The point is that the criticism that you level at Tim (pretending to be something that he is not - presumably on the basis of a vocal affectation) can equally be levelled at many of the artists who claim to be 'keeping it real' or 'keeping it ghetto' or even 'keeping it black' (whatever that might mean). You could also argue that mainstream Hip Hop is an entire affectation - trying to be something that it isn't.
I agree with this. TBF, growing up in a clergyman's family isn't poverty, it's not cash-rich luxury or anything, and he's been a DJ in the hiphop industry for 25 years, and most of his critics haven't or anything like it. A lot of rappers come from just as comfortable backgrounds as Westwood and their "keeping it real" is just as contrived - just look at the number that are kids of teachers and academics! Common, Kanye, Biggie... In other news - Johnny Cash never shot anyone in Reno, Elvis didn't go to prison, and AC/DC prefer a nice up of tea to shaking all night long.
TBH, whenever I hear criticisms of Westwood being fake, it makes me think of this kid criticising 50 Cent for a lack of street cred:
Which led to the hilarious response video:
as for the accent , hw would probably argue that he is an entertainer - and its part of the affected personality that he adopts when ...entertaining
I think this is right. He knows it's an affectation and he knows lots of people dislike it. But at this point, it's part of his brand/act - an act that he's spun out for about two decades longer than any other Radio 1 DJ. Without it, he'd just be
Des Kaye working at B&Q.
This isn't really my story, but I'll tell it anyway. Acquaintance had to record a promo or an ident for something, and were working their way through various celebs/DJs at some event on a Monday morning and got to Westwood, who was pretty bleary-eyed. They gave him the copy, turned on the mike and he mumbled
"hi, this is Tim Westwood, make sure to check out our website at www.someyouthdrugawarenessthing.com, bye"
and then he finished. It wasn't very good and there was an embarrassed pause; he looked up and the acquaintance said "erm, do you think you could make it a bit more...you know...
Westwood?" He nodded, smiled, paused, took a deep breath and started bellowing,
"
yo, wassup bredren, it's your boy
Wesswood fresh from playing the flyest joints, listen up, I want
every one of you to drop the knowledge bomb and log on to
www.someyouthdrugawarenessthing.com, 'cos
you got to know it before you blow it, on the real,
understand what your life is and
represent your own choices,
educate yourself, think about it one time,
PEACE!"
(or whatever).
So yeah, he understands what people expect of him and he knows how to deliver it. I've also heard from a mate who was a runner on TV shows that he's superprofessional and polite to everyone on sets etc.
I think if you've had twenty years of people really viscerally hating you and telling you you know nothing, you know what people think of you. Look at it the other way around - seeing as he can't mix, produce, rap or make beats - what exactly is Westwood without his image?
.
and the one that got the biggest cheer was "let me hear you say fuck you westwood", which everyone joined in on.
