Stormzy Among The Winners At The UK’s 2022 GRM Rated Awards
Returning for its seventh year, the GRM Rated Awards celebrates the best talent in UK rap and grime music.
Britain’s premier award ceremony for UK Rap & Grime, The GRM Rated Awards announced the winners at a packed live ceremony in central London last night (Sunday, October 23), with Stormzy among the winning artists.
Returning for its seventh year, this year’s GRM Rated Awards celebrated the best talent in UK music with the presentation of awards spanning over eleven categories recognizing some of the scene’s biggest names and their contribution to UK music between June 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022.
Hosted by Big Zuu & Julie Adenuga, and featuring guest presenters Munya Chawawa, Tiffany Calver, Adeola Patronne, Mariam Musa, Nella Rose, Snoochie Shy and Zeze Millz; the 2022 Rated Awards will be broadcast exclusively on E4 on Tuesday, October 25 at 10pm BST. Capturing the vibrancy and diversity of UK Rap & Grime like no other award show could, this year’s Rated Awards featured exclusive performances from a carefully curated line up of the hottest upcoming and established artists.
Performance highlights included Ms Banks, Ivorian Doll and Dreya Mac who teamed up for a remix of “Baddie” featuring Felix the 1st. Knucks & SL delivered a powerful performance of “Nice & Good”. Another standout came from ArrDee with a mash up performance of ‘Flowers (Say My Name)’, an exclusive performance of Body Remix with Tion Wayne and Russ Millions, alongside a specially created freestyle in the classic format of a GRM Daily Duppy. Whilst Nella Rose and America Foster were backstage capturing all the gossip and reactions for Channel 4.0 on YouTube.
Dave won four awards on the night, including Track of the Year and Video of the Year, with his Stormzy collaboration “Clash”. When accepting the award for Track of The Year, Dave revealed the story behind the huge hit. Joined by Stormzy on stage, Dave explained: “Back in 2019, I’d just finished my tour. My friend Cal who produced this song had just brought Jordan 1s and Jordan 4s., so I freestyled “Clash”. I played Stormzy the song in 2020 and then a year after that I got his verse! Four years of a journey to bring you guys this song.”
Dave also took home the Male Artist of the Year and prestigious Album of the Year award for We’re All Alone In This Together. He told the ceremony in London on Sunday “Big up GRM, big up everyone who made this year possible. It’s been a big year for a lot of musicians and everyone’s done a lot to really push the scene forward”.
Having grown in stature and acclaim with every release, Little Simz added the Female Artist of the Year award to her recent Mercury Prize win. In her acceptance speech, she said “Thank you so much GRM, a special shout out to Posty as well, he’s had a special journey. I remember when he first started doing this at Essex Road – I’m from Essex Road! It’s amazing to see how far it’s come and how far it’s progressed”.
Founder & CEO of GRM Daily, Post closed the awards by inviting Link Up TV founder Rashid Kasirye to join him on stage to commemorate pioneer and icon Jamal Edwards with this year’s Legacy Award. Post & Rashid paid tribute to Jamal as an unprecedented force in British Rap music and a pioneer who revolutionized how content is consumed online. The Legacy Award was presented to Jamal Edwards’ mother Brenda and sister Tanisha on stage as they introduced a special video created by Jamal’s team at SBTV to celebrate his life and legacy with accolades from across the industry.
Having grown in stature and acclaim with every release, Little Simz added the Female Artist of the Year award to her recent Mercury Prize win. Central Cee continued his global rise by taking home the accolade of Mixtape of the Year. Breakthrough went to teenage British Hip-Hop duo, A1 & J1, having beaten Dreya Mac, Knucks and SwitchOTR to claim the hotly contested award.
Founder & CEO of GRM Daily, Post closed the awards by inviting Link Up TV founder Rashid Kasirye to join him on stage to commemorate pioneer and icon Jamal Edwards with this year’s Legacy Award. Post & Rashid paid tribute to Jamal as an unprecedented force in British Rap music and a pioneer who revolutionized how content is consumed online. The Legacy Award was presented to Jamal Edwards’ mother Brenda and sister Tanisha on stage as they introduced a special video created by Jamal’s team at SBTV to celebrate his life and legacy with accolades from across the industry.
