In press statements, both Paul and Ashanti shared their excitement to return to the UK:

Paul said “I can’t wait to Bring It to the UK for something special with Ashanti and Fat Joe. I love my British fans. This will be my biggest UK tour yet, and my first time in Ireland, it’s gonna be fire, you know what to do, come through!”

Ashanti added “I’m so excited to come back to perform again for my fans at my biggest ever tour in the UK and Ireland. No lie, y’all show me so much love!

The Jamaican star is a household name in dancehall, with smash hits like “Gimme the Light”, “Get Busy” and “Temperature” helping him crossover from the Caribbean to the rest of the globe. His recognisable deep voice has featured in collaborations with Beyonce, Dua Lipa and Migos to name a few. He’s one of the best selling dancehall artists in history, with his second album Dutty Rock going double-platinum in the US. Recently his work has been sampled by both Kehlani and Ice Spice for singles from their recent albums.

Ashanti has had an acclaimed run in the music game. First featuring on hits with Ja Rule and Fat Joe, she released her debut record Ashanti in 2002. Hosting hit singles like “Foolish”, “Happy” and “Baby”, she earned a Grammy award for Best R&B Album, among many other accolades. At the time, she set a new record by having three top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.

Sean last travelled through the UK with his Scorcha Tour in 2023, promoting his 8^th studio album of the same name. Speaking to NME after his Wireless set this year, he said at his age “it does get harder to be jumping up” on stage, but he believes it keeps him “youthful”, joking that he “read that if you go to two concerts or two festivals every month, you gon’ gain nine years on your life – so, I’m gon’ live forever!”

After a decorated career that’s seen her score multiple hit albums as well as branching out into acting and stage musicals, she’s recently been seen settling into family life with husband and 2000’s R&B peer Nelly, tying the knot in December 2023, and welcoming their first child in August 2024.

The couple recently appeared for Nelly’s annual Black and White Charity Ball in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. In a sweet moment, they performed together, remixing the lyrics of her classic “Baby” to celebrate the birth of their newborn son, Kareem Kenkaide Haynes, or KK.

There’s excitement for the “Bring It” tour to visit the UK – Rob Wicks, Managing Director of Aberdeen’s P&J Live said on behalf of the venue that “Sean Paul is a completely different genre for our venue, set to bring a mixture of his unique music style – reggae, dancehall and rap – to the Northeast of Scotland. We continuously strive to provide a varied programme of events to the city, and so we hope fans will get behind this show and welcome the artist with open arms.”

The British leg will start in Dublin on April 8, moving through venues in Leeds, Glasgow, London and more, before a final show on April 20 at Manchester’s AO Arena. General ticket sales will open on Friday (December 20) at 10am local time. Click here to purchase tickets and check the dates below.

This year is no different from the last, seeing a star-studded selection of rappers from both sides of the Atlantic. Phase one of Wireless’ line up was announced today via the festival’s official Instagram. 2024’s event poster gives considerable weight to female rappers, both new and old. After exploding in popularity in 2022 after her single ‘Munch’, Bronx rapper, Ice Spice will be playing on the festival’s opening night alongside Trinidadian mega-star Nicki Minaj.

Known for her risqué lyrics, Up-and-coming Missourian rapper Sexyy Red will also be performing at Wireless. Finding her audience after Cardi B’s and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP created an industry niche for tongue-in-cheek, sexually charged, female-led, rap music, Sexxy Red capitalised on this sub-genre, finding success with her 2023 single ‘Pound Town’.

Saturday the 14th of July will see LA rapper and singer Doja Cat headline the night. After her breakout YouTube single ‘Mooo!’, which currently has 129m views, Doja Cat has continued to make a name for herself through a steady stream of popular releases and her outlandish costume designs. Off the back of her fourth studio album, Scarlet, released in November of last year, Doja Cat has secured herself a top spot at London’s biggest music festival.

Wireless’ Saturday will be host to British-born Atlanta rapper 21 Savage. 21 Savage became widely known after his 2016 feature on XXL Magazine’s freshman cypher alongside, then upcoming rappers, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, Kodak Black, and Denzel Curry. Since his 2016 breakout, 21 Savage has gone on to release three studio albums, as well as three collaborative albums with Offset, Metro Boomin, and Drake. Fellow Atlanta rapper, Future will also be performing on the event’s Friday show. Known for his pioneering contributions to the American trap scene, Future remains one of the biggest names in the genre.

Although the setlist features only a couple of UK artists so far, with Digga D and J Hus joining the line up, Festival Republic is yet to announce the full line up, the second phase of which will be released next week. Early bird tickets for the festival will go live on January 31st at 10am. For those with either a Three Mobile or Barclay Card rewards scheme, a special pre-sale is currently available until an hour before the general ticket sale date.

Paul is insistent on spending his 2021 churning out as much content as possible, back in March he released his previous album Live N Livin. Production for this album officially started in 2019 when “Buss a Bubble” was released. The track would later be replaced on the album by a remixed version featuring Chi Ching Ching, Looga Man, Ras Ajai and Sotto Bless. Singles would be released through 2020 before the album was finally released earlier this year.

No matter how small di boombox we still a buss di #DYNAMITE!!! pic.twitter.com/JKbqXwXx7W

— Sean Paul (@duttypaul) December 5, 2021

This trend of releasing music a good while before the album comes out seems to be coming to an end too. On Twitter, Paul shared a video blasting his most recent track “Dynamite” featuring Sia, released in October. Following his previous single “Only Fanz” with Ty Dolla-$ign.  Alluding to possible future music after the announcement of his tour. See below the video of his song made to empower those who use a popular subscription service to make a living.

In a statement, Paul stated, “Ay yo UK, I cannot wait to get ‘pon the road, seen? Big boss culture album dropping with a whole heap of music, ya dun know! That’s where we set the ting fi drop. Big boss culture, big boss tour. Can’t wait to come to UK, you always treat me good, I’m a bring the good weather and the warm music. Ya dun know, you can’t refuse it, you can’t lose it, boom! Nuff love.”

See below the full UK tour dates:

11/04/22 – O2 Academy – Edinburgh
12/04 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
13/04 – O2 City Hall – Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
15/04 – BEC Arena – Manchester
16/04  – The SSE Arena, Wembley – London
17/04  – First Direct Arena – Leeds
19/04  – Utilita Arena – Birmingham
20/04  – Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham
21/04  – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff

Per a report from the Guardian, the causes of the both deaths are believed to be due to the consumption of high-strength Ecstasy.

Reports on social media alleged that there was a noticeable lack of drinking water after 4pm, with some of the on-site taps not working at all. The organisers of the Mutiny Festival have responded to these suggestions, maintaining that there were 21 water taps working at all times throughout the festival.

The fact mutiny festival ran out of water yesterday on the hottest day and you're not even allowed to take water in is disgusting

— ♡Holly♡ (@lolhollyy) May 27, 2018

On the Saturday of the festival, the festival issued a ‘harm prevention alert’ via their Twitter page to warn those in attendance about any drug use, which you can read below.

Please RT – Please RT – Please RT pic.twitter.com/JjdZpuWYuO

— Mutiny Festivals (@MutinyFestivals) May 26, 2018

Police were then alerted at 7:10pm on Saturday evening, when the 18-year-old woman, later identified as Georgia Jones, fell ill, with the 20-year-old man, named Tommy Cowan collapsing just 20 minutes later. At least 12 other people are known to have been taken hospital over the course of Saturday night, though none of these have yet been confirmed to have been drug-related.

Cowan’s father has spoken to the BBC, saying: “It’s no good saying ‘don’t do drugs, all I can say is ‘take this on board, look what’s happened, if you want to end up that way, carry on’. If you don’t, don’t even think about it.”