Skepta has beaten out eleven other nominees, including David Bowie and Radiohead, for the Mercury Prize.
The Mercury Prize honors the best British album of the year with Skepta’s Konnichiwa beating out:
Hopelessness – Anohni
The Bride – Bats for Lashes
Blackstar – David Bowie
Making Time – Jamie Woon
Made in the Manor – Kano
The Dreaming Room – Laura Mvula
Love and Hate – Michael Kiwanuka
A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead
Adore Life – Savages
Konnichiwa – Skepta
I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It – The 1975
Channel the Spirits – The Comet is Coming
Skepta is a Grime artist whose numbers include Dizzee Rascal, Ghetts and Kana. He started his career in the early-2000’s as a DJ for Meridian Crew and moved through other groups such as Roll Deep before starting his own band Boy Better Know.
In 2006, he released the first of four mixtapes, Joseph Junior Adenuga and, the following year, his first official album, Greatest Hits (yes, that was his debut). Konnichiwa is his fourth full release.
Many of the artists who were nominated perform during the prize ceremony. For Bowie’s Blackstar, actor Michael C. Hall, who starred in the Bowie musical Lazarus, sang the title song and the track from Blackstar.
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