How George the Poet is changing national conversation

It seems almost impossible that Harry and Meghan’s wedding – global audience: 1.91 billion – was opened to the public by a podcaster. George Mpanga is more popularly known as George the poet. He is a musician and a thinker who pushes the boundaries of the medium while creating a new genre.

The hypnotic sound experience of Have you heard George’s podcast?It’s, to quote Frank Zappa: a little like dancing around architecture. Mpanga produces audio clips that are primarily based on spoken word poetry.

He arrives fashionably late for meeting us, flanked with his new wife and COO Sandra. He was wearing a tight knit sweater, his beard neatly trimmed and his gold teeth shining in the light as he smiled. We entered the basement of the Bond Street shop where he had booked to hear a poem he had composed for a partnership with Bushmills Whiskey.

We talked for more than an hour, keeping the small group upstairs waiting.

He speaks in person with confidence and the same fluency he uses on the podcast. His mouth is already full of ideas and thoughts that have left him satisfied (there were a few “parents,” and “parents,” to edit from the script). He is serious and academic, always looking for the bigger picture and laser-focused.

This does not affect the character you may recognize from his podcast, social media channels (Instagram follows: 101,000; Tweet: 74,000) and television appearances on programs like News Night. He is charismatic and articulate with a sense humor, but he prefers not to get in the way of the details. Sometimes, it feels like I’m listening in to an interactive episode on his podcast. Poetry is a trade that you learn to not spend words too cheaply.

Over the three seasons of Have You Ever Heard, he has written a series of essays on topics as varied as love, prison reform and black history. Each essay is delivered in his unique, melodic style. The podcast develops into a central theme: Working-class black communities create something that is almost infinitely cultural and economically valuable.

He says, “Young black teens made music which continued to change the globe.” “She represented us. It was a form soft diplomacy. She makes connections and creates bridges when there were none. This is just kids having an interesting but precious time.”

This has led to the rise of superstar artists, but the revenue generated tends to flow up to record labels and not down to communities. Mbanga would like to see lawyers, designers, teachers, and many others involved in taking talent and altering it come from the same source as the music.

He said, “We must renegotiate our contract.” “Set the terms, push for a better deal. Ultimately this is about a form of education that invites young people into conversations about community.”

“But we have to keep telling our story because we’re working on something. My 15-year journey as a writer has convinced me that storytelling can help society control its own destiny. We have so many storytellers. From Dizzee Rascal, to Dave, all of them are part of the same system Experience. So I’m like, ‘I know the story that we need to tell. It’s our story.”

Mbanga’s fascination for the music industry is not an accident. He said, “I didn’t sit down in my room and say I don’t like the industry’.” “I tried industry first.”

While still in school, he learned how to MC and built his reputation as a rapper. His first film, The Chicken and the Egg was shortlisted in the Critics Choice category at the 2015 Brit Award. It has been praised by everyone from Vice to the BBC. Before the film could be released, he left his label. For most artists, this would have killed the golden goose — who gets one famous, let alone two?

“When I arrived [Cambridge]I was told by the university that poetry can be used in place of rap. I decided to stop rapping because it was against the rules. Then I kept removing more bases.” He says the “length of the medium” drew him to podcasting, where audiences expect episodes to last 20 minutes or longer, as opposed to the three minutes of a standard album track. He can create as many episodes as three studio albums in six episodes. This could take many years to record.

He also took his own time to perfect his technique. “For a year, I haven’t released anything — I just listened. I’ve been watching the news. Watching documentaries. Traveling. Talking to others. Listening to my nephews. Listening is what keeps the output flowing.”

After its debut season, Have You Heard was taken over by BBC Sounds. The show won five awards at the 2019 British Podcast Awards. Podcast of the Year was the only one outside the US that won the prestigious Peabody Award.

Mpanga claims that despite all the praise, he has felt like an outsider most of his adult life. He was born to Ugandan immigrants on the predominantly Jamaican St Raphael estate in Brent, northwest London. His family was educated and, unlike many of his neighbors he was well-educated. His mother taught him African history at a young age, and coached him until he was 11.

This allowed him to get into an elite high-school, where he was one the few black students. He claims he learned to hustle, and not to sell drugs like the ones he grew-up with. However, he learned to buy clothes on the market for fellow nerds who want nice things.

He was accepted by the University of Cambridge – to his surprise, it seems – where being a county council kid is still relatively unusual (“Cambridge is a white space but my education was mine, it couldn’t be taken from me – that’s something I want to offer to more people Not just young blacks but everyone who feels they face greater challenges than they do.” He then made his name on the podcast, and is so stereotypically white a medium that there is even a joke about it (“What did one white dude say to the other white dude? Are you interested in starting a podcast?”).

“These things force one to tell the story about who you are. Otherwise, you’ll be intimidated or amazed at how different others are. You need to survive. Because you must be able prove and defend yourself, or you will lose your identity to anyone who forces you to.”

He is now studying for his PhD in University College London. His research focuses on…the economic and cultural value of black music.

Two years ago, I read The Value of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato. [now his tutor at UCL]. It’s about economic storytelling: where value comes from, what we believe creates value, and who tells us that value does not. This book is in line with a lot that I felt about music. Through my research, all of this I want to be in a position to explain it to policymakers, who are the ones who can alter the flow of capital through societies.

Lampanga also has side projects, such as sending children on school trips that were missed during the worst pandemic, working in prisons, helping young Africans living HIV-positive, and doing business. Gigs such as the Bushmills whiskey promotion

He insists that the jobs he accepts must align with his brand. Bushmills asked for collaborations and he was drawn to the message of sharing stories. “You can blend ballads like you blend whiskey. I love the Street flavor for example, but I also love the Cambridge University flavor, and I want to mix it up.”

What’s next? It would not surprise me if I was an academician, poet, or prime minister. “I honestly don’t know. Where I feel most functional is what I’ll be drawn to.”

Mpanga is reciting a poem without any notes as we drive off. He also enjoys a glass of whiskey, and I ask him why he doesn’t do more interviews.

“I think you only have a limited number of words.”

Don’t waste your time on reporters.

He smiles and says, “Just don’t throw them away.”

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