What is SBTV?
THE sudden death of Jamal Edwards saddened music fans around the world.
Edwards is remembered for his influence within the music industry through his platform SBTV.
What is SBTV?
SBTV, also known as SB.TV or SmokeyBarz, is a British online media platform meant to discover up-and-coming artists.
It was founded in 2006 by Jamal Edwards and a small team of young people.
Most of the content of can be found on YouTube, which features a roster of underground artists, freestyle rap videos and music videos.
Since its founding, SBTV has attracted millions of fans and has been praised for discovering many artists, with its YouTube channel garnering more than 1.22 million subscribers.
The platform has been credited with "discovering" Ed Sheeran, whose music was aired exclusively on the channel in February 2010, as well as Jessie J.
Other musicians who appeared on SBTV include:
- Stormzy
- Dave
- Krept & Konan
- Yungen
- Mic Righteous
- Nines
- Tori Kelly
- Bugzy Malone
- Mist
- English Frank
- Aaron Unknown
- Cadet
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SBTV and youth-focused news outlet, Press Association, began working together in 2016 to help expand the viewership of both.
Jamal is credited with conducting some of the first online -based interviews with huge celebrities such as and .
He has also built a relationship with the Royal Family and first interviewed Prince Charles in 2013.
What does SBTV stand for?
The name of SBTV comes from its founder, Jamal Edwards.
Edwards' rap name at the time he started his YouTube channel was 'SmokeyBarz' - resulting in the acronym SB for the name of the channel.
The rapper was 15 when he first started filmed friends rapping and performing and uploaded them to YouTube.
Who runs SBTV?
For the first three years since creating SBTV, Edwards acted alone to provide amateur footage of British grime artists including Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder.
Until his sudden passing on February 20, 2022, Jamal was still running the company as the CEO.
It is yet to be confirmed the cause of death of the music mogul.
His mother, Brenda released a statement with Good Morning Britain on February 21, 2022 saying that the star had passed away after a "sudden illness".
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The statement reads: "It is with the deepest heartache that I confirm that my beautiful son Jamal Edwards passed away yesterday morning after a sudden illness.
"Myself, his sister Tanish and the rest of his family and friends are completely devastated. He was the centre of our world."
