Parys Okai - Football Player
Parys Okai is a former Luton Town football player. He joined Luton at the age of ten and although he showed potential as he developed through the ranks, he was unable to establish himself in the first team. Currently he resides in Melbourne, Australia where he plays for Northcote.
Luton to Australia - how did that happen?
To be honest my move to Australia had nothing to do with football. I was at a point in my life where I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I decided to take a year out and travel. I started off in South East Asia and ended up in Australia 15 months later.
South East Asia? Tell me more about that.
Asia is an insane place, a place where money doesn’t matter. People are on their daily grind just to eat. Bangkok in Thailand was an amazing place - the city was fast and the traffic slow. Thailand has everything, from city life to beaches that are out of this world and I travelled from north to south, experiencing life in quiet villages and full moon parties on Ko Phangang island.
What is Australia like?
Australia is very multi-cultural and has people from places such as Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia. It has the largest Greek population outside of Greece and in Melbourne there are even little towns made up of Italian, Greek and Chinese people.
Did you have any difficulty settling in?
Settling in was a breeze. There was no language barrier to overcome and the people were very friendly. I first arrived in Sydney on Christmas Day in 2010 and partied for 3weeks! I also met some amazing people and this set me up for the rest of the trip. From East to West I travelled in a camper van, it was a great experience but never again! And then my footballing career started in Perth.
Have you had to adapt your game since your move?
It sounds stupid and really petty but the biggest adaptation I had to make was to the grass. I was playing in Perth in the height of summer so temperatures were reaching the 42 degree mark in the afternoon and the grass was so thick and dry it made the ball roll awkwardly. That said, players in Australia are really fit, so in order to have half a chance you also need to be in good condition.
What teams in Australia have you played for?
I’ve played for Armadale in Perth, Adelaide Galaxy in Adelaide and South Australia. Currently I’m playing for Northcote in Melbourne.
Have you experienced any racism in Australia?
Australia is not a racist place. Like I said earlier, it’s very multi-cultural. In terms of the black population, there aren’t many Caribbean people and most blacks originate from war torn African countries such as Somalia, Sudan and Ethopia. I’ve only experienced racism once and that was when I was in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t phase me and I put it down to a lack of education.
You joined Luton aged ten. The town has a good record of producing fine youngsters, why do you think this is?
Luton as you know is a tough town and sometimes sport is the only way out. All we did growing up was play football or ball related games. I have to thank Lee Cowley for nurturing me during my younger days, without that man I wouldn’t have made it to training. I’d also like to mention Dean Rastrick and Marv Johnson but ultimately, John Moore was the man for me, not just for football, but for teaching me life lessons too.
Your time at Luton wasn’t as successful as I’m sure you would have hoped. Any reason why?
You’re right, my time at Luton was nowhere near what it should have been and this was due to various reasons but the main issue was I wasn’t mentally ready. People think if you have the ability you will make it but that’s not the case, if you are not mentally prepared for the highs and lows you will come unstuck.
When you get your chance to train or play with the seniors, you have to be prepared to take criticism and that was something I wasn’t able to do. Playing with men is a different ball game, it’s serious because people are fighting to pay the bills whilst in the youth and reserves it’s more of a transitional period, there is nothing at stake. Ability wise I had it all and looking back, I should have played more and although I suffered so many injuries, I just wasn’t ready.
In the pre-season of 2004 I was flying and played all the games for the first team; Mike Newell really took a liking to me. I was doing well and feeling good. Mick Harford then returned to the club to be his assistant on the eve of the new season and I was set to start, however, they brought in Courtney Pitt on loan - a player I later formed a great partnership with during my time at Cambridge - and I was regulated to the bench. It really pissed me off but hey, that’s football.
What are your thoughts on Luton Town’s current state? Do you keep in touch with any of the players or staff?
Luton’s current state is not good enough for a club of its size because the town is big enough to be in the Football League. Every week they are signing players on short term deals and there seems to be no stability. If they don’t get promoted this season there could be trouble. I speak with a lot of the boys from Luton, my good friend Andre Boucard signed recently and he will be a massive player for them.
Do you miss Luton?
The only thing I miss about Luton are my family and close friends. Life is for living and the world is big so you have to make your own path!
Who is the best player you’ve played against?
That’s a tough question because I have played against many good players so I’ll answer in two parts. The best player I’ve faced was Dennis Bergkamp and the player who’s put on the best performance on the same pitch as me was Quincy Owusu-Abeiye – the guy was unplayable.
Last question, following the Fabrice Muamba incident, what’s your view on footballers and their general health?
Firstly, I want whoever is reading this to stop for a second and thank the Lord that you are alive today and in good health. The Muamba incident was crazy. When I saw the news I couldn’t believe it and it just goes to show that life can be taken from you in a heartbeat. Thank the Lord he is pulling you through. Health amongst football players varies from player to player. If you’re at a top club you are more or less ok but could you imagine what would have happened if Muamba had collapsed at a local park?
RKZ - Musician
RKZ’s mixtape 21 saw him voted the Best Unsigned Act of 2011 by the Eastern Eye Newspaper
RKZ, real name Rikesh Chauhan, is a 21-year-old British-Indian Hip Hop/RNB artist from Luton. He’s been active since 2008 and in that time he’s produced four mixtapes, his most recent being 21.
As a child, RKZ wanted to be a footballer but as he grew older he found himself gravitating towards journalism and music. Before starting his Commercial Music degree at the University of Westminster in 2008, he had a “toss up” between the two and music won, setting him on a path that has already been travelled by others in his family.
“My dad can sing, I wouldn’t call him a singer but he can sing! (he laughs). My mum is a very good singer and both of my grandmothers were really good Hindi singers. A lot of people from my mum’s side of the family are musical. One of my cousins is a sitarist and a vocalist and another is a percussionist so it’s in my blood to an extent but I decided to stick to the vocal side of things because I’m not really great with instruments!”
RKZ’s decision to do Hip Hop and RNB was directly influenced by the music his older sister listened to when he was younger. Artists such as Jon B, Musiq Soulchild, En Vogue and TLC made him feel “more suited to creating that sound.” However, performing ‘non-Asian’ music has meant he’s always encountered cynicism in a genre that is dominated by black people.
“The current situation is comparable to the 90s when white rappers were doing black music”, he explains, “a lot of skepticism comes your way if you’re an Asian artist not making Asian music and that’s down to Asian people being critical; there has never been much support for Asian artists from other Asians but I think once we get over that hurdle, we’ll be fine.
He continues: “There’s also a tendency by Asians to support Asian artists only if they’ve gained mainstream acceptance, but that’s not to say that applies to every Asian person, no, if that was the case then I wouldn’t be where I am now.”
During my research for this interview I came across the term ‘BURBAN’, a word I heard RKZ and his fellow Asian rappers use to describe themselves in one of their videos. What does it mean?
“We were always classed as Urban Desi but Desi is associated with Bhangra and Bollywood music and we didn’t like that term, so Shizzio (another Asian rapper) came up with the term BURBAN and we adopted it. I was unsure at first because the word burban is a combination of ‘brown’ and urban’ but I realised that if we completely disassociated ourselves with the Asian audience we’d lose a big part of our market. We still embrace our Asian identity but we don’t like the terms used to describe us.
“BURBAN is not a genre, it’s a scene, a culture. The only thing Asian about our music is the fact that we’re brown!”
When it all started RKZ had no plans of having a music career - he performed because he loved it - but when audiences began taking a serious interest in him, he realised he had something to offer.
“When I started I don’t think anyone took me too seriously in all honesty – I didn’t. I did it because I thought it was fun”, he says.
Like most other upcoming artists RKZ isn’t signed to a label. His last two mixtapes have been released under his own label ‘RKZ Music’ although prior to that he was signed to DAS Records for two years.
“It’s great being independent and some people can get away with it for the rest of their career but labels are good for PR, marketing and distribution. The main incentive for wanting to be signed is being able to make music everyone can access and what better way to do that than through a label? It gives you immediate exposure to the press and the public.”
To date, RKZ has performed in England, Wales and Scotland. His fanbase has steadily grown over the past few years with fans as far away as California contacting him to say they’ve heard his music. However, RKZ’s interest in the US is lukewarm and he has set his sights closer to home.
“The type of music I’m currently working on is predominately dubstep and that has a big following in Europe. Trying to crack the US has been done before and there are too many similarities between London and New York but Europe is different. I’ll have more fun going into Europe because they have crazy raves and shows, plus, their appreciation for hip hop will invigorate my career.”
RKZ (right) has also featured at one of the BBC Introducing events in 2009 and the BBC London Mela in 2010
Away from the studio, RKZ has combined his love for music with his earlier passion for journalism in his role as editor for a new UK Hip Hop magazine called 16 Bars. The publication is produced by RGS Entertainment, a record label he interned for during his degree and subsequently joined.
“We realised there was a gap for a Hip Hop magazine in the UK and although some urban magazines claim to include Hip Hop, they’re usually referring to mainstream Grime artists. The unique thing about 16 Bars is its interactivity: we have filmed interviews instead of written interviews, and articles have hot spots that allow people to listen to audio as opposed to only reading the text.
“Durrty Goodz - a legend in the UK - is on the front cover. He’s built his reputation as a Grime artist but his new album has a distinct Hip Hop feel and he’s been away for a very long time so this is a good way for him to come back.”
And what about the differences between the two genres? “Hip Hop and Grime have distinctive sounds. Though they can both be branched under rap or urban, they’re completely different entities -it’s like saying Funky House and Dirty Dutch are the same. They have obvious similarities, but they also have individual traits. Hip Hop for one, is American typically, whereas Grime is disctinctly British. Content, sound, production levels also separate the two.”
In addition to his editing role, RKZ is also a music ambassador for CALM (campaign against living miserably), a charity that seeks to highlight the problem of suicide and its destructive power as the biggest killer of men under-35 in the UK. The passion is evident in RKZ’s voice when he talks about his work with CALM; he’s dealt with friends who have suffered with depression and charity work has always been something close to his heart.
For RKZ, music is about growth and development and looking at his career you can see progress at every stage. From U-streaming some of his studio sessions live to starting a Youtube cover session series, he’s always looking for ways to improve his music so that he can one day look back at his work with pride.
“I’d love to leave a legacy because all I want is to be remembered – everyone wants that. I want to make good music for people to enjoy and take whatever they want from it. They may appreciate the song-writing or lyrics or they might hate what I’m saying but like how I sound; as long as there are people that appreciate my music, that’s all I can ask for.”
You can find out more about RKZ on his official website http://rkzuk.com
Stephan Eyeson - Entrepreneur
Stephan has given talks at networking events like this one in Hertfordshire
Meet Stephan Eyeson. A 22-year-old Ghanaian born entrepreneur with an eye for business and a passion for Africa. Stephan is currently in the final months of a Theology and Health degree. A odd mix on its own but when you consider that he’s also managed to start up a business called Get Pro Basketball whilst studying, it becomes even more eclectic.
Coming from a family of business people - his father and two sisters also run their own businesses - it seemed inenvitable that Stephan would wind up in the same field, although he was apprehensive at first.
“I didn’t like business, I got an F in my GSCE Business”, Stephan reveals during our interview, “I didn’t think of Get Pro as a business when I started but it became apparent to me that I actually liked business once I got into it”,
Get Pro is an online advertisement service that enables basketball players to gain exposure to professional scouts, agents and coaches by signing up online and showcasing their talent.
“When I played basketball at college, I found there were a lot of players that wanted to play professionally in America but didn’t really know how to do it. They had no links to agents so I started Get Pro, a place where coaches, agents and scouts can contact players they are interested in.”
Since its inception in 2010, the website has featured on www.slamonline.com and received significant investment. In 2011, Stephan was named as one of the UK’s top ten black students by Rare Recruitment, a company that connects students from ethnic minority backgrounds with corporations such as Google and JP Morgan.
Currently, the Get Pro site is undergoing renovation as the business looks to reach its next goal of becoming “a more social website with the same purpose of getting players seen, scouted and recruited by agents”.
But just how did Stephan acquire the financial muscle to lift him to his current position?
“I went to an event called Angels Den in 2010 where I pitched to about 15 investors at one go. It was sort of like speed dating. You have a three-minute pitch for each investor and afterwards they tell you if they liked your idea. One of them did and they invested.”
Speed dating for business. It sounds like a novel idea but it managed to bear substantial fruit for Stephan. When I ask how much money he raised he replies coyly, “I don’t want to say the exact amount but it was over £50,000”.
Get Pro has managed to sign-up 2,000 members
As with most start-ups, Stephan runs the business mostly by himself. He outsources some work to a media company and has two other associates in the United States but the day-to-day running of Get Pro is done by him.
All this adds to an already hectic university schedule but that hasn’t stopped him from finding time to involve himself with other ventures. “I’m working on something called Network After, which is going live in summer. It’s a website that allows people to network after events, so it’s aimed at the professional market.
“Users create an avator and go into a room to network with people that were at the event or people that wanted to come but didn’t get a chance, so it’s like a real-time social network. You can connect with like-minded people in Africa, the Middle East and America all in one room.
“For example, let’s say you’re launching a product and you want to do an African summit. You can do it at 8pm in the UK whilst it’s 6pm in Africa and 3pm in the US. All these people will be online networking. That’s what Network After is essentially.”
A good idea, but aren’t there websites company that do that already? “No”, he answers me assuredly.
“We’re creating a whole new online event market. Imagine launching a magazine and you need distributors in different parts of Africa but you can’t reach them. You know they have the internet and are online all the time, so you invite them to your network.
“Creating an event is so simple it takes five minutes. You can even add event organisers and have about 500 people online in one room networking. There will also be a feature that allows you to search for people. Let’s say you’re looking for someone in Senegal: everyone that’s associated with Senegal or lives in Senegal will be highlighted.”
His continous references to Africa lead us to discussing about another website he’s been involved with for a while called Think In Africa.
It’s no secret that Africa receives a negative press. From wars to famine and disease, it is largely seen as a continent beset by many issues. However, stories like the recent economic and political success of countries such as Cape Verde exist but in a place that gave birth to the Arab Spring last year, it’s difficult for stories like that to reach a global audience.
“Think In Africa is a developing project with a team of four people. It’s a website where people can watch videos about Africa. In the West, people have this misconception that Africa is all about charity and this is bad because Africa and China had an equal amount of people in poverty at one time. Now when people talk about China, they think China invent a lot of stuff. Think In Africa is going to move change that misconception by showing innovation and development in Africa.”
Although his focus is firmly on Africa, Stephan also tells me that branching out into the continent with Get Pro has been made difficult by complications that would arise with visa issuing for players wishing to play abroad as well as the general lack of internet accessibility. Will this have any bearing on his future plans?
“I’m hoping to build Get Pro and sell it. I’m enoying Network After more; Get Pro was my first business - my learning curve - and entrepreneurs always sell their first idea. Not that I’ve failed with it, it’s done well, but essentially there’s a bigger market out there. Facebook is a utility; you need it, and if you make something like that, eventually everyone will use it. Network After is like that, no-one’s ever tried to do that before and I want it become a utility so if anybody has a professional event, I need them to have a Network After for it. And if anybody wants to create an event online without spending any money, I need them to have a Network After. You have to create a need for it”
Stephan’s Rare Recruitment award was presented to him by David Lammy MP, Jean Tomlin and Trevor Phillips
The passion he has for his new project is clear. As he explains it to me, he refers to a woman who created a website where other women can take pictures of what they’re wearing and upload it for other women to comment on. She raised $24 million.
“Those simples ideas are not very hard to do. In about ten years time everyone will
be creating websites but people that create websites now are going to make a lot of money and people that create websites in Africa will also make a lot of money because they have a growing middle class.
“That’s why everybody’s going to Brazil. It had a similar amount of people in poverty as some African countries but now they have a growing middle class and that’s why people are creating websites there - people can now spend money.”
As we come to the end our conversation we delve into the less glamorous aspects of running a business. Stephan cites, along with time management and self-motivation, gaining access to people as one of the things he’s found challenging. Being creative, according to him, is the key to standing out.
“I want people to know that anybody can do it,” he also adds, “I’m not trying to be motivational or cliché but if you look at the internet business, it’s booming. Raising a million dollars for an idea is common in the US but not here. If I was to raise a million pounds for Network After, which I hope to do in the next five to six months, people will be shocked but to someone in the US it’s normal.”
