Name Abrantee Boateng | Role Presenter | |
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Similar People May7ven, Mista Silva, Ras Kwame, Eddie Kadi, Jimmy Akingbola Profiles | ||
Abrantee Boateng is a radio presenter, club DJ and event promoter. He is known professionally as DJ Abrantee and is one of the voices of urban radio station Capital Xtra in the United Kingdom.
Contents
- Early life
- Radio career
- Outside radio
- Charity
- Awards and nominations
- Discography
- Film and television
- References
Early life
Born in Croydon to Akan parents, Boateng grew up there until the family moved to East London when he was seven years old. He attended Stratford School in Forest Gate. His interest in music was ignited during his teenage years by a cousin who had a sound system and introduced Boateng to his record collection and took him along to various events to experience DJing. He spent three years shadowing his cousin around clubs and venues in London. Following his cousin's decision to leave the music business, Abrantee inherited his record collection. In 2000, he joined a group of DJs called 90% who were promoting events in London. Boateng is proud of being able to speak the Twi language, predominantly used in Akan territories within Ghana.
Radio career
Abrantee Boateng, also known professionally as DJ Abrantee, started his radio career in 2005 working the night shift at Choice FM and filling in for absentees whilst continuing his work as a DJ on the club circuit. The following year, Boateng was asked to present Saturday's Choice, a show that aired once a month on a Saturday. In 2007, the success of Saturday's Choice led to a permanent position at Choice FM to host the new Morning Riser show between 3:00 am and 6:00 am from Monday to Friday. He then moved to another time slot in March 2010 to present the station's evening show from 8:00 pm to 12:00 am from Monday to Friday. The evening show consisted of tracks from Choice FM's playlist but also included interviews with high-profile artists: Diddy, Usher, Drake, Dizzee Rascal, Kelly Rowland, Big Boi, Labrinth, Kelis, Taio Cruz, Flo Rida, Travie McCoy, Tinchy Stryder, Jeremih, Loick Essien, Jason Derulo amongst others. In April 2011, Choice FM announced that DJ Abrantee would become the new presenter of its drive time show between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm from Monday to Friday. It also announced that Abrantee would start hosting a new program entirely dedicated to Afrobeats from 12:00 am to 2:00 am every Saturday. The new show called Afrobeats with Abrantee was launched on 16 April 2011 and was one of the most tweeted about topic on Twitter that day which resulted in Choice FM trending for the first time on the social networking service. Abrantee is currently on the air every Sunday – Thursday from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm for what is now Capital Xtra's drivetime show, while the Afrobeats with Abrantee show is now on between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am every Saturday.
Outside radio
Besides his radio career, Abrantee Boateng is also a club DJ and an event promoter. He is one of the main protagonists of the Afrobeats scene in the United Kingdom and has hosted various events at home and abroad. In July 2011, he started Afrobeats Sundays. The weekly event is held at the Proud 2 club at The O2 and celebrated its second anniversary in July 2013. The launch of Afrobeats Sundays was followed in October 2011 by the first of an annual Afrobeats club tour which visited 12 cities around the UK and Ireland and helped to spread the word about Afrobeats further.
In December 2011, DJ Abrantee released his first Afrobeats mixtape Afrobeats Mix Volume One that featured a collection of Afrobeats artists and songs interspersed with vocal contributions from Lethal bizzle, Tinchy Stryder, Bashy and others. This led to DJ Abrantee being included in two broad sheet pieces on Afrobeats, the first one in the Guardian in January 2012 and the second one in the London Evening Standard in February 2012. Both articles highlighted his role in the resurgence of the music genre in the United Kingdom. It drew the interest of the Guardian once again in July 2012 when Abrantee brought Afrobeats to an unlikely venue and hosted Afrobeats at Somerset House with appearances from Olu Maintain, Atumpan, May7ven, Vibe Squad, dance troupes and many more. In January 2013, he went one step further and gathered the best Afrobeats tracks under one roof in the form of a compilation album entitled Afrobeats Ultimate Collection.
In addition to his commitment to Afrobeats, Abrantee Boateng is also one of the founders of the annual Official Ghana Independence Celebration in London. The first event took place in March 2000 at the Rex Theatre in Stratford where 3000 attendees gathered to celebrate the independence of Ghana from the United Kingdom. It moved to a bigger venue, the IndigO2 at The O2, in 2011 and has been held there ever since. The last celebration took place on 9 March 2013 and was hosted by DJ Abrantee with performances by Atumpan, Mista Silva and Chris Waddle amongst others.
2014 saw Abrantee made his debut at Glastonbury, performing on the Silver Hayes Stage on the Sunday evening, and followed this set soon after with an appearance at the Essex Music Festival alongside Jhene Aiko and Wizkid. In 2015, DJ Abrantee joined Fame Music as a judge for their Afrobeats: Search for a Star, helping to discover and develop some of the best unsigned Afrobeats acts from all of Africa.
Charity
Abrantee Boateng has been involved with various charities and fundraising events across the United Kingdom including the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust. In June 2009, he participated in the Daniel De Gale 10K Marrow Thon and ran to raise money for the ACLT. He has also hosted a number of their events. In June 2013, Boateng was part of the group of footballers and entertainers who travelled to Ghana for Michael Essien's Game of Hope in Accra for a charity football match and a charity event.