Young Fathers

When Are The BRIT Awards 2024?

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Raye
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The 2024 BRIT Awards nominations have been announced. R&B-pop chanteuse RAYE, whose album My 21st Century Blues was included on many publications’ “Best Of 2023” lists — including Uproxx’s Best Pop Albums Of 2023 — is not only the leading nominee but also makes history with seven nominations. That’s the most nominations for a single artist in a single year since the first BRIT Awards in 1977.

Raye is nominated for artist of the year, best new artist, pop act, R&B act, album of the year, and two songs of the year: “Escapism” with 070 Shake, and “Prada” with with cassö and D-Block Europe. Meanwhile, other nominees include Dua Lipa, with three nominations, Central Cee with four, and J Hus, also with four. The Rolling Stones also won their first nomination since 2013 — more than a decade — for alternative/rock act.

When Are The BRIT Awards 2024?

The BRIT Awards are set for Saturday, March 2, at the O2 Arena in London. The show will be broadcast live on ITV1 and ITVX.

Here’s The Complete List Of 2024 BRIT Awards Nominees

Mastercard Album Of The Year

Blur — The Ballad Of Darren
J Hus — Beautiful And Brutal Yard
Little Simz — No Thank You
RAYE — My 21st Century Blues
Young Fathers — Heavy Heavy

Artist Of The Year

Arlo Parks
Central Cee
Dave
Dua Lipa
Fred Again..
J Hus
Jessie Ware
Little Simz
Olivia Dean
RAYE

Group Of The Year

Blur
Chase & Status
Headie One & K-Trap
Jungle
Young Fathers

Best New Artist

Mahalia
Olivia Dean
PinkPantheress
RAYE
Yussef Dayes

Song Of The Year

Calvin Harris/Ellie Goulding — “Miracle”
cassö/RAYE/D-Block Europe — “Prada”
Central Cee — “Let Go”
Dave & Central Cee — “Sprinter,” Dave & Central Cee
Dua Lipa — “Dance the Night”
Ed Sheeran — “Eyes Closed”
J Hus — “Who Told You” Feat. Drake
Kenya Grace — “Strangers”
Lewis Capaldi — “Wish You the Best”
PinkPantheress — “Boy’s A Liar”
RAYE — “Escapism.” Feat. 070 Shake
Rudimental/Charlotte Plank/Vibe Chemistry — “Dancing Is Healing”
Stormzy — “Firebabe” Feat. Debbie
Switch Disco & Ella Henderson — “REACT”
Venbee & Goddard — “Messy in Heaven”

International artist of the year

Asake
Burna Boy
Caroline Polachek
CMAT
Kylie Minogue
Lana Del Rey
Olivia Rodrigo
SZA
Taylor Swift

International Group Of The Year

Blink-182
Boygenius
Foo Fighters
Gabriels
Paramore

International Song Of The Year

Billie Eilish — “What Was I Made For?”
David Kushner — “Daylight”
Doja Cat — “Paint the Town Red”
Jazzy — “Giving Me”
Libianca — “People”
Meghan Trainor — “Made You Look”
Miley Cyrus — “Flowers”
Noah Kahan — “Stick Season”
Oliver Tree & Robin Schulz — “Miss You”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Vampire,”
Peggy Gou — “(It Goes Like) Nanana”
Rema — “Calm Down”
SZA — “Kill Bill”
Tate McRae — “Greedy”
Tyla — “Water”

Alternative/Rock Act

Blur
Bring Me The Horizon
The Rolling Stones
Young Fathers
Yussef Dayes

Hip-Hop/Grime/Rap Act

CASISDEAD
Central Cee
Dave
J Hus
Little Simz

Dance Act

Barry Can’t Swim
Becky Hill
Calvin Harris
Fred again..
Romy

Pop Act

Calvin Harris
Charli XCX
Dua Lipa
Olivia Dean
RAYE

R&B Act

Cleo Sol
Jorja Smith
Mahalia
RAYE
SAULT

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Young Fathers’ New Single ‘Rice’ From Their Album ‘Heavy Heavy’ Is A Musical Search For Spiritual Sustenance

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Mercury Prize-winning Scottish trio Young Fathers dropped what seems to be the last single off their forthcoming studio album, Heavy Heavy. However, the band consisting of musicians Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and G. Hastings shouldn’t be toyed around with musically as their song by that name may suggest.

Sonically, the trio has rejected the idea of sonic boundaries in past single releases, “I Saw,” “Tell Somebody,” and “Geronimo,” and that tradition extends to their new single, “Rice.” As the group prepares for their album’s release next month, the song is the final appetizer before the full entree is served. The band paints a gutwrenching piece of spiritual yearning in just under three minutes.

Opening with the lines, “When it’s coming / I’ll be running / You’ll be doomed in 9th / We are mining / I am golden / You’re not finding what we’re holding,” it is difficult to shake the idea that something learner at play here in this thing called life.

Another set of standout lyrics in the song comes in the stanza, “I need to bide my time until I’m home again / Fill these boots to feel my soul and say / Buy more drugs to feel that love again / Kill them slow they reap, I sow amen.” This confession of both situational observations and internal self-reflection is jarring yet profoundly poetic.

The inspiration behind the track’s title comes near the song’s end in the lines, “Leave ’em out in the open / Put it all on the line / I need to catch more fish baby / I need to eat more rice.” Rice, in this context, serves a dual meaning. First, in the literal sense, a grain, but also in the spiritual sense. Many cultures view rice as a sign of nutrition and sustenance.

In a statement released about what fans can expect from their album, Kayus replied, “[Heavy Heavy] could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that supports the sound, or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men and the inevitable toll of living, a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes.”

Listen to the whole song above.

Heavy Heavy is out on 02/02/2023 via Ninja Tune. Pre-order it here.

Young Fathers Return With ‘Geronimo,’ Their First New Music In Four Years

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The last time we’d heard from Young Fathers, the Mercury Music Prize winners had just released their incredible 2018 album, Cocoa Sugar, and dropped the prescient video for “Toy,” which depicted some of the more despicable world leaders as children. Their hiatus lasted longer than expected given the circumstances surrounding the pandemic, but it gave Young Fathers an opportunity to get back in the studio without an agenda. “Geronimo” is the first song that the trio of Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and G. Hastings completed, and it’s another beautiful, visceral piece of music from the always affectatious group.

“I’m on the verge of something divine that’s gonna keep me alive,” they harmonize on the song’s bars. The slow-burning rhythm is tinged with a steel drum and it just feels like a long-awaited, cathartic outpouring. “It’s a track about contrast because life is contrast — pushing through, giving up, all at the same time,” the band said in a powerful statement, which you can read in full below.

We highly recommend you smash that play button on “Geronimo” above.

“A good time trying. That’s what Ma said, she was smiling, but it was meant as a warning.

It’s a track about contrast, because life is contrast – pushing through, giving up, all at the same time. Wanting everything and then wanting nothing, then wanting everything again. It’s kind of reflective of where we are at the moment, trying to remember how to do this again.

Trying to make music and all of the other stuff that comes along with it. Trying to forget all the bad bits, just trying to get somewhere. And that’s where we are right now, trying to get somewhere.

It’s the tenderness in toil, we had expelled a bunch of stuff with a lot of drive and wilder energy beforehand but this one had focus. It widened the scope again for us personally, that’s where the real high comes from. We grew another arm. We surprised ourselves.

So coming back with a track called ‘Geronimo’ feels quite fitting. Just the 3 of us again, but still in a f*cking basement.”