{"id":566306,"date":"2026-03-26T20:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566306\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:24:09","slug":"slick-rick-performs-with-estelle-after-winning-lifetime-achievement-at-mobos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566306\/","title":{"rendered":"Slick Rick performs with Estelle after winning lifetime achievement at Mobos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only a fifth of UK nominees are from outside of Londonpublished at 19:37 GMT<\/p>\n

19:37 GMT<\/p>\n

Naomi Clarke and Srosh Khan
BBC Newsbeat<\/p>\n

\"MarkImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n

Manchester played host to the Brits earlier this month, Skepta was presenting an award – he’s up for best male act at the Mobos tonight<\/p>\n

It’s been a big few weeks for Manchester. <\/p>\n

First the Brit Awards came to town, now the city is hosting the Mobos and, later this week, the 6 Music Festival.<\/p>\n

For up-and-coming local artists like producer and songwriter July 7, it’s a sign that his city is “getting taken seriously” as a music hub.<\/p>\n

“Manchester is known for how unique it is, how vibrant and multicultural it is as a city,” he tells BBC Newsbeat. <\/p>\n

“So what’s better than having a spotlight shone on the artists for doing exactly that?”<\/p>\n

However, the 28-year-old, who has written and produced for US artists like Travis Scott and Soulja Boy, says the music industry is still “very much London-based”.<\/p>\n

That makes life more challenging for him due to the extra travel costs and planning required.<\/p>\n

Out of the UK artists that are nominated at this year’s Mobos, about 20% are from outside of London, a slight increase on last year.<\/p>\n

July 7 has been part of the Mobo Fringe this year – an event the awards put on in each host city – and says it’s been “incredible” to showcase his work and to meet others in the industry.<\/p>\n

But he would like to see more music studios and major labels stationing themselves outside of London to improve the “visibility gap” of artists from across the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only a fifth of UK nominees are from outside of Londonpublished at 19:37 GMT 19:37 GMT Naomi Clarke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-566306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}