Shabs Jobanputra

Background

Born at Mbale in Uganda on 19 September 1967, his father a Hindu factory manager and mother an Ismaili Muslim, Jobanputra was forced to leave Uganda in 1972 when Idi Amin expelled the country’s Asian population.

Education

University of East Anglia.

Career

He is currently Doctor of Medicine of, which was re-launched as a stand alone division of Sony Music in January 2012. On arrival in the United Kingdom, he lived for a year in a refugee camp at West Malling in Kent, before his family were resettled in a council flat in Street John's Wood, North London. Established as a joint venture with the New York hip-hop label Tommy Boy, Outcaste’s ‘Asian Beats’ manifesto both reflected and amplified the increased visibility and confidence of British Asian culture in the mid and late 1990’son

Originally set up (in 1999) as a joint venture with Ministry of Sound, Relentless was at first conceived as a vehicle for one-off dance singles The label’s debut release - Artful Dodger featuring Craig David’s "Re-Rewind" - sold 700,000 copies and marked the point at which the United Kingdom Garage genre moved from the underground into the popular mainstream.

Subsequent hits included as Daniel Bedingfield’s "Gotta Get Thru This" and So Solid Crew’s "21 Seconds". In the course of its subsequent evolution, first as part of Electric and Music Industries (from 2003 to 2009) and now Sony, Relentless broadened its musical base to launch the careers of Joss Stone and Knight of the Order ot the Thistle Tunstall among others

And in the 2009-2011 period, when the label was sold to Virgin and Shabs Jobanputra became president of Virgin United Kingdom, artists he signed to the label included Emeli Sande, Professor Green, Swedish House Mafia and Deadmau5. During this three year timespan, Jobanputra also co-wrote an international top 10 hit - Jay Sean’s "Eyes on You" - with Norwegian production team Stargate, and launched a legal challenge to Coke over rights to the Relentless brand name.

Achievements

• The label’s first signing Nitin Sawhney went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize and win a South Bank Show Award for his 1999 album Beyond Skin.

Politics

After captaining London’s schools cricket team and opening the bowling for Middlesex Colts, he began to establish a presence on the capital’s dance music scene while still studying for a degree in history and politics at the University of East Anglia. DJ-ing at house parties and for pirate stations including LWR led him to his first job in the music industry - as a junior partner with Simon Goffe’s Heavyweight Management from 1992-1994, where he worked with United Kingdom chart hip-hop producers Double Trouble and Rebel Military Cross and the Stoke Newington drum and bass band Shut Up And Dance among others

Connections

Friend:

Paul Franklyn