Jamal Edwards died on February 20, 2022. He was 31 years old. An inquest at West London Coroner’s Court, concluded in August 2022, confirmed his cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat triggered by cocaine toxicity and alcohol. He collapsed at his family home in Acton, west London, in the early hours of that Sunday morning and was declared dead at 10:36am. His mother, Brenda Edwards, later confirmed publicly that recreational drugs played a direct role in his death.
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Who Was Jamal Edwards?
Jamal Edwards was the founder of SBTV, the online music platform that helped shape British rap and grime from the ground up. He grew up in Acton, west London, after being born in Luton in 1990. At 15, his mother bought him a video camera for Christmas. He started filming his friends rapping on the estate and uploading the footage to YouTube under the name SmokeyBarz TV, later shortened to SBTV.
What that single camera became is hard to overstate. SBTV gave early platforms to Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Dave, Jessie J, Skepta, and Rita Ora, among others. The channel eventually surpassed 1.22 million YouTube subscribers and one billion total video views. Edwards received an MBE in the 2015 New Year Honours for his services to music, collected at Buckingham Palace on March 26, 2015. He was 24.
He was listed in TIME Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders in 2014, featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, and ranked second in The Guardian’s top 30 young people in digital media. In November 2021, three months before he died, the University of West London awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters. He had also been appointed Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Sussex that same September.
He worked at Topman for four years while building SBTV from nothing. Despite an estimated fortune of £8 million by 2014, his estate at death was valued at just over £45,000 net. Almost everything had gone back into what he was building.
What Happened the Night Jamal Edwards Died?
On the evening of Saturday, February 19, 2022, Edwards performed a DJ set at a venue in Islington, north London. He had been performing under the pseudonym Jamal Artman, a name taken from his birth surname.
He arrived home at around 4:30am on Sunday, February 20, at the Acton address he shared with his family. His friend Nick Hopper was staying in an annex of the house. The two sat together, drank, and made plans to smoke cannabis.
At the inquest, Hopper’s statement was read to the court:
“When he came in he appeared to be his normal self and it appeared that he had just been out. We began to chat, smoke some weed and drink. He told me he was under a lot of pressure. There were periods of talking followed by silences. Over time Jamal became quite paranoid and was saying I had things in my hands when I didn’t. Anytime I moved he began panicking. I told him to calm down, but he became increasingly irate. He was grabbing things, throwing them around the room. He was panicking and sweating, I spent ages trying to get him to open the door.”
What pressure Edwards was referring to that night has never been publicly explained.
Hopper tried to open a window. Edwards would not allow it. He then collapsed unconscious by the bathroom door. At around 9:30am, Edwards’ uncle Rodney Artman arrived and performed CPR for approximately 10 minutes until paramedics took over. They could not revive him. He was declared dead at 10:36am.
What Did Jamal Edwards Die Of? The Coroner’s Inquest Findings
Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant Luke Taylor confirmed at the inquest that police treated the death as non-suspicious. Three small snap bags containing white powder residue and bloody tissues, consistent with cocaine use, were recovered from Edwards’ pockets.
The toxicology report returned the following results:
| Substance | Present | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cocaine | Yes | Found in blood — primary cause of cardiac event |
| Alcohol | Yes | Found in blood — contributing factor |
| Cannabis | No | Not found, despite plans to smoke it that night |
| MDMA | Partial | Found in urine but not blood — taken in recent days, not that night |
Edwards’ GP confirmed at the inquest that while he had traits of sickle cell disease, he was not on any regular medication and the condition played no role in his death.
Summing up, Assistant Coroner Ivor Collett stated at West London Coroner’s Court:
“The insinuation is that Jamal had taken cocaine in sufficient quantity to cause an adverse reaction brought about by cocaine toxicity. This then caused cardiac arrhythmia which resulted in his death.”
The formal record of inquest read: “Sampling established recent cocaine use, causing cocaine toxicity and resulting cardiac arrhythmia.”
What Did Brenda Edwards Say About Her Son’s Death?
In June 2022, ahead of the full coroner’s conclusions, Brenda Edwards chose to address the cause of death publicly herself. The family had learned through the inquest process what had happened, and she wanted to speak directly before the formal findings were released.
She wrote:
“Since I last spoke, I have sadly learned that the cause of Jamal’s devastating passing was due to cardiac arrhythmia caused by having taken recreational drugs. Since finding out the news I’ve been in a state of shock, and I’m still trying to process it. These types of substances are extremely unpredictable, and we can only hope that this will encourage others to think wisely when faced with similar situations in the future. His passing has shown that any one bad decision on any one occasion can lead to devastating consequences.”
She added: “I would do anything to have my son back but that is just not possible so if I can help save one life, then we will have achieved something.”
At the August 2022 inquest, her written statement to the court described Jamal as “a beautiful and selfless person” whose charitable work “stretched near and far, from working at homeless shelters to giving back to his roots in St Vincent and the Grenadines.”
What Has Happened to SBTV and Jamal’s Legacy Since His Death?
Four months after he died, his family discovered he had left a letter of wishes alongside his will, asking that others carry forward his youth centre project JE Delve and continue creating opportunities for young people.
His sister Tanisha Artman became CEO of SBTV. His mother and Tanisha went on to establish the Jamal Edwards Self Belief Trust (JESB), focused on three areas: preventing youth homelessness through a housing scheme run in partnership with Centrepoint, supporting mental health, and providing young people with life skills and paid creative placements.
Chelsea Foundation donated £1 million to JESB, the largest grant that charity had ever awarded, creating a five-year partnership. Chelsea men’s captain Reece James and women’s captain Millie Bright both backed the initiative publicly.
On January 19, 2023, Ed Sheeran performed an F64 freestyle on SBTV as a direct tribute to Edwards, marking the return of the platform’s flagship series. After Edwards died, Sheeran had written: “I would not be here without him, professionally and personally. There will never be anything close to what he is.”
As recently as February 2024, Brenda and Tanisha held a community event in Notting Hill marking the second anniversary of his death, with new trustees announced for the JESB. SBTV remains active.
In 2012, Jamal Edwards posted a tweet that read: “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”
Whatever pressure he was under in the final hours of his life, the platform he built on a council estate with a Christmas camera still runs. The artists he filmed before anyone else knew their names now sell out arenas. The trust in his name has a million-pound partnership and a housing scheme for homeless young people. He was 31 when he died. The thing he created was not.
For support with drug-related concerns, contact Frank (UK) on 0300 123 6600, available 24 hours a day.
