Konnichiwa by Skepta

Konnichiwa, Skepta's fourth album, finally landed on his own Boy Better Know label on 6 May 2016, after three years of delays and rewrites that had seen it announced in early 2013 and promised for March 2015. The title is Japanese for "hello", and he launched it with a party in Tokyo the night before, streamed around the world by Boiler Room.

Skepta executive-produced it and made all but three of the beats himself, with Pharrell pitching in, and it sounds like grime at full strength: skeletal, bass-heavy and furious, with his brother Jme, Wiley, D Double E, Novelist and Chip on the guest list. "That's Not Me", "Shutdown" and "Man" all went top 40, the album reached number two in the UK, and critics hailed it as the record that put grime back on top. It won the 2016 Mercury Prize, and Apple Music named it the best album of the year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.