BBK: AIM Innovator Award

Grime collective Boy Better Know have been announced as the winners of the 2017 AIM Innovator Award.

The group, founded by JME and Skepta in 2005, will pick up the award at the AIM Awards ceremony on 5th September at The Brewery in London. Stormzy was the 2016 recipient of the AIM Innovator Award, all of which contributes nicely to the narrative that grime and hip hop are carving out the cutting edge while hoary old rock music slowly rides off into the sunset.

Head of music at Vice and AIM Awards judge Alex Hoffman said: “What BBK have built entirely on their own will probably never be replicated in UK music. 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”.

Hoffman continued: “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”.

Other nominations for the AIM Awards include artists such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Jane Weaver and Sampha alongside labels including Matador, Hospital and Planet Mu.

Warp founder Steve Beckett has already been announced as the recipient of the pioneer award.