Leading the nominations this year is rapper Dave with six nominations. He is nominated for track of the year twice for his hits ‘Starlight’ and ‘Clash’ featuring Stormzy. Both singles also received nominations for Video of the Year. After recently headlining Reading and Leeds, the 24-year-old is also nominated for Male Artist of the Year alongside Central Cee, Digga D and 2021’s Track of the Year winner, Tion Wayne.

Dave has met widespread critical acclaim since his debut album Psychodrama which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart back in 2019. It had the biggest first week of streams for a UK rap album and subsequently took home the 2020 Brit Award for Album of the Year and went on to win the Mercury Prize. His latest album, We’re All Alone in This Together is nominated for the GRM Rated Award for Album of the Year and faces competition from Little Simz, Fredo, Tion Wayne, M Huncho, Knucks and Kojey Radical. The Evening Standard described the album as a ‘masterpiece’ saying Dave is ‘the greatest rapper working in Britain today.”

Also leading the nominations is Little Simz who is featured in three categories. She’s up for Album of the Year with her Mercury Prize Nominated Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. AllMusic described the album as a “master class in modern songwriting with heaps of poise and a beating, soulful heart,” and Stereogum said the release was “cinematic and surreal and overwhelming”. Simz is also nominated for Female Artist of the Year alongside Mahalia, Ms Banks, Stefflon Don and FLO. Her single ‘Point and Kill’ features on the list for Track of the Year with fellow contenders Aitch, ArrDee and Central Cee.

You can see a full list of nominations here. Voting is now open and fans can place their votes for each category until the 21st of September. The hosts, performances and date of the ceremony are yet to be announced.

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Kick Game is a store specialising in rare and exclusive trainers and apparel, and was founded in 2013 by brothers David and Robert Franks. The company has 5 store locations one in Birmingham Bullring shopping centre, one in Leeds Trinity shopping centre, one in Manchester Arndale and two stores in London; one in Burlington Arcade and the flagship store in Covent Garden. In April 2021 the company announced a multi-million pound partnership with west London rapper Fredo, a self-proclaimed sneakerhead himself. The partnership was labelled “Ground Breaking” by kick game founder Rob Franks.

The trainer company partnered up with three of the biggest artist in the UK rap scene to give out shoes around the country. Arrdee was given a van full of wrapped shoes to give out in his home city Brighton, pulling up to a retail park and giving trainers out to the swarms of school children who spotted the 19-year-old rap star. Fredo went to Queen’s Park School in his local area of West London to surprise the pupils there with free shoes ranging from Air Force to Jordans. Central Cee did his part from within the Kick Game flagship store in Covent Garden. Central was met by mobs of fans who were alerted of the giveaway after the rapper posted on his Instagram story “Feeling festive. Pull up to Kick Game UK”.

The Christmas giveaway was documented by the trainer store and uploaded to their YouTube channel, which has an impressive 107,000 subscribers. The company often use the channel to interview the stars who visit the store and have hosted the likes of Jamaican dancehall legend Popcaan, Premier League footballer Leon Bailey as well as the previously mentioned Arrdee and Central Cee.

The video for Kick games Christmas gift drop is available to watch here:

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The 14 track project will feature 4 UK heavyweights. Potter Payper will appear on the third track ‘14’, the rapper has been one of the standout UK rappers since his release from jail just over a year ago releasing two projects, charting at number three and signing to 0207 DefJam. Headie One will also feature on the West London rappers project on track 8 ‘Wandsworth to Bullingdon’, a track that seems to be an ode to the prisons in those two areas, Headie One also dropped a new single titled ‘Pound Signs’ yesterday shot by British director Flex god Daps. 

Clavish and Suspect (AGB) are the two other features, Clavish is one of the most talented UK rappers but has yet to find any consistency when dropping music, the rapper hasn’t disappointed on previous features appearing on Nines chart-topping project ‘Crabs in a bucket’. Suspect is a newer name in the UK drill scene building a strong buzz around his name as well as the rest of Active gang.

Alongside the release of his first single of the project ‘Talk of the town’, The video was shot on the block Fredo grew up on in West London, Mozart and featured the artist riding around on quad bikes as well as bringing out the block for a bbq.

 Fredo has stayed busy this year releasing the 4th project of his career ‘Money can’t buy happiness’ in February which charted at no.2 and signing a ‘multi-million pound’ partnership with trainer company Kick game.

Fredo’s new album is available to pre-order here.

Watch the video for his new single ‘Talk of the town’ here:

Dave, the Streatham-born winner of the Mercury Prize 2010, features on the track and his status as one of the leading figures of the genre has undoubtably boosted the success of this single. The track is taken from Fredo’s album ‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness,’ which can be streamed on all platforms or bought on CD from Fredo’s official store here. Fredo also has a number of t-shirts and hoodies for sale on his official store for fans who want to show their appreciation for the album.

The theme of the track is simple and critical of the materialistic society that values money over everything else. The video tells the story of the London underworld with scenes including prostitution and drug use juxtaposed against scenes of religious blessings with a narrative that money is present in every single scene. While the theme may be a simple one it is far from explicit exactly what we should believe after hearing the track and seeing the video.

While it at first might seem to be a critique of money and materialism, the video which shows money as the constant lifeblood throughout almost all activities in life, the viewer is much less sure what they should think. It is incredibly hard to tell whether the two Grime Rappers are telling us that money is bad, or simply shining a light on the which money is valued and also ultimately meaningless, since it is only attained in order to be exchanged for things which people value more.

This track from Fredo and Dave represents everything that makes UK Grime such a great genre and shows exactly why is has risen to become one of the country’s most mainstream and successful genres. While it is tempting to look to art and music to tell us exactly what is write or wrong or to be told exactly what we should believe, the greatest and must successful is always that which doesn’t actually tell us exactly what to think, but that raises more questions and simply shines a light on life in a way that we might not have seen it before.

There is certainly something different about this track when compared to traditional hip-hop, which has a definite materialistic streak, and the most obvious explanation is to see it as a rejection of that attitude. However, there is so much nuance and subtlety to the verses that it can not simply be summed up this simply, this a complex piece of art which may take a long time to truly be understood.

29/01/21 pic.twitter.com/muzRSCDEuj

— FREDDY (@fredo) January 24, 2021

‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness’ is the hotly anticipated follow up to 2019’s ‘Third Avenue'; on his new album, Fredo explores deeper themes of managing the fame and wealth accrued in the wake of his last album’s success.

“I want to apologise for the wait,” Fredo said, in a statement on his new album. “I had a whole different style album that didn’t really mean anything to me. Meanwhile a lot was going on in life that I was angry and confused about. I really thought that once you have money you can’t not be happy inside even if stuff’s going on but it’s not like that. I felt like the project I was working on before was me but doesn’t really explain me.

“I don’t want people thinking that certain things I rap about are important or the key of life because they’re not. Most things I rap about are just what I been through or reality for me and my friends,” he added.

Despite the wait between albums, Fredo has been far from idle during the last two years. 2020 saw the Queen’s Park rapper feature on numerous different tracks, including Mist’s ‘House Party’, K-Trap’s ‘Hot There’ and Young T & Bugsey’s ‘Bully Beef’. Fredo himself released a handful of singles, but most notably starred on GRM Daily’s Daily Duppy freestyle YouTube show; his performance became the most viewed Daily Duppy performance of 2020 with 15.6 million Youtube views by the end of the year.

Find the tracklist for ‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness’ and listen to ‘Back to Basics’ below:

1. Biggest Mistake
2. Back to Basics
3. Spaghetti
4. Ready (Ft Summer Walker)
5. Money Talks (Ft Dave)
6. Do You Right
7. Burner On Deck (Ft Young Adz and Pop Smoke)
8. I Miss
9. Blood In My Eyes
10. Aunts Place
11. What Can I Say

The jumpy beat samples Toni Braxton’s 90’s single, ‘You’re Makin’ Me High’ and allows Fredo to own the chorus exhibiting his melodic vibes. Both rappers are well known for their creative, cinematic style videos with Mist especially known for his destination shoots. Therefore, it was only right for the two trap rappers to head to Costa Rica for a fictional drug deal gone wrong scenario, resulting in a high-speed chase through the exotic jungle.

After signing with Warner Bros. Records in 2016 and creating his own imprint, Sickmade Ent. Mist has been putting Birmingham on the map ever since. His unique flow and raw delivery, along with frequent Steel Banglez production managed to shape a new sound in British hip-hop. The successful release of his second EP, Diamond In The Dirt in 2018 received positive feedback, peaking at #4 in the U.K Albums Chart with three singles hitting the top 100 on the U.K Singles Chart.

Make sure to catch Mist performing live this summer at the following festivals:

12/07/2019 – TRNSMT Festival – Glasgow

02/08/2019 – Afro Nation Festival – Portimão, Portugal

You can watch the video to ‘So High’ below.

For rapper Fredo, this is a great way to make highly anticipated fans ready for his debut album “Third Avenue” which will be released February. Fredo and Bane are one of the biggest homegrown acts right now so with this collaboration they really set the bars high. The video was directed by Can Evign and shows slick stylish black and white imagery.

The smooth video showcases flashing from white to black making the clothing bounce back onto our screens. The video has a fierce aura showing girls on motorbikes with face jewelry. We also see some close-ups of money and a black snake which sets the video’s meaning.

Yxng Bane and Fredo have set out tour dates so make sure to refer back to older posts to get information.

Check out ‘Problem’ video down below

Previously the grime rapper has landed himself on the Official UK Album Charts with his second mixtape ‘Tables Turn’ followed by this single ‘Rappin & Trappin’.
A few weeks ago, Fredo dropped a video called ‘BMT’ which is now reached 3.3M views which we expect to climb to higher numbers with the album release. ‘BMT’ is the first single from his album “Third Avenue” and it has been debuted at #25.

We’re in no doubt that this upcoming album would be a huge success in UK rap. Tickets for “Third Avenue” will be going on sale Friday 7th December at 10 am, so make sure to keep an eye out to not miss the chance. Fredo will be kicking off his tour in Dublin.

Make sure to watch the video for ‘BMT’ down below.

After Drake remixed on Dave’s single ‘Wanna Know’ people have been highly anticipating Dave to collaborate with other musicians such as Fredo. Dave connected to West London Rapper Fredo for single called ‘Funk Friday’ which has now skyrocketed to the number one spot on the Official Trending Charts and is currently pushing 3 million views on YouTube.

The video shows each Dave and Fredo’s personality through there styles and the flashy visuals produced. Dave starts off in a private garden setting with the colors bouncing off the screen with the contrasting clothing and accessories. It swiftly cuts to Fredo and shows him in a mansion setting with very classy scenery, while he smoothly moves around the space of the mansion taking his verse. The video continuously surprises us with the amazing editing skills and the animals that are introduced into the visual. It was announced this Friday that Dave and Fredo’s single have knocked Calvin Harris and Sam Smith off the number one spot on the Official UK Singles Chart. This has become their first UK number one so make sure to keep streaming ‘Funky Friday’ and watch the video down below.

Dave announced mid-September that he will be venturing on a European Tour in early November, so make sure to get your tickets via the link below.

7th November – Le Badaboum – Paris, France
8th November – Burg Schnabel – Berlin, Germany
9th November – Yuca – Cologne, Germany
10th November – Ideal Bar – Copenhagen, Denmark​​​​​​​
13th November – John Dee – Oslo, Norway​​​​​​​
14th November – Debaser Strand – Stockholm, Sweden​​​​​​​
16th November – Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands

You can pick up tickets here