The lack of diversity at Wednesday night’s Brit Awards didn’t go unnoticed, but just minutes away from the O2 Arena, a number of the artists overlooked weren’t ready to let their lack of a nomination ruin things.
Man of the moment Craig David is about to stage one of the most exciting musical comebacks of recent years (sorry, Adele), and after having his say on the #BritsSoWhite diversity row in the red carpet, he hosted his own bash the Beats by Dre party with Craig David, at The 100 Club.
Craig David and Big Narstie at The 100 Club
At the packed invite-only bash, the ‘Fill Me In’ star kicked things off with a TS5 party set, sharing the stage with Big Narstie, who features on his comeback single ‘When The Bassline Drops’.
Guests including Damon Albarn and Jamal Edwards then saw garage pioneers DJ Luck and MC Neat take to the decks, before a performance from Kano, who welcomed special guest Giggs on to the stage.
Meanwhile, across town in Shoreditch, Drake also ditched the main music labels’ swanky bashes, in favour of making surprise appearance on stage at Village Underground at a Section Boyz gig with grime artist Skepta.
Much has been said of the fact UK Grime’s most prolific artists were omitted from this year’s nominations, and not much has changed since Kanye West invited a whole host of artists including Skepta, Krept & Konan and Stormzy to join him to debut ‘All Day’ on the Brits stage in 2015.
Ahead of the event, Brits bosses appeared to defend the lack of diversity by citing the fact many nominees are decided upon because of their commercial success, with a spokesperson stating: “There are no individual awards for specific genres however, and since only a small number of Brits are awarded every year, the artists who are honoured tend to be those who have achieved the very highest levels of chart success.”
However, Craig was having none of it, and speaking shortly before presenting the Best International Artist award with Fleur East he told reporters on the red carpet: “Sometimes some genres of music aren’t represented and this year it happened to be grime. It’s very clear that it hasn’t been.
"So hopefully next year the way that the voting system is made the grime artists will be seen.
"But being part of that scene, I know deep down that the grime and garage music and urban music it's winning in itself."
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