Ed Sheeran, Dave and Idris Elba have paid tribute this week to Jamal Edwards after he
passed away on Sunday morning.
Jamal’s mum Brenda Edwards, spoke about her son’s death on a recent episode of Loose
Women.
“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 Tanisha and the rest of his
family and friends are completely devastated,” she said.
Jamal had an important influence on the grime music scene throughout his life and created
SBTV in 2005, a Youtube channel which has helped launch the careers of many prominent
English musicians.
Ed Sheeran took to Instagram to remember Jamal, writing “I would not be here without him,
professionally and personally. There will never be anything close to what he is, but I’m so
grateful to have existed within his orbit.”
Singer Rita Ora also posted on Instagram to commemorate Jamal, “my first ever interview
was with you.”
“Jamal, our endless talks on music and the belief you had in me and so many of us before
we even believed in ourselves,” she said.
When Jamal was fifteen he began uploading videos of his friends rapping and subsequently
created the SBTV Youtube channel which spotlighted unknown rappers and singers.
The channel now has over a million subscribers and has been credited with bringing many
UK artists to stardom including Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Emilie Sande and Jessie J.
Rapper and singer Example wrote on Instagram, “can’t believe you’re gone. 31 years old.
Can’t find the words right now.”
Jamal was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 for his service to music through
the SBTV platform.
Jamal was involved in philanthropy throughout his life, and founded his grassroots
youth-centre project in 2019, JED, which provided four new youth centres in Acton, West
London, where Jamal spent his early years.
In March 2017, Jamal collaborated with The Guardian to create a documentary on male
suicide where he spoke with childhood friends about mental health.
Actor Adam Deacon took to twitter and described Jamal as “was one of the nicest, most
down to earth and humble men I’ve met in this industry
Claire Young
Image credit: Sky News