Grime Star Skepta Beat David Bowie for One of Britains Top Musical Honors
This year's Mercury Prize  the award given annually to the best new British album  has gone to the London-born rapper Skepta, who beat David Bowie for the honor. It's for his album Konnichiwa, a political work described as a "landmark in British street music," the BBC reports. The 33-year-old Skepta  born Joseph Junior Adenuga  is a major figure in the grime genre, a gritty fusion of hip-hop, U.K. garage and drum-and-bass music. The Mercury award brings him a cash prize of more than 33,000, and the honor of beating out David Bowie, whose final album Blackstar  released mere days before his death  was also up for the prize. "I'm just so thankful. I've been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long," Skepta told the BBC. BBC