British music body the BPI releases its annual All About the Music yearbook today, and to promote the launch it’s talking about some of the findings around rap / hip-hop in the UK. The genre accounted for 21.5% of all consumption last year in terms of singles, which is a new high since the BPI began tracking the genre’s share in 1998 (!) and up from 20.9% in 2018. But what the body is most excited about is that British artists are taking a bigger share of that consumption: between 2015 and 2019 UK artists’ share of rap / hip-hop sales and streams has grown from 10% to 26.9% for albums, and from 15.5% to 42.2% for singles. Stormzy, Dave, AJ Tracey, Aitch, Little Simz and Kate Tempest are among those called out for their impact.
James Walsh, general manager of Dave’s label Neighbourhood Recordings, is quoted in the announcement. “There’s so many talented British artists within the genre that are connecting with people of all backgrounds on their own terms, and that’s really powerful,” he said. “Audiences today are very tuned in – artists who are the most authentic to themselves have shown time and time again that integrity in their message and music wins out.”
Image by Ben Houdijk / Shutterstock.com
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