a number of solo promotional releases on the label in 2009. The main project in 2010 was the ‘Woooo Riddim’, a simple idea that involved getting as many people as possible from all over the UK to vocal one of the StayFresh instrumentals. Utilising the musical network that Jamie had built up in his earlier days as a DJ, the project became a huge success with it going on to become the most vocalled instrumental in grime history with over 150 versions from artists including StayFresh, Chipmunk, Wretch 32, Boy Better Know, D Double E, Roll Deep, P Money and many more well known names. A BoxFresh sponsored mix-cd followed featuring 50 of the best versions. This project announced to the whole country who they were and their fan-base began to expand at an alarming rate.

2011 saw StayFresh further establish themselves within the industry with the commercial release of two vocal singles from Raider and Movez and instrumental E.P’s from well-respected producers S-X and Preditah. Solo artist J1 also featured in the hugely successful ‘Lord of The Mics 3’ DVD, which entered the top 40 national charts for a number of weeks. 2011 also saw StayFresh make the transition to a more extravagant stage-show orientated performances and as a group StayFresh completed two UK tours in the summer of 2011:

1)	StayFresh Summer Tour – A completely independent tour/marketing campaign that took place across the country in Birmingham, London, Stoke, Manchester, Derby and Bristol.

2)	BiggaFish Halloween Tour – Aimed at the 14+ crowd, this took place in Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and London. StayFresh were the only act from outside the capital to feature on all the dates.

StayFresh spent the remainder of 2011 working on material for a 2012 release, working on material with several high profile artists including Maverick Sabre, Ed Sheeran, Boy Better Know, Roll Deep and P Money. The label also continued to release regular promotional material throughout 2011 but the key focus was on ensuring that they were thoroughly prepared to market their 2012 releases.

The main project for 2012 was ‘StayFresh –The EP’, which was been heavily supported across the country on both radio and television. Following the release of the EP, it reached a peak of number 5 in the iTunes hip-hop chart and peaking in the equivalent UK only chart at number 2! The group also participated on the ‘Lord Of The Mics’ tour and also performed on the Birmingham leg of the MOBO Tour. 2012 also saw many individual releases from StayFresh members, giving the artists a platform to really solidify themselves individually as well as collectively; and as in previous years StayFresh continued to release numerous instrumental projects from their in-house producers.

2013 saw many exciting debut releases from StayFresh as solo artists, including ‘SafDoneDis’, the anticipated Rap/Grime mixtape, which peaked at No.2 in the itunes Hip-Hop chart. Deadly also released his long-awaited debut mixtape, ‘My Side of The Fence’, which debuted at No.3 in the iTunes Hip-Hop chart. Movez also showcased his single ‘1 on 1 links’ with an exclusive video shot by Topman UK for their digital magazine, Topman Generation. 2013 also saw the return of ‘StayFresh Summer’ as StayFresh hosted a summer BBQ event at Custard Factory, Birmingham. The event invited fans to see live performances and meet and greet with artists, as well as the chance to purchase StayFresh merchandise. The year concluded with a major event, ‘StayFresh StayBizzy’ which took place at The Institute (formerly HMV Institute), Birmingham. This involved StayFresh coming together with fellow independent giants USG Entertainment to put on a concert. This was a great success and ended 2013 on a massive high.

2014 kicked off to a great start with Pressure’s debut single ‘New Day’ featuring on the 1Xtra playlist and being supported across radio and TV. StayFresh have also put out two tracks as a collective effort. ‘Down’ is taste of what's to come from their forthcoming second official release. Production on Down is handled by Teddy Music and the double A-side also sees the long awaited release of the Swifta Beater produced banger 'How We Roll'. May is set to be an exciting time for StayFresh artist, Macca. He has been given the opportunity to perform alongside other UK artists as part of Canadian Music Week. The artists are together showcased as “Best of British” and will perform among an array of other genres in Canada during the music week events.