Young Fathers (from left) ‘G’ Hastings, Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA WireHip hop trio Young Fathers tonight won one of UK music’s most prestigious awards asthey collected the Mercury Prize for their album Dead.
The Edinburgh-based act were little fancied for the award and beat acts like hot favourite FKA Twigs and Damon Albarn to the £20,000 prize.
In a brief acceptance speech, the group’s Alloysious Massaquoi said simply: “Thank you, we love you, we love you all.”
The group have shifted only a handful of copies of their album with just 2,386 sold by this week – just a 65th of the quantity sold by fellow nominees Royal Blood. Even following their inclusion on the shortlist, they managed to sell only an extra 531 copies of their album – a 31 per cent rise.
Simon Frith, who chaired the judging panel, said of the winners: “Young Fathers have a unique take on urban British music, brimming with ideas – forceful, unexpected and moving.”
The act, formed in 2008, has clocked up appearances at numerous festivals and have been described as a “psychedelic hip hop boy band”. They follow in the footsteps of recent winners such as James Blake and Alt-J, as well as other past victors such as Pulp, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.