The night’s show was kicked off by a performance by Mobo nominee Bree runway who performed her track “Hot Hot”. Ghetts own the first award of the night, Best male, a very deserving winner who is a forefather of the UK rap scene and has been a part of the scene for well over 10 years. His project Conflict of interest was released this year and charted at 2nd in the official charts the legendary rappers highest-ever chart position. Little Simz picked up Best female for a year that saw her release her album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, a project that gained Simz her highest chart position at 4th.

Central Cee was the only artist to win multiple awards, picking up best newcomer alongside his best drill award. The rappers year has seen him go from somewhat an unknown to one of the biggest rappers not only in the UK but globally with the rapper and his team making an impact globally with Central having appeared on tracks alongside French and Italian artists. Best hip hop was won by the biggest duo in the UK D-block Europe the duo picked up the award just a few days after their sold-out shows at the London 02, another artist who recently performed at their headline sold-out show in the 02 was best African music act recipient Wizkid who also took home the award for the best international act. Grime legend Skepta picked up the best grime act while Cleo Sol picked up the award for best R&b/soul act.

With so many impressive albums coming out o the UK in 2021 the award was anyways to call, but the UK rap heavyweight Dave snatched it up for his project We’re all alone in this together, a project that sat at number 1 and sold a staggering 72,000 copies in its first week of release. The song of the year went to Tion Wayne and Russ millions ”Body” remix, the record-breaking track helped the duo gain their first number 1 singles as well as the first number for the UK drill genre, the track didn’t only dominate the UK sitting at number 1 for three consecutive weeks but went viral across TikTok making it a global phenom. M1llionz video for “lagga” earned the northwest Birmingham rapper his first award.

Away from music Chunk and Yung filly picked up the award for best media personalities, Michael Ward won the best performance in a tv show/film for his performance as Franklyn in the BBC drama ‘Small Axe’, and Boxing legend Frank Bruno was the inspiration award honouree.

The UK music scene and the black music scene in particular has had an incredible year, and this was all on show at this year’s Mobos, performance from Coventry local Pa salieu, Ghetts, NSH and more were just an example of the raw talent that this country and the scene in general holds.

The award show was live-streamed on Youtube and is available to watch in full here:

Salieu was supposed to perform at the Kasbah nightclub on the 27th of November. The reasons for the cancellation is unclear, with Kasbah yet to comment. As of the time of writing, Kasbah have not put anything new on their twitter for the last nine days.

The show clearly meant a lot to Salieu, who hails from Coventry, mentions Coventry throughout his debut album, and entitled his album Send Them to Coventry. In the same statement, he says “I feel like I’m being let down by the city I love… why do they fear us?”

The show is part of his Afrikan Rebel Tour of the UK, with fellow rapper Backroad Gee as his supporting act, playing six dates across the country. Pa Salieu and Backroad Gee’s track ‘My Family’ helped Salieu become a big name in the UK. You can watch the video below:

This is the second of Pa Salieu’s shows to be called off this year, with a performance at the launch event of Coventry’s UK City of Culture. While the reasons behind the cancellation of his show at the Kasbah as of yet remain unclear, the Coventry UK City of Culture Trust stated, as per MixMag: “Due to the live nature of the investigation at the time we were preparing for our launch event, Coventry Moves, it was decided that it would not be possible for Pa to be involved.”

The investigation they are referring to is the murder case of Fidel Glasgow, where Salieu is alleged to be involved. Fidel Glasgow, the grandson of The Specials singer Neville Staple, was stabbed outside Club M and later died in hospital. While he is not directly involved in the murder, he is “accused of wounding another man during disorder preceded Mr Glasgow’s stabbing”, according to The BBC. Pa Salieu denies all charges. He is due to face trial in January next year.

Despite the Coventry UK City of Culture Trust explicitly stating that the investigation is the reason for his removal from the event, this time around both West Midlands Police and Coventry City Council said they had no involvement in the shows cancellation, as per The BBC.

See ticket information here and tour information below:

22/11/2021 – Thekla, Bristol
23/11 – Academy 2, Manchester
24/11 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
26/11 – Stylus, Leeds
29/11 – O2 Institute2, Birmingham
30/11 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

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Pa posted the screenshot from his phones notes which read “Sadly due to reasons beyond my control, the authorities have decided I can’t play my Coventry show next month. This after already being cut out of certain City of culture activities this year is just too disappointing. I feel like im being let down by the city I love… why do they fear us?”

Pa grew up in Coventry and has always repped his city with his latest project being titled Made in Coventry. The 24-year-old was first seen in 2018 with his track titled “Never Had” which was uploaded on GRM Daily and featured BM, and currently sits on just over 220 thousand views. It wasn’t till January 2020 when the British Gambian released his breakout track “Frontline” where he stands proudly on the streets of Coventry speaking about the area in which he grew up.

Pa was the  BBC sound of 2021 winner and has been putting out music at the highest level preaching lyrics of empowerment and change. The ending of his post where he writes “Why do they fear us?” speaks volumes and has been seen throughout the journey of UK rap with artists from Giggs to the current batch of drill rappers having their shows cancelled or their rappers such as Lethal Bizzle having their music banned in certain clubs.

Pa’s Afrikan rebel tour is still set to take place next month sadly excluding the Coventry date. The tour will take place between the 22nd and 30th of November and will take the artists to Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, London, Birmingham and Nottingham. Pa won’t be on the tour alone as he will be joined by fellow artist Backroad Gee, an artist Pa is constantly around and collaborated with on their hit “My family” which is a hit that has racked up 4 million views on the Coventry rappers own channel.

Pa’s tour is named after his recent ep  Afrikan Rebel and was only 3 songs long but acted more as a statement of who Pa was an artist.

Tickets for Pa’s Afrikan Rebel tour are available here.