Emerald Rose Lewis is making afternoon radio unmissable.
Stick on the radio between the hours of 4pm-6pm on a weekday afternoon, and you’ll likely hear some sort of witheringly dry BBC Radio 4 documentary about the history of Florentine architecture, presented by someone who sounds like a cross between Richard Hammond, David Attenborough and your dad. However, tune that radio over to 106.8 for Rinse FM, and you’ll hear Emerald Rose Lewis, blasting out “Bouff Daddy” and “Ding-A-Ling” like it’s 4am in the club and your kitchen is Room One.
My dad was a radio DJ during the 70s and 80s. He had decks in the house and loads of reggae, dub and hip-hop records. Me and my sister used to nick his vinyls and try to mix them.
In the last three years, Emerald has gone from being an amateur presenter to one of the most exciting voices in independent radio, appearing on Rinse FM everyday as well as presenting a monthly specialist show on 2-step, UK funk, bass, house, and garage. Earlier this year she worked with MIA on the curation of Meltdown Festival, and right now she’s working on her first ever forthcoming travel documentary: an exploration into the concept of greatness and what it means to be great. Not bad for a kid from Shepperton, just a 15 minute drive away from Ali G’s hometown of Staines.
“My dad was a radio DJ during the 70s and 80s” explains Emerald. “He had decks in the house and loads of reggae, dub and hip-hop records. Me and my sister used to nick his vinyls and try to mix them.” At 19, she finished college and moved to London. As she met more and more people connected to the music industry, she began to take on a few presenting and DJ gigs. “I guess it worked, because I liked partying a lot,” she laughs. But it was also hard graft. When she finally got her opportunity to take on a role at Rinse, she had to balance the job with nannying, a teaching assistant job, and a restaurant job.
So, what has the journey taught her? “You should never chase after something you really aren’t interested in,” explains Emerald. “It’s easy to think you have to do something to get to where you want to be, but it’s really visible from the outside when you’re doing something that doesn’t make sense to you. So, I say no matter what the money is, or what the status aligned with it is, always just do things you genuinely care about and are interested in, because it shows.”
