Rapper launches hip-hop video — at 17

A 17-year-old Oldham rapper has released his first music video on TV.

D-Rydah — Oldham Sixth Form College student Lewis Straughm — has already released two of his own CDs.

But to promote his third he decided he needed a music video and hired a professional company to help out.

Lewis, from Derker, funded most of it himself, with a contribution from Oldham’s Gallery 37 project for young people and the arts, and Oldham’s Arts Development team.

And now it can be seen on Channel U TV at Sky 370.

Lewis, who is currently studying for four A levels, in law, psychology, PE and history, and wants to study journalism at university, hopes local people will vote for him and get the video up the Channel U charts.

He said: “I hired Cuckoo Square productions from Ashton who filmed me singing in Oldham and Manchester.

“We came up with a story board which they shot and then edited the video.”

The track is “Just Bounce Remix”’, and Lewis describes his D-Rydah style as hip hop and grime — or upbeat hip hop.

He produced his first CD, “The Siege of Oldham”, when he was 15 and still at Counthill School, and his second was “Dark from Day”.

That was sold in HMV stores in Oldham and Manchester raising funds for Lewis to attempt his most ambitious project yet.

He said: “That received a lot of good publicity and from that I got almost enough money to do a music video and work on my third album.”

Now he is working on “Dark from Day Volume II”, and his video debut “Just Bounce Remix” can be voted for by going to Channel U, choosing track 493 and texting the number to 81700.

The voting will be open for another two months.

Lewis said: “I’m very pleased it’s on Channel U, and I just hope local people will vote for me.”