It’s a breakthrough moment for the grime genre, which blurs gritty UK hip-hop with the same forward-thinking electronic experimentalism that has defined the country’s bass scene. MC and producer Skepta has risen to become one of the leaders of the grime sound, and this was cemented with the news his Konnichiwa album has won the UK’s Mercury Prize .
The Mercury is considered one of the music industry’s most prestigious awards, open to acts from Britain and Ireland. Often eschewing more mainstream choices in favor of independent and underground acts, it’s described by organizers as “the music equivalent to the Booker Prize for literature, and the Turner Prize for art.”
The Mercury’s judging panel includes musicians and music-industry figures, and this year it selected Skepta over both Radioheed and a posthumous award for David Bowie. The panel described Konnichiwa as “confident, funny, clever, scary, personal and political.” Meanwhile, in a show of typical MC bravado, Skepta compared himself to Muhammad Ali.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsePxE9whM0]
The Guardian declared Skepta’s win as a Mercury award that nobody can argue with, saying Konnichiwa defines “grime’s remarkable commercial resurgence, and embodies a lot of the characteristics that make that resurgence feel uniquely exciting and vibrant.”
It also pointed to Skepta spearheading the rise of grime in the US and the rest of the world.
“Boosted by the support of Drake, Skepta is the first grime artist to make real waves in the US—a country given to treating UK rappers like well-meaning poor relations, or else ignoring them altogether—but sounds coolly unruffled by the prospect of Transatlantic success.”
Meanwhile, those interested in grime’s growing crossover into the US can check out a rather amusing and informative comic from Red Bull Music Academy , while you can watch a documentary below on the grime invasion, recorded in Austin, Texas, during SXSW 2016.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53miK-8GsvM]
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