Tim Westwood: The hip-hop media mogul

With his trademark mix of English and US vernacular, Tim Westwood is the ideal host of the UK version of MTV's 'Pimp My Ride'.

For nearly 20 years he has been the undisputed figurehead of UK rap, but this particular morning Tim "Big Dawg Pitbull" Westwood resembles not so much a fighting canine as one of Goldilocks' Three Bears.

For nearly 20 years he has been the undisputed figurehead of UK rap, but this particular morning Tim "Big Dawg Pitbull" Westwood resembles not so much a fighting canine as one of Goldilocks' Three Bears.

With unconcealed relish he is tucking into a tub of McDonald's porridge (think congealed wallpaper paste in the sort of big cup they serve beer in at music festivals). "It's my secret weapon," he reveals. "Try it, man. I've got two." And with all the concern of a waiter at a Michelin-starred restaurant he proffers advice on the appropriate amount of McDonald's honey to add to this oatmeal gloop.

It would be fair to say that Tim Westwood lives and breathes hip-hop to the extent that he doesn't have any life outside it. He's a single man in his late 40s; his office is dominated by shelf upon shelf of 12-inch vinyl records and the window sills are decorated with plastic models of rap icons Flava Flav and Biz Markie. At various points in London are parked his five enormous-wheeled American vehicles ("whips" as they are known in the Bronx argot).

He is the nearest thing Britain has to a hip-hop media mogul, presenting and producing radio shows for the BBC, hosting his own television show on cable and satellite venture Channel U and running an active website www.timwestwood.com.

But as well as living the rap game, Westwood happens to be a decent guy with boundless enthusiasm and a genuine interest in other people - and their cars. Which is probably why he was chosen to present the UK version of the cult MTV series Pimp My Ride, hosted in America by the rap notable Xzibit. The highly successful format involves old cars being given a makeover. Or as Westwood puts it on his website: "Check out banged up buckets get flipped into some hot shit."

In the first programme in the series, shown last night, Westwood (aided by a team of Colchester mechanics) helped photography student Bethan Jones get her humble 1961 Morris Minor transformed into a bright pink surfwagon with DVD player, digital camera, laptop, printer and racks for surfboards.

Bethan was delighted and so was Westwood. "The paint job is incredible. The interior is incredible. It's banging. It's a strong look out there," he comments.

He already presents the most influential rap show in Europe but knows that the MTV gig will expose him to a much wider audience. "Pimp My Ride has been the most proper thing I've done in TV. This is working with an executive producer and director, two teams of researchers, having a wardrobe budget. It's the real shit," he says. "It's MTV's most successful franchise. It replaced, what was that weird family? The Osbournes?"

Westwood knows that if he is to keep pace with his friend and mentor the New York DJ Funkmaster Flex and entrepreneurial rap stars such as Jay-Z and 50 Cent, who never let a branding opportunity pass them by, he has to work across media platforms.

"You have got to be everywhere," says Westwood. "Artists in hip-hop have clothing lines, drinks lines. They are movie stars and have radio shows. Hip-hop is a lifestyle brand - it's not just a music on its own."

Westwood has recently moved his Justice media empire into new premises on the fringes of Mayfair, sharing a prestigious office building with firms of chartered accountants and property consultants. But a run of bad fortune means this is but the latest recent relocation of both his business and residential addresses, and he's not best pleased. ("It's been a bitch man. I've moved crib three times this year.")

For two generations of British youth, Westwood has been their key connect to the pulse of urban America. That means that he also carries the hopes of many of those who dream of making it as rap stars themselves, hopes they sometimes carry to his very door. "I wasn't sleeping easy. Too many people was banging my door day and night," he says. "They came round to offer me a demo CD and came round the next week to ask why I hadn't played it [on the radio]."

He has since moved to central London. "If people see you they think you are shopping or going to the BBC." Westwood's desire for an element of privacy is understandable, given that he was once shot by a motorcycle gunman while waiting at traffic lights. In our interview, he refers to a more recent incident in which a young man he knew distantly was shot dead in London.

He has always been at pains to steer clear of violence and the "beefs" that often characterise hip-hop. Like the porridge it has been a secret of his success. "I've never player-hated. I wake up in the morning, thinking 'what have I got to do today?'. My focus is on what Justice wants to achieve," he says. "I have had people hating on me and not been successful. If they had spent their energy focusing on their own career they could be in the game today."

To understand Westwood's influence it is worth considering his work schedule. In one week he is playing clubs in Majorca, Ibiza, Belfast, Watford, Tonbridge, Milton Keynes and Edinburgh on successive nights, filming his TV show and recording his radio programme when time allows. His website, meanwhile, gets more than 2,000 hits a day and 150,000 page impressions.

The Radio 1 show remains his "foundation". Fresh music arrives by email from the States every day. (He points out newly sent files in his inbox from Busta Rhymes, Eminem and Ludacris.) "I just think I want to get on the radio now. It's a drag having to wait until Friday," he says.

He makes the "observation" that he has never been given the chance to broadcast in the daytime schedule. But then adds diplomatically that he is "not trying to make a pitch" but simply wants to play more often.

Westwood might have been around for ever but his work ethic has never slacked and he feels that now, finally, his time has come. "I'm trying to work as hard as I can. I've always worked hard but I never had the outlet. I would do everything from hiring the venue to designing the leaflets. I never had the opportunity to go on TV, to tour the country, to fund a website," he says. "We are in the hip-hop generation - this is the music of today's youth. Everything I learned on the journey, I'm good now. Suddenly it's my goddam' time."

Westwood sometimes gets mocked for such language but if you had immersed yourself in US urban culture in the way that he has you might well speak the same. He does, at least, recognise there are lines to be drawn. "If I wear jewellery and put on a velour suit I look like Jimmy Savile, not (rapper) Fat Joe. Thank God I don't have to spend my money on that," he says.

Tim Westwood (a west Londoner by way of Norfolk) knows exactly where his market is. "I've got no aspirations beyond the UK audience. This summer I've got 30 parties in Greece and Spain. But when I go to [Ayia] Napa, Zante or Corfu or I go to Majorca or Ibiza I am only interested in the UK people. Not once do I want to DJ to mainland Spanish or Greek people," he says.

"If a promoter wants to book me for Germany I will say no. If I go to America I'm only interested in broadcasting back to the UK. All these house (music) DJs going to South America, why? I want to DJ in front of the UK audience so that they will listen to my radio show, watch Pimp My Ride, watch my Channel U show, go to westwood.com and buy my albums. I don't want to earn that American dollar."

Indeed, Westwood's interest in ostentatious motor vehicles may have been fuelled by Funkmaster Flex but it was originally inspired by no less than "Doctor" Neil Fox of Capital radio. "As a kid someone said what's your dream car and I said a Ford Sierra. I had no concept of what it was like to have a hot car," he admits. "Neil Fox had a Jeep at Capital. I used to jump around in that and thought 'this is real fun'." So Westwood bought himself a Jeep. "I did it up from a bucket to something hot to death on the road."

The UK version of Pimp My Ride will not simply imitate the US format but will mix the Americana with cups of hot, sweet tea. "Can you imagine the bling machines we're going to create that'll be cruising down your local high street?" says Westwood. "We're gonna be crazy."