Jamal Edwards' hugely impressive entrepreneurial career was launched after his mum got him a £200 camera for Christmas.
The young star, who was the son of Loose Women's Brenda Edwards, was tragically confirmed to have died at the age of 31 on Sunday.
He was credited with helping launch the career of many musicians, including Ed Sheeran, thanks to his SB:TV YouTube channel.
And his career journey get underway thanks to his mother's simple Christmas gift.
Jamal, who grew up on an estate in Acton, West London, received the camera from his mum when he was just 15.
At a time when YouTube was just launching, he decided to upload a clip of foxes in his back garden and he was soon amazed to discover the footage had received over 1,000 views.
He quickly understood that it could be a platform to success for him and decided to film a pal from his estate performing grime music.
Speaking to MailOnline in 2013, Jamal said: "Back then, there was no place to showcase our sort of spitting and rapping, so I thought, OK, I want to create that platform."
Under his own rap moniker Smokey Barz, Jamal set up the SB:TV channel.
While his channel eventually led to him becoming a pioneer in the industry, his efforts were far from an overnight success.
He was made to take a job in Topman by his mother and had to try to forge his career in the music industry in his spare time.
He would find himself hanging around the BBC studios in a bid to get interviews and would also sneak into raves and take the time to message record labels to plead for interview time with their stars.
His job at Topman was said to give him the confidence required to approach people in this manner.
Jamal's big break came three years later after he was able to secure an interview with his first star outside of the grime world - Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland.
After that, he went on to interview other big names, such as Bruno Mars, Nicki Minaj and Trey Songz.
Since then, his career flourished and in 2013 he was chosen to be the ambassador for The Prince's Trust.
A year later he was listed as number two in The Guardian's The top 30 young people in digital media, while TIME Magazine labelled him one of their Next Generation Leaders.
He was also given an MBE in 2014 and last year was appointed Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Sussex.
The University of West London gave him an honorary degree last year too, while he also was at the front of a powerful documentary which focused on mental health in the music industry.
Tributes quickly poured in from stars across the music industry as news of his death broke.
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