Biography
James started his career at MTV Europe in 1988. After a brief Press Officer stint he moved forward at MTV as a Senior Producer / Director / Programmer.
From 1988 to 2000, Hyman steered MTV through the emerging UK dance music scene, from its inception (the 'acid house' explosion) right through to its current global multi-million dollar culture.
Hyman's MTV shows featured over 500 in-depth interviews with all the major players including The Prodigy, Goldie, Moby, David Holmes, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Paul Oakenfold, Aphex Twin etc.
He was involved in all aspects of playlist strategy & programme production and was also responsible for producing, directing and editing over 250 pop videos, including clips for Fatboy Slim, New Order, Mike Oldfield, Moby, Prince and Michael Jackson.
By this time, Hyman had amassed a personal library of over one million magazines, 50,000+Vinyl, 50,000+ CDs and a broadcast quality collection of 20 years of Pop Video.
Whilst maintaining a foothold in the print media as a Columnist / Correspondent for various international publications (Music Week, Televizier, Hip-Hop Connection etc.), he began presenting specialist programs on terrestrial TV including Frontal (C4), Personal Services (C5 - BAFTA short-listed) and acted as a key expert / commentator on ITV's series The Dance Years.
Hyman produced series for the BBC's Play UK channel, Hey DJ (40 episodes) and Joy of Decks (60 episodes), both a continuation of the MTV Megamix (100 episodes) format James had created, blending music videos in the same way a club DJ mixes records.
He then presented Sci-Fi Channel's 5th Anniversary Week, followed by a critically acclaimed Sci-Fi Channel series which he wrote, produced and presented. He then went on to present the first ever daily internet show on television with MTV UK's UP For It and in 1999 was voted No.22 in MUZIK magazines poll of the '50 Most Powerful People in Dance Music'.
It was inevitable that Hyman would diversify into Music Supervision and his film credits include the critically acclaimed In The Hands Of The Gods, Dan Wilde's Alpha Male, Paris Leonti's Daylight Robbery, Guy Ritchie's Revolver, Kidulthood, Suzie Gold and Mean Machine.
Commercial clients include Morrisons (Take That's 'Shine'), Opel Vauxhall (Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World'), Head & Shoulders (Steve Harley's 'Make Me Smile'), Adidas, Ford, Lynx, T-Mobile, Gordons Gin, Lux, Vodafone, Levis, Johnnie Walker and Sony Ericsson. Channel Branding: Discovery UK - Madonna 'Frozen', Elton John 'Believe', The Cure 'Lullaby', Pretenders 'Hymn To Her, Massive Attack 'Protection'.
In 2000, Hyman took to the airwaves as an XFM DJ, presenting, producing & programming, The Rinse (MUZIK magazine nominated Best Radio Show in 2002) and The Remix (one of Campaign Magazine's Top 10 radio shows in 2001 & Sony Award nominated 2003), which he co-hosted with Eddy Temple-Morris.
The Remix spawned 2 compilation albums on Virgin/EMI platform for the cultural zeitgeist of bootlegging/remixing, which propelled the likes of Sugababes (Freak Like Me) and Liberty X (Being Nobody) to UK 1 hits.
Further CD compilations included 2 CDs of popular cover versions for BMG, an Ice T interview to accompany the rapper's personal trip through hip-hop history and Hyman's mix-CDs which went beyond cult status - the mash-up of James Bond/007 films was one of the Sunday Telegraphs top 5 albums in 2004 and his Tarantino themed mix of tracks, dialogue and more from the works of acclaimed film director Quentin Tarantino received glowing reviews and praise from Tarantino himself.
Hyman added another XFM show to his radio repertoire, Saturday afternoons from 3PM whilst his voice-overs can be heard for HIT40 UK, Toyota, BT, Daily Star, The Army and Sony Playstation. He continues to be an in-demand event DJ, spinning at film-premieres for Britney Spears, Eminem, Will Smith and Madonna as well sets for BMW,Glastonbury Festival and Carphone Warehouse.
