Tim Westwood

Westwood was accused by British rapper, Ty of being problematic in regards to preying on young black women, in a 2018 podcast, making comparisons to how the BBC protected Jimmy Savile.

Westwood has won several awards, including the 2016 Legacy Award at the GRM Daily Rated Awards, the 2010 Radio Academy John Peel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the MOBO Awards for Best Radio DJ in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

After leaving the drive time show, Westwood continued his Saturday night Rap Show which now ran from 21:00 until 23:00 & was a broadcast simulcast on BBC Radio 1 and on BBC Radio 1Xtra. It was announced on 26 July 2013 that he was leaving the BBC after nearly 20 years as part of planned schedule changes, which take effect on 21 September 2013.

At the BBC, he would also host the weekday drive time show for 1Xtra from September 2009 until he was replaced by Charlie Sloth in September 2012.

A special episode of the show called "Pimp Madonna's Ride" aired on MTV on Sunday 19 February 2006, the eve of the release of the single "Sorry". The interior of the van was pimped by MTV UK for the single's music video, which was filmed in London in January 2006. The exterior of the vehicle was kept original.

On 6 June 2006, BBC Radio 1 and Westwood's show in particular was accused of encouraging knife and gun crime by the Leader of the Conservative Party and then Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, who was speaking at a British Society of Magazine Editors event. Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt responded in a Press Association news agency article: "There's been a debate about this particular genre of music for many years. Hip-hop is of great interest to many people in our audience. I strongly refute that any of our programmes condone violence, gun crime or knife crime".

Westwood hosted the MTV series Pimp My Ride UK which ran for three seasons, from 2005 to 2007.

He was named Best UK Radio DJ in the MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards in 2000, 2003 and 2005. He is a patron of the internal radio station at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution in west London.

Westwood has been accused in the media of giving false statements about his age and background. In 2000, at the age of 43, Westwood insisted to a Guardian journalist that he was aged 27.

Westwood was injured in a drive-by shooting in Kennington, South London, on 18 July 1999, after he had been playing at the Lambeth Country Show in Brockwell Park. According to police reports, gunmen on a motorbike pulled up alongside his Range Rover and shot him and his assistant.

Westwood hosted the Capital FM Rap Show until he left the station in 1994.

He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1994, to host the first national rap show in the UK, the show was launched with a live concert with Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy.

After appearing in the 1987 BBC Open Space documentary Bad Meaning Good, which was an early work of his own company Justice Entertainment, he achieved TV exposure in the late 1980s, on the ITV programme Night Network, produced by London Weekend Television.

During his career Westwood has DJed for many radio stations, including the newly formed radio stations Kiss FM (which he co-owned) and LWR in the 1980s, followed by mainstream station Capital FM (from 1987). In December 1994, following a shake up of Radio 1 by the then chief executive Matthew Bannister, he was given the new national Radio 1 Rap Show.

Timothy William Westwood (born 3 October 1957) is a British DJ and presenter of radio and television. He is often referred to by other DJs and artists appearing on his shows simply as Westwood. He presented the MTV UK show Pimp My Ride UK. In 2013, Westwood left BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra after nearly twenty years and returned to Capital Radio.