Hailed as a ‘pop culturalist’ by the BBC, James Hyman has a long career firmly embedded on the cutting edge of popular culture. As an offshoot - which has developed into his raison d’etre - he has become a collector-extraordinaire of popular culture in print, holding the Guinness Record for ‘The Largest Collection of Magazines in the World’. Twenty-five enthusiastic years in the media industries - from broadcast (both presenting and producing on MTV, Xfm, Channel 4, Channel 5 and the BBC) to music, and from film to print - have helped him to amass what has been referred to as ‘a walk in Google’. HYMAG was born from hhis passion and currently holds over 120,000 magazines and continues to receive donations and loans; recent ones include Felix's Dennis's complete personal magazine archive from his publishing house (Dennis Publishing), Colin McDowell's enviable fashion collection and legendary newspaper archivist Edda Tasiemka's six million magazine and newspaper cuttings dating from the 19th century.
In the 80s, James joined MTV in the channel’s European launch year whilst simultaneously studying at London Guildhall University where he graduated with a First Class Honours in Film & Media. As senior producer/director on all MTV dance & club culture programming, his shows were broadcast to a potential audience of 60 million households. Featuring over 500 in-depth interviews with music-makers such as Kylie Minogue, The Prodigy, Goldie, Paul Oakenfold and Aphex Twin - capturing many at early or pivotal moments in their careers - James’s catalogue of MTV work helped him to create a huge fan-base.
He presented Xfm radio shows 'The Rinse' and Sony-nominated 'The Remix' which popularized key music trends such as 'mash-ups'. The demand for his private DJ-ing grew internationally and to date he has played exclusively for the likes of Britney Spears, James Brown, Madonna and Will Smith and at events such as the Cannes Film Festival and Glastonbury. His independently-produced broadcast work includes BBC Radio 2’s ‘My Way’ documentary which included interviews with Donald Trump and David Bowie. As a music supervisor, James’s work involves sourcing and licensing tracks for film, TV and commercials and he has also edited and produced over 200 pop videos for the likes of Fatboy Slim, Moby, New Order and Prince which led to him pioneering his Video Megamix format for MTV and the BBC's music station, Play UK.
His talents have been endorsed by such luminaries as Quentin Tarantino ["James Hyman knows more about music than me"] and Kanye West ["One of the illest DJs because he really listens to music"].