How to scale cultural greatness, with Elijah

Here in Sovereign Albion, we are interested in exploring and scaling British greatness. So I wanted to speak with Elijah, a friend and artist who’s a very special person to have that conversation with.Elijah is a writer, DJ, and founder of the record label Butterz. He came up through grime and pirate radio, a scene that had to build its own infrastructure, and in doing so produced something totally distinctive in Britain, culturally, sonically, and economically. More recently, he’s the author of Close the App, Make the Ting, a set of prompts and provocations that I think of as akin to a16z’s It’s Time to Build, but aimed at encouraging agency in new and emerging artists. This was a really special conversation. We explored cultural sovereignty and the role of media institutions in platforming British arts, power laws and talent spotting in record labels, cultural company building in the internet era, overcoming tall poppy syndrome, rent as the creative director, and how it’s up to all of us to reconnect the nation. All fundamentally in service of an increasingly important question: how do we platform, and scale, cultural greatness in Britain?Thanks to the Centre for British Progress for supporting the podcast, to Podcast House for production support, and Simon Panayi for original music.00:00 British Cultural Greatness01:23 Elijah's Journey03:53 Grime Stories07:19 UK Platforms and Cultural Sovereignty10:29 Talent Spotting and Power Laws in Music13:46 Building a Record Label in the Internet Era16:07 Butterz and Creative Entrepreneurship24:33 Change, Activism and Optimism30:43 Arts Funding and Democratic Variance31:59 Rent as the Creative Director32:55 "But Does It Work at Scale?"34:08 London Privilege37:09 University, Philip Gould, Aspiration and AI40:17 Build Without Permission41:20 Who Is Making Interesting Work Today? (+ Why Fred Again is an Athlete)46:40 Greatness in British Music49:10 Reviving Patriotism57:01 Elijah's Deep Feedback Podcast This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sovereignalbion.com