A LEADING black cultural commentator says black music and culture needs to be better protected in the UK.

This comes after DJ Tim Westwood was accused of sexual misconduct by seven black women, in a joint investigation by The Guardian and the BBC.

The 64-year-old strenuously denies the allegations.

The hip-hop DJ has now stepped down from his Capital Xtra radio show “until further notice” following claims of sexual misconduct, according to a statement from Global – the parent company of the station.

But for Marianne Sunshine, a leading cultural commentator, who initially worked with the team behind the explosive BBC documentary, Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power, more needs to be done to ensure black music and culture in the UK is controlled and fronted by those from the community.

Speaking to The Voice, she said: “We want control of it.

“Our music has been watered down, twisted and pulled apart and at the top of the chain are older white men who control everything.

“We do not gatekeep, we champion them when they do what we do easily, and they take it and they run and this has happened in the DJ space for years.”

Westwood hosted the first nationally-broadcast rap show in the UK, which began in 1994 – attracting the biggest names in US rap onto his show.

Throughout his broadcasting career, he became an influential figure in other genres of black music including Dancehall, Grime, Drill and more recently Afrobeats.

Ms Sunshine who is also a PR professional, from Hackney, east London, believes the reason the DJ was able to continuously position himself as the face of new genres in black music is because of his white privilege and the lack of “control” the black community has over its art.

She said: “His positioning is what we do not have control of in the UK, we do not have control of the top end of our culture.

“It is our culture that they are profiting off.”

“There are so many DJs out there – black DJs – who are championing black music but they would never have risen or jumped to and pivoted as easily as this guy,” she added.

Westwood was accused by British rapper Ty of preying on young black women, in a 2018 episode of the Eloquently Saying Nothing Podcast.

The acclaimed rapper sadly passed away at the age of 47 after contacting coronavirus in 2020.

According to Ms Sunshine, prior to the late rapper’s death, he started the hashtag #SurvivingTimWestwood on Twitter, to allow alleged victims of Westwood to share their stories.

She said: “In 2019, there was a hashtag #SurvivingTimWestwood that was started by the rapper Ty, and we were on Twitter and some stories had come through.

“Me and Ty were discussing it back then and Ty was saying he had some stories from some women who had claimed to have been abused sexually by Westwood.

“He was getting a piece together, to get people on camera speaking about their experiences.”

Ms Sunshine told The Voice, she continued to talk to the rapper via direct messages on Twitter and by 2019, between them, they had four women, who were all black, come forward, who were willing to talk about their experiences.

She said after the rapper died, she felt compelled to continue with what he had started.

“After Ty passed away, I knew I had to do something because that was one of the things he was passionate about, getting rid of Westwood,” she added.

In 2019, Ms Sunshine put out a public message on Twitter, urging anyone with a story about Westwood to contact her and claims her DMs has “about 15 women” who were willing to speak to her.  

Ms Sunshine said she was contacted by BBC journalist and producer Daniel Henry, a black man, who she spoke to on a number of occasions about making a programme about the allegations.

“He put together what I knew and what he knew and pitched it to the BBC, and they green lit it and they added Carissa Jumu and Eddie Hutton Mills was added and between the four of us we set about trying to put a programme together,” she explained.

Ms Sunshine understands it is a pivotal moment for the black community and black music in the UK and wanted to thank “the original team” who she initially worked with, which consisted of Mr Henry, Ms Jumu and Mr Hutton Mills.

Ms Sunshine stepped away from the programme last year, because she wanted to concentrate on getting the women who contacted her justice.  

She told The Voice, out of the 15 women who initially contacted her on social media, she is still in contact with six women – who are not part of the BBC and the Guardian investigations.

Ms Sunshine also revealed told The Voice, three out of the six women wanted to speak out but not necessarily for a TV programme.

She said: “The core three have sought legal advice.”

Since the documentary aired last night Ms Sunshine claims, several more women have contacted her to about new allegations of abuse by Westwood.

She added: “As of last night, with the documentary coming through I have five more women in my DMs with new stories.”