Jamal Edwards

Jamal Brendan Edwards (24 August 1990 – 20 February 2022) was an English music entrepreneur, DJ and founder of the online R&B/Hip-Hop platform SB.TV.

Edwards was an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, a youth charity which helps young people set up their own businesses.

In 2021, Edwards set up Jamal Edwards Delve, a project aimed at refurbishing and reopening youth centres.

Jamal Edwards was born on 24 August 1990 in Luton, England, and spent his early years there before moving to Acton, West London, where he lived with his mother Brenda Edwards, stepfather, Patrick, and his younger sister, Tanisha.

Edwards' family originates from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

As a child, he was introduced to stage school by his mother, who came fourth in the second series of The X Factor in 2005.

His mother wanted him to pursue acting and drama; however, he aspired to be successful in the music industry.

He attended Acton High School and enjoyed the subjects of ICT and music.

However, he struggled to attain the grades he needed for college, and as a result, had to study for an extra year.

He then attended Ealing Green College, part of West London College, where he received a BTEC diploma in Media Moving Image.

During his school years, he started rapping and would film videos with his friends that would then be posted on YouTube.

These videos would eventually become his business and the beginning of SBTV.

Edwards worked for the retail chain Topman for four years to support himself financially while he ran SBTV.

Edwards was the founder of SBTV – an online media platform to discover emerging artists.

It launched in 2006 and has helped to launch the careers of many artists including Ed Sheeran, Jessie J, Stormzy and Emeli Sandé.

In 2011, SBTV was featured in a Google Chrome advert.

The ad caused the SBTV site to crash due to the traffic and it became the second-most popular UK YouTube video of the year.

As a result, this attracted the attention of the rapper, Dr. Dre, who invited Edwards to film him on a tour of Asia.

In 2013, Edwards released an ebook, Self Belief: The Vision: How To Be a Success on Your Own Terms.

His book achieved success and was the number-one bestselling ebook series according to iBooks.

It sold so well that Virgin Books bought the rights for a print edition.

In 2016, SBTV worked with the youth-focused news service, Press Association to expand into more of a mainstream multichannel video.

Over the years Edwards constructed collaborations with some of the world's biggest stars, conducting the first online UK-based interviews with Drake, Nicki Minaj and Wiz Khalifa.

As well as his online platform, Edwards released a headwear collection on Topman (his previous place of employment) with American Freshman.

The collection featured limited editions of snapbacks and bucket hats that were designed by Edwards himself.

In 2017 he made a documentary about male suicide.

Edwards walked in the Hermès: Step into the Frame catwalk show at London's Nine Elms.

As of 2019, the SBTV YouTube channel had more than one million subscribers.

When Edwards was 15, he was given a video camera, filmed friends rapping and performing and uploaded them to his YouTube channel.

Then, he created the channel SBTV for his videos, taking the initials from "SmokeyBarz", the name he had briefly used as a rapper.

After he left school, he worked for the clothing company Topman, while continuing to make videos.

His videos became more popular with hundreds of thousands of views.

He was able to leave Topman to concentrate on SBTV.

Initially, the channel's content was grime dance music, but he then began to explore other musical genres.

Edwards filmed some artists before they became well-known such as Jessie J's first acoustic video (apart from videos on her personal YouTube channel).

He also filmed others such as Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Dave, Emeli Sandé, Rita Ora, Krept & Konan, Yungen, Mic Righteous, Nines, Tori Kelly, Bugzy Malone, Mist, English Frank, Aaron Unknown and Cadet.

As part of the GQ Heroes series in 2019, Edwards hosted an open forum discussion with Adwoa Aboah on mental health.

In 2019, Kurt Geiger revealed Edwards as one of the faces of its "Characterful Style" campaign for AW19.

Later that year, Edwards was also announced as one of the faces of the Primark AW19 collection, celebrating 50 years of the brand.

In 2019, Edwards directed the Chelsea FC remix video of grime artist Capo Lee's "Style and Swag".