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.
