Kwame Safo

Co-Founder

BLACMEX

Speaker Biography

Kwame Safo (p.k.a Funk Butcher) has over 20 years experience as an active dj and music producer beginning on pirate radio, and since then, through radio and live shows has played an important part in shaping the UK dance landscape, especially via his own House show Houseology 101 which has been running since 2007.

Houseology was set up by Kwame in 2009 with the aim of releasing House music that captures sounds along the full spectrum of the genre whilst also reflecting musically, the inner-city tastes of the House community in London. In that very same year, he debuted on the renowned soulful House label, Restless Soul run by Phil Asher and later released the first EP on his own imprint with the UK Funky vocal “Pull Me Close” featuring Shea Soul. Since then Funk has released numerous productions on labels such as Nervous Records, Soulfuric, Runnin Wild, Sccucci Manucci, Swamp 81, BBE to name a few.

Kwame has held radio shows on Deja Vu FM, Rinse FM and Kiss FM. Through his music platform he has passionately played an important part on advocating safety and education for young people with his work for Capital Xtra’s Musical Potential project as lead tutor in 2012 Kwame also acted as consultant for the London Night Czar Amy Lamé for the capitals Sounds Like London event and is an ambassador for the London City Hall Sounds Like London initiative. Most notably his work in 2020 with Mixmag under the Blackout Mixmag header, saw him take on the position of guest editor and tie together over 19 different features addressing systemic racism and the amplification of Black contributors. The editorial subsequently won editorial of the year at The Drums Awards 2021.

Kwame has demonstrated a very strong and proactive work ethic over the many years as a broadcaster and also as a positive influence in the music industry. He currently works as Relationship Manager for Arts at the British Council, overseeing portfolios in both Creative Economy and Music teams there. Kwame was the former Grants and Programmes Manager for Industry Funds at the PRS Foundation, and continues to shape new innovative ways to help new and established musicians to reach their outcomes. Kwame is currently also the co-founder of BLACMEX, the United Kingdom’s first Black Music Export Office.

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