Idris Elba hits the MTV Base studio!

‘Are you absolutely phenomenally bonkers?!’. Is what I said when they asked me if I could make it up to the studio for a shoot with Idris Elba, AKA Stringer Bell from the Wire, AKA Derek Charles from Obsessed, AKA DJ Driss, AKA Tim Webster from Family Affairs, AKA Charles Gotso from The Office, AKA the black dude on the old Crimewatch reconstructions etc etc. “Of cours I’ll be there!”

The truth is he’s an absolute legend and has become one of the most respected faces on American TV, and the dude’s straight outta Hackney! So, when word got out that he’s coming up to the studio, even the MTV TWO guys wanted to come and watch!

And I don’t blame them because he’s a cool guy and doesn’t at all have the ego of the star he is. He came down to the studio’s humbly and has the presence of a respectful gentleman that can make everyone smile. He requested little but jokes with everyone, in fact, he could just as easily be your barber or your bus driver and I think the cliché of ‘feet remaining firmly on the ground’ is a perfectly appropriate definition of his ‘swagger’. Which is a word that is commonly over-used and often worn incorrectly, as he puts it: “Swagger is not a must, it’s a liability, a cliché, a bad suit”, on the intro to Jay Z’s American Gangster. He told me he wrote, recorded and sent that track to Jay Z with out informing him who sent it. Apparently, after listening to the track Jay said to his manager ‘I don’t like it… I ****ing love it!’ and once he found out it was written by the man who plays Stringer Bell, the rest is history.

Anyway, Idris had come up to the studio to record his links for the ‘Top 50 US All Stars with Idris Elba’, which will be aired on July 4th. And judging by this performance as a presenter, I think Trevor, Reggie, Kat, Ace, Vis and even Zane should be watching their backs. Pretty much every link (I think there were around 50) was done in one take with out an auto cue as he managed to recall personal stories of meeting the legendary stars he was linking to. For instance, while he was staying at another 5 star hotel in the states he bumped into a short dude who was mumbling something. The ‘short dude’ was none other than Pharrell Williams, and the something he was mumbling was him congratulating Idris on his self-made success. Also, he told us about a time when P Diddy called him up and asked him to hang out, before taking him to Jay Z’s birthday party! Can you imagine that? Getting a phone call from Mr Diddy himself just to ask if you can come out! That’s how you know you’ve got some serious ‘swagger’, and it doesn’t stop there! Busta Rhymes also called Idris personally and asked him to head down to his video shoot for “Respect My Conglomerate” just to give the video a bit more of a gangster feel!

I think Idris Elba is one of the few people who have generated so much hype and are not over-rated. He’s earned every bit of his respect and does a good job at maintaining it. We even cancelled booking our regular make-up artist for the shoot, as all the girls in the office wanted the chance to touch his face. Susan, the MTV Base assistant producer won the battle and clearly enjoyed the job immensely, in fact I’m not even sure if she even managed to apply any make up! But I can’t talk! I was one of many who requested a photograph and signed copy of his new single. Yes he’s a musician too and there’s plenty more to come from him… just don’t call him Stringer, he hates it and can easily hurt you!