niall smith

my room, records + magazines on film / 📸 @_philippatton_

gassed to announce I now have a MONTHLY residency with @rinse.fm 💾 just did my first episode this week. expect interviews, conversations, deep cuts + more - next episode is aug. 4th / 12pm, truly honoured to be here 🤞🏾 📸 / @ptrckjsr

[print] magazine season is over 📁 thank you to the 100s of people who showed out for @theculturecrypt at rough trade last monday - we appreciate you all. there was 100s of hours of hard work’n talent put in from the team, performers and collaborators, you guys really shelled it. thank you to everyone who bought a mag and read it too, really means a lot !¡ onto the next one 🗞️

Join @ceebosweezy and his creative team for a Blair Babies listening party, Q&A and painting session inspired by the project. Our panel talk will be hosted by the amazing @niallcsmith - we want to see all our best painters and music lovers there! 16+, 6PM. Sign up link in bio, don’t be late!

thank you 2025 🗓️ would be impossible to cram in everything this year into one post: so I thought I’d share some things I didn’t post/recent work to cap off the year. thank you to @rinse.fm for inducting me into their class of 2025 and @djmag for letting me shout about some projects I loved from this year too. big up @complex_uk and @josephjppatterson for letting me throw my two cents into the 2025 music + culture journalism highlights - as well as being cited as the future journalism alongside @nazfromnewham @flashysillah + showing love to two of my articles for @trenchtrenchtrench thank you to @thegriots_ for letting me talk all things hip-hop in their latest video up on their youtube now! shoutout to @ife_ogunjobi for letting me do some vinyl djing at his EP launch event at Jumbi. + ofc big up @theculturecrypt team for an insane year. four covers, and a cartoon network-style campaign is insane stuff. I even got to do a lot more presenting this year too (s/o @icykof ) and the the young black and gifted cover is a moment in time fr 🖨️

had the honour of sitting down with @therealkano for the latest @edreamag print cover, where we spoke about the state of fashion, music and the overlaps between british and jamaican culture 🇯🇲 invest in real journalism 🗞️

had the honour of hosting @ife_ogunjobi ‘s ep listening party at @jumbipeckham 🎙️ + here’s some other stuff I’ve been up to

on air, on the newsstand and online

Grime, Social Subcultures, and Simon Wheatley   Thanks to my big brother, I wasn’t introduced to grime; I lived it. Lethal B singles, slick New Era caps and Channel AKA showings governed half-term holidays and PlayStation sessions. Outside my childhood bedroom, it’s pretty evident grime isn’t just the spawn of British electronic music: it’s a window into a new language. A loose code of ethics and ecosystem passed down by the jungle, garage and breakbeat forebearers to the youth. With two decades of cultural dominance (kicking off with the More Fire Crew CV and Boy in da Corner), it’s impossible to squeeze all of grime’s square musical pegs into a curated Instagram hole for this passage, but you know what? Simon Wheatley’s social study and, by proxy, grime handbook Don’t Call Me Urban comes pretty damn close. Initially released in 2010, the book followed a stifled turn-in process, leaving Wheatley somewhat dissatisfied with the original article. It was quickly snatched up and revered. However, it fell out of print almost as soon as it debuted. As a result, it morphed into a mythical trinket reserved for those truly in the know. Despite high eBay listings and scarcity, Wheatley and the fans still wanted more. For Simon? The book didn’t reflect his complete vision. And, for fans and artists, they yanked out pages from the original work in hopes of capturing the essence of his original negatives. On May 8th 2025, Patrick and I headed down to Brick Lane for the much-anticipated Corteiz-backed edition of Don’t Call Me Urban. Now, at long last, Wheatley’s vision for the project is complete. Edited and stitched together over several years between Wheatley’s voyage to his Indian homefront and his assumed stomping ground of London, the now 352-page portal is finally widely accessible. But get this: Don’t Call Me Urban isn’t a grime manuscript by design—it’s the byproduct of a social study in photo form, documenting the lives of Black and Brown British people through the Blair and Bassline administration. It’s art told through the pain, the mundane and the real, not from the poisonous media monolith that tries to engulf us.

@wax_poetics is one of my favourite magazines, so I’m super honoured to have two features in their latest issue 🗞️ got a chance to interview @ohsnapitsthepurist and the wider @daupemedia family to talk all things vinyl… also penned a re-discovery piece on the louisiana legend tina ashton, her album and its ties to the southern hip hop scene too 🇺🇸

writing, uncling, shooting, record shopping, lecturing, dvd browsing, le-hennying, jananing and wearing a blade jacket 🗺️

Singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, radio host: @estelledarlings , lady of many talents, is back with a new project entitled ‘New Direction’, but to appreciate the present and look to the future, it’s good to sometimes revisit the past. TRENCH writer @niallcsmith recently connected with the West London-born, US-based superstar to talk all things ‘The 18th Day’, Estelle’s seminal debut album released in 2004 👑 Hit the 🔗 in our bio to read on.