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AIM to give Innovator Award to Boy Better Know

By | Published on Friday 18 August 2017

The Association Of Independent Music has announced that the boys from Boy Better Know will be handed the Innovator Award at this year’s Independent Music Awards. The grime collective and label founded by JME and Skepta has, of course, been integral in the rise of the genre and its crossover into the mainstream.

Announcing the decision to present BBK with an award, Vice’s music chief Alex Hoffman, also a judge for the AIM Awards, said: “Like so many young people trying to somehow make a viable career out of music, when the members of BBK came together, the completely independent route was the only one on the table”.

He went on: “Then the offers came flooding in but none of them saw a reason to change the set-up. They simply saw what they’d achieved on their own terms up to that point and had the confidence to keep building their empire independently. Their influence on the next generation of UK artists goes so much further than their musical output and goes so much further than grime”.

Speaking for AIM, the trade group’s Lara Baker added: “Boy Better Know have been tearing up the rulebook for over ten years, influencing culture and building success entirely on their own terms. From the early days of radio stations refusing to play their music and venues shutting down their shows, 2017 has seen them dominate the airwaves and take grime global. Whether headlining Glastonbury’s Other Stage, taking over The O2 arena or dropping tracks with Drake, they maintain a fiercely DIY and independent spirit, inspiring countless young artists to do the same”.



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