2018 Brit Awards Nominees Shows How Much Hip-Hop has Taken Over the UK
The nominations for the 2018 Brit Awards came out Saturday and if you still think that hip-hop and R&B aren’t the dominant genres of popular music these days, give your head a shake.
With the exception of Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, The Killers and LCD Soundsystem (all Best International Group), Liam Gallagher (Best Male Solo Artist; Our Kid had something to say to Noel about that), Royal Blood and Wolf Alice (both for British Group), and Beck (Male International Artist) the rest of the field is pretty much from the hip-hop world. Oh, and Ed Sheeran’s there, too, along with a few other pop artists.
Another way to look at it is the vast diversity of the nominees.
Take a look for yourself. The 2018 Brit Awards will be held at the O2 Arena in London on February 21.
British Artist Video of the Year
Anne-Marie, “Ciao Adios”
Calvin Harris Feat. Pharrell Williams/Katy Perry/Big Sean, “Feels”
Clean Bandit Feat. Zara Larsson, “Symphony”
Dua Lipa, “New Rules”
Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You”
Harry Styles, “Sign of The Times”
Jonas Blue Feat. William Singe, “Mama”
Liam Payne Feat. Quavo, “Strip That Down”
Little Mix, “Touch”
ZAYN and Taylor Swift, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever”
British Breakthrough Act
Dave
Dua Lipa
J Hus
Loyle Carner
Sampha
British Female Solo Artist
Dua Lipa
Jessie Ware
Kate Tempest
Laura Marling
Paloma Faith
British Male Solo Artist
Ed Sheeran
Liam Gallagher
Loyle Carner
Rag’N’Bone Man
Stormzy
British Group
Gorillaz
London Grammar
Royal Blood
Wolf Alice
The xx
British Album of the Year
Dua Lipa, Dua Lipa
Ed Sheeran, ÷
J Hus, Common Sense
Rag’n’Bone Man, Human
Stormzy, Gang Signs & Prayer
British Single
Calvin Harris Feat. Pharrell Williams/Katy Perry/Big Sean, “Feels”
Clean Bandit Feat. Zara Larsson, “Symphony”
Dua Lipa, “New Rules”
Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You”
J Hus, “Did You See”
Jax Jones Feat. Raye, “You Don’t Know Me”
Jonas Blue Feat. William Singe, “Mama”
Liam Payne Feat. Quavo, “Strip That Down”
Little Mix, “Touch”
Rag’n’Bone Man, “Human”
International Group
Arcade Fire
Foo Fighters
Haim
The Killers
LCD Soundsystem
International Female Solo Artist
Alicia Keys
Björk
Lorde
P!nk
Taylor Swift
International Male Solo Artist
Beck
Childish Gambino
DJ Khaled
Drake
Kendrick Lamar
But how is ‘hip-hop’ formally categorized? Seems to me a fair amount of ‘hip-hop’ is no different that generic ‘pop’ music, just categorized as ‘hip-hop’ because of the non-white demographic of the artist? Perhaps it’s stats are over compensated by merit of solely music?