Rapper and maker Lemfreck has won the 2024 Welsh Music Prize for his collection Blood, Sweat and Fears.

The Newport craftsman battled off competition from rockers Skindred and artist Rough Rhys, among others, to pack the £10,000 grant.

The ceremony was held on Tuesday night at Cardiff’s Ridges Thousand years Middle where a grinning Lemfreck, genuine title Lemarl Freckleton, was envisioned with his trophy.

The 30-year-old expressed gratitude toward his mum and father after getting the 14th yearly grant from have Sian Eleri, saying:

“As youthful dark kid developing up, they always told me I seem do anything and be anything.”
He included:

“This one goes to my community in Newport. In case I didn’t see Benji (Webbe, from Newport band Skindred) doing it to begin with I’m telling you presently I would not be able to do this, so I’d like to thank him.

“I’d like to conversation almost how imperative representation is… it’s not a box tick when specialists like myself win grants like this – it’s a affirmation of craftsmanship.”

Welsh hip-hop pioneers Eric Martin and DJ Jaffa too gotten the Welsh Music Motivation Grant for their career-long commitments to music.

Eric Martin, too known as MC Eric and Me One, could be a Welsh-born Jamaican vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, musician and maker.

He rose to unmistakable quality with Belgium-based Technotronic within the late 1980s, co-writing the crush hit collection Pump Up The Stick, which sold more than 14 million copies in its to begin with year.

DJ Jaffa, or Jason Farrell, may be a Cardiff maker who has been DJing since 1985.

His and Martin’s blends of reggae and hip-hop are broadly credited with spearheading the hip-hop scene in Grains.
Martin said:

“I feel favored to have been portion of a youthful, dynamic, hip-hop scene in Grains.”
DJ Jaffa included:

“I cherish music, I adore DJing, I adore to see dark music in Ridges. This is often our year.”

Past victors of the Welsh Music Motivation Grant have included Dafydd Iwan, Dafydd Iwan and Pat Morgan from Datblygu, The Alert vocalist Mike Diminishes, Meredydd Evans and Phylis Kinney and Meic Stevens.