Former head of MTV Base Jasmine Dotiwala
Head of MTV Base (now former) Jasmine Dotiwala has officially announced today that she has left MTV International and is heading over to terrestrial TV.
Her first project will be a T4 music special which will air on Channel 4 (November 14th).
Click here to read more about Jasmine’s time working for MTV International and her future endeavours.
Good luck Jasmine!
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During Jasmine’s tenure over at MTV Base there was a noticeable change . The channel no longer just focused on featuring music/videos from US acts, homegrown acts were now receiving an equal amount of airplay, and on some days it seemed more!
Many say this move helped to push a lot of UK talent in to the mainstream and I have to agree. Jasmine really did/does rep hard for the UK while I still insist on pledging my allegiance to the US flag of Hip Hop/R&B. (lol).
So now that Jasmine’s moving on to pastures new what will become of MTV Base?
Will the new Head of Base share her same vision? Will the channel revert back to just airing music/videos from our cousins across the pond? And what will become of the HYSTERICALLY FUNNY Kojo’s Comedy Funhouse. Does it still have a future on the channel?
There are just so many questions….
What would you all like to see more of/less of on Base?
Categories: UK News
MAD NEWS UK 
without people like jasmine in those postions of power we are definely going to see a backward lapse!!!…… MARK MY WORDS!!!
I agree.
And to think this could be the end of Kojo’s Comedy Funhouse…. it doesn’t bare thinking about!
There might be some dark days ahead…
JANICE YOU NEED YOUR OWN COMEDY SHOW!!>.
the thing is will the youth even realise the impact… eventually they will when they see themselves getting shut off…
i salute you jasmine.. COS I KNOW WHAT YOU DID!!.. respect!!
It was Shurwin Beckford as Senior Producer and his team that set the foundation of MTV Base that fans love today. Dotiwala did pick it up a notch but was shown the ‘ropes’ by those before her – her advantage was that senior controllers at MTV were more flexible with her creative control, as compared to how much they allocated to Beckford…usual corporate politics and ignorance…yes I said IT!. Dotiwala was more accepted and quickly dismissed any competition or threat to her cosy relations with decision makers. However, to give a fair review, she is a lover of Hip Hop and urban music and lifestyle. It was her passion since Heavy D days. She is also and rightly so, passionate about her ‘people’ hence she once wrote in one of her articles about the fact that Hip Hop videos feature Asian girls because they are more ‘exotic’ than Black girls?? and once wore a T-shirt in her early days at MTV which stated “Black Girls Rule” – definetly knew how to play the game and put on the right ‘colour face’ when it suited her…still haven’t seen her write for any Asian publications..mmmm…Dotiwala’s senior work in urban music also gave her a ‘plausible card’ amongst her peers at MTV. They viewed her as the contact and information bible for urban and Hip Hop music..ok we can see why – but when she made dismissive outbursts and would cackle about artists in the business, she often discredited and made a mockery of the market that paid her bills. She once read out an article where Russell Simmons was trying to promote healthy eating in poor/ghetto areas in the US – she laughed and shouted out “Black people will never stop eating KFC – what the hell is Russell on”. MTV has a history of ignorant attitudes. Like they couldn’t ignore the emergence and popularity of the solo artist Michael Jackson by surrending to playing his videos, they couldn’t ignore the mass attraction to urban and Hip Hop music. When Michael Jackson was in court for abuse claims, behind the scenes they were preparing news for his suicide – thinking that he was going to ‘go down’ and calling him all sorts of derogative names in the office. When Michael Jackson passed away in the summer, they called him a legend. When 50 Cent or Missy Elliott gives a huge sum to an inner city project – they consider it ‘unsexy’ and not news worthy. Prison and court cases with guns gets them rubbing their hands together. Well one thing I am happy about is the videos we see from UK artists. Lets just see more ‘positive’ videos like the works from Bashy..or some kind of balance to the news we hear about urban artists that are influential to fans. “Chipmunk achieved high A-Level grades” – there are more true stories like this that do not make it on the repeat newsreel. MTV Base – what will happen from now? It is all our responsibility to make them change. I hope that the channel stays both popular and has a positive and more rounded portrayal of urban music and teaches it’s audience more about urban music origin, cross-cultural collaborations, contributions to the less fortunate, urban artist features and diaries (again please), and how urban music saves lives.
Tyiscloser – Jasmine did do a lot up there but i still fail to see why it took a decade for UK videos to be played regularly on the station and still fail to see why artists such as yourself are not played at all.
Hopefully MTV will bring in someone who can push BASE further to the level its supposed to be and not let small acheivements look like huge ones.
i hear that meldel!!!! i hear that!!
Interesting stuff, like most, I just hope the change is Positive, we warn see more, UK video’s on base all day, everyday, stuff the us, do they play our videos on thier channels, NO! keep britian for the british LOL… I’m Playing!
Hmmm, while I am a fan of Jasmine Ditiwala and salute her for her work, I feel MTV started to play more UK music due to the rise in popularity of the poorer quality Channel U/AKA. Although you probably think ‘huh?’, trust me, thats where the younger generation were flocking to this channel to see there favourite UK artists videos as well as websites such as Youtube. They have to keep up with the times!
@ Kayla so so true… MTV truly lost it’s way.