As someone who was born into a household that had a recording studio as a front room—for her MC siblings, Skepta and JME—grime was always the air that Julie Adenuga lived and breathed. “I never really decided that a grime show was going to be a part of my life. I just wanted to play music, and Rinse FM let me do that,” she tells me over email, of her first opportunity to be a presenter. [Full disclosure: Adenuga and I started out on radio together, co-hosting the show Mewzikbox on Rinse in 2010.]



Last year, Adenuga left her slot as the drivetime presenter on Rinse FM to become the U.K. anchor for Beats 1. On the global show, Julie plays all genres—including grime, which for years has been underrepresented on mainstream radio. “I just play it,” says Adenuga. “I don’t try to take on the role of spoon-feeding it to people steadily and gently so I don’t scare them. No one explains rock music before they play it, or drum’n’bass.”



As a presenter, every interview Adenuga does with a grime artist shows how close the genre is to her heart; and she reps the culture constantly beyond radio. “It’s about me celebrating what I care about, in any format,” she reflects. “Whether that be a radio show or an event or a TV show.” And she always stays down to earth, insisting that Dizzee Rascal telling her he liked her tinted prescription glasses is the highlight of her career. Coming from someone who’s been called a superstar by Dr. Dre, that’s a powerful message.

Hear Adenuga on Beats 1 every Monday—Thursday at 3 p.m. EST. Apple Music subscribers can follow her on Connect.