THE VOICE'S Life & Style section caught-up with one of newest columnists for a Q&A, to get an insight into why we think you will enjoy hearing from him on regular basis.
Q: So, who is Anthony Douglas AKA Mr Play?
Mr Play is a brand entrepreneur from Brixton. Why is that my name? Well, it’s a character which I created a long, long time ago composed of P Diddy and Play from the movie House Party. The two have a promotional aspect in common, they both throw parties that bring everyone together and make them feel happy and that’s what I am about, although I’ve added a few more strings to my bow since then.
Q: Born and raised in Brixton, tell L&S readers about your journey growing up in south London:
Brixton taught me how to be street but neat. I was raised by my father from the age of two, he had absolutely no chill, all about discipline. In my teens he became a Christian and was determined that I didn’t end up as one of the man dem from the block, if you get my drift. He also taught me how to do a mean bully beef and rice.
Is there any one thing that gets on your nerves?
When the right people don’t get the proper credit, that’s something that really annoys me.
Is there any one thing that you absolutely love?
My children, music and my dad, he’s my backbone. My kids helped me to focus and made me become a better man as well as making me a bit more selfless. When you don’t have children its all about me, me, me. The moment you have other mouths to feed, everything changes.
Your best known as a DJ, how did that all start?
A man called Ralph Daley from Brixton used to do an event called Chilling and he identified my talent as a people's person and put me on to do under 18’s promotions. We did some big names, P Diddy, Jay-Z, KC and Jojo and I had a knack for it. I got into it as a host before I started DJ-ing, that was around 1997/98. From that...my collective, 4 Play, started working with other people and one day a DJ turned up to an event we were playing at incorrectly dressed. I was in at the deep end and had to do it myself. It wasn’t the greatest set as I wasn’t prepared but that is effectively where it all started. One thing with being a promoter, I know how a night should flow, I know how to warm up a party and how to get people jumping in the middle and whining down at the end to the slow jams, not that slow jams end a party very often these days.
You’re into sport and music tell L&S a little bit about what you have been up to lately?
I used to do karate, play table tennis and basketball sport is in my blood. I love sport but a knee injury meant I could only carry on doing it at a certain level. I was recommended by Rob Pursey of Southern Hospitality and a few players of the London Lions to DJ at their games because the team like how I get them hyped. I bumped into Alesha Dixon at a game recently, you never know who you will see there. I’ve also moved into sports management, as for me, sport and music go hand in hand - just look at the likes of what 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather or Meek Mill and Danny Garcia are doing together. I had the opportunity through another recommendation recently to manage boxer Issac Chamberlain. While I am not a boxing enthusiast I believe that this young man, whose mum lives next door to my artist Hardoe's mum, coincidentally, can do big things in the future.
As mentioned you manage an artist called Hardoe, he’s starting to get recognised, what does the future hold for him?
He’s from south London and was originally a producer. To be honest he is an entrepreneur that can rap and a man who
has good morals and loyalty. Those are traits that I can work with because it’s not that often you meet people like that in the business. He’s not in a rush for success, it’s a tortoise and hare scenario. You won’t see him on Link Up TV, SBTV or any other platform getting gassed off of a million views because those views don't belong to him - his vision means that he wants to garner that type of coverage for himself, on his own platform. He’s definitely one for the future and you will see him pop up from time to time in this column. Watch this space.
You can follow Anthony ‘Play’ Douglas on:
Twitter:@MrPlay
Facebook and Snapchat:MrPlayVip
Instagram:@MrPlay