How time flies! I honestly can't believe that 10 years have passed so quickly. So much has changed yet so much in the world remains the same. 10 years ago I was illegally living in London (Visa-less but paying my UK band and my Hackney council tax, thank you very much) just a few blocks away from the famous Hoxton Square, the White Cube and the Whitechapel gallery. Also in the hood was the brilliant atelier and social club of Hassan Hajjaj, whose work I first saw in 2009 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I met Hassan quite literally by chance in Shoreditch following that show and we became fast friends. I'm grateful that he took the original cover photograph and generously gave us a new image from that shoot for this anniversary cover. Gilles had introduced me to the jazz meets electronic future movement happening in London, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo and this album is a cross section of a moment of that scene. Taylor McFerrin, Flying Lotus and Moodymann all had shows in London that year and were releasing amazing new music, redefining beats and cutting edge electronica. Robert Glasper and Chris Dave were pushing the boundaries of live jazz and improvised hip-hop at the Jazz Cafe, XOYO, Charlie Wright's and Ronnie Scott's. Benji B and his Deviation night, Skream, Ben Westbeech, Floating Points, Simbad, Joy Orbison and the Plastic People hang.. It was a heady time. And then Benga went and dropped "Night" one of the most iconic and mind-bending tracks of the soon to be labelled dubstep movement. It was my "Coltrane at the Village Vanguard" moment and I'll never forget it. We were always down at Plastic People drinking pints of Guinness at the bar before disappearing into the darkness of the back room, where DJs and producers blew minds on the best sound system in the world.. My band included future legends Richard Spaven on drums, Takuya Kuroda on trumpet, Gideon van Gelder on keys and Neville Malcolm on bass. Together we explored the boundaries of jazz, hip-hop, R&B and electronica night after night, taking risks and finding a new language. London has always been an incredible music city but this was a truly special time. There's a freedom in this music that echoed the emerging hope of Obama's America and a new generation of creative thinkers worldwide. And now we are in a different moment where the wave of White Nationalism and separatism is again breaking upon the world. And again we resist, push the culture forward, break boundaries and cross generations through the world language of music. Keep fighting, keep loving, raise your light high. And to all my worldwide family, thank you for rocking with me all of these years. Thank you to Gilles Peterson for the beautiful moments of discovery and thank you to my wonderful partners at Rainbow Blonde Records, Talia Billig and Brian Bender. Together we are making history, thank you for making a new home for my album Blackmagic.