I Luv U
Dizzee Rascal
2003

When I first heard this I was like: "Oh my God, what is that?!" Dizzee was just so out there, so raw and so passionate – it sounded like an alien had come down and tried to make hip-hop but then got the tempo wrong. At the time, I was in Nottingham, and you just didn't have grime coming from anywhere other than pirate stations. Grime has become a cultural phenomenon, and for me, grime is what rock'n'roll was in the 50s: a huge cultural moment. This was on the first ever 1Xtra playlist and the story of Dizzee's success completely demonstrates what 1Xtra was set up to do: to expose quality underground urban/black/street or whatever you're comfortable calling it music to a wider audience via a trusted platform.

Through The Wire
Kanye West
(2003)

Kanye was a breath of fresh air, wasn't he? The way that he put together his experiences, and the way his production fits together on this, was great. He bought a hip-hop sound back to what the likes of Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest were doing, but he came with a fresh twist. I loved how he took a risk with it. Kanye's first ever track was also his first taste of national daytime playlist on 1Xtra. The station did a few very special things with him as his stardom grew, from hosting an album playback of Graduation to a special show with him at Abbey Road studios. We've been there every step of the way, and he just had to be in this list.

In My Bed (Bugz In The Attic Remix)
Amy Winehouse
(2003)

The first time I ever heard Amy Winehouse was via this record on 1Xtra. As a listener (I wasn't on the station in 2003), I remember thinking, "Who is this girl? This girl is singing jazz over a broken beat!" and I went out to buy the album Frank, which I loved. Although never playlisted (that had to wait until 1Xtra was the first station to playlist Rehab), it was heavily supported on daytime. I was a huge fan of broken-beat stuff, and I loved the vibe here, the beats and energy of the sound. It was from that syncopation of the drums that we got UK funky.

Pow (Forward)
Lethal Bizzle
(2004)

This sounded so young and infectious and powerful and other stations just didn't get it. It helped usher in a new generation of UK MCs, lots of whom later featured on the remix Pow 2011, like Chipmunk, JME, Kano and Ghetts.

Welcome To Jamrock
Damian Marley
(2005)

1Xtra's commitment to Jamaican music is to this day unparalleled on national radio, and we were the first to playlist this record. It completely captured the zeitgeist the summer it broke, and every kind of DJ was playing it. It really helped introduce Gyptian and other dancehall artists to audiences in the UK.

Night
Benga & Coki
(2008)

If you think of the history of dubstep, I put myself in the third generation. The first generation were the guys that were into garage who created the sound, the second were the people who went to the first set of FWD>> club nights, and then there's people like me. I heard Skream's Midnight Request Line and then I heard this, and the whole vibe was completely infectious and just felt totally new. I had heard about dubstep before that, but I hadn't made the connection with garage (which I loved); this was the first track that made me really join the dots and made me have an urge to go and find out about this new music.

End Credits
Chase & Status ft Plan B
(2009)

This features two artists who 1Xtra has championed from the very start. Chase & Status were being played on 1Xtra ever since their very first release as C&S in 2003 and actually got on the daytime playlist for the first time in 2005 with Love's Theme. Plan B was supported from 2004 with his records Kidz and Dead & Buried. I had listened to hours and hours of other DJs' shows and I had such a mix of music that I loved. This represents a mix of music styles that really works.

Pass Out
Tinie Tempah
(2010)

1Xtra was supporting Tinie from 2006, day one of his career, initially as part of Aftershock, a label and crew who put out a mixtape called Shock To The System, and then when he stepped out with Wiley. Pass Out was his breakout moment and was played first on 1Xtra and actually achieved its first Radio 1 play via my Saturday show. Without Dizzee you would never have had this, and then he bought the sound along again.

Heaven
Emeli Sandé
(2011)

She was first introduced to my ears in 2006 when she was booked for 1Xtra's R&B Sensations, when she was billed as "Adele Sandé". We supported every one of her featured releases, citing her as one to watch in 2009. She was actually signed after a conversation I had, spurring on the person who is now her label A&R at Virgin while she was performing live on Ras Kwame's last ever Homegrown show live at Maida Vale.

Heatwave
Wiley
(2012)

Bringing us bang up to date, an artist supported ever since day one of 1Xtra's existence. We've supported every Wiley single, every one of the artists he has introduced, every one of his underground albums and mix tapes and every one of his attempts at hit singles. Now he has finally achieved a No 1 in Heatwave – and we were the first station to play that as well. No matter where you play this, the response is huge, because it sounds like summer. It shows you his progression as an artist and sounds like the culmination of the past 10 years of his career: he knows what he's doing now. He understands how commercial he needs to go. He knows how far and just how pop he needs to go. It's his sound coming full circle.

Listen to Mistajam's 10 records