This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers
Ninja Tune’s Big Dada imprint relaunches
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 26 January 2021
Ninja Tune’s rap imprint Big Dada has announced that it is relaunching, and will now be run exclusively “by black, POC and minority ethnic Ninja Tune staff members for black, POC and minority ethnic artists”.
In a statement, the company said: “Big Dada is relaunched as a label run by black, POC and minority ethnic people for black, POC and minority ethnic artists – for lack of a better term. A team of like-minded individuals working together to form a community that champions, shines a light on, supports and nourishes the music and artists”.
“Working to amplify black and racialised artist voices, Big Dada looks to shift the narrative around this music, bypassing stereotypes to allow and encourage freedom to express oneself for who they are and want to be”, it goes on. “Big Dada has a long history and heritage which will be built upon whilst deepening its cultural identity by supporting and offering resources to a new generation of artists”.
The label was launched in 1997 by hip hop journalist Will Ashon, who left in 2014. Over the last two decades it has become known for releasing experimental music that pushes the boundaries of rap, hip hop and grime.
Artists who have worked with the company include Roots Manuva, Wiley, Kae Tempest, Congo Natty, MF Doom in his King Geedorah guise, Clouddead and Diplo. Two albums on the label – Speech Debelle’s ‘Speech Therapy’ and Young Fathers’ ‘Dead’ – have won the Mercury Prize.
