This year’s Mercury Prize — the award given annually to the best new British album — has gone to the London-born rapper Skepta, who beat David Bowie for the honor.
It’s for his album Konnichiwa, a political work described as a “landmark in British street music,” the BBC reports.
The 33-year-old Skepta — born Joseph Junior Adenuga — is a major figure in the grime genre, a gritty fusion of hip-hop, U.K. garage and drum-and-bass music.
The Mercury award brings him a cash prize of more than $33,000, and the honor of beating out David Bowie, whose final album Blackstar — released mere days before his death — was also up for the prize.
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“I’m just so thankful. I’ve been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long,” Skepta told the BBC.
[BBC]
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