Producer Richard ‘P2J’ Isong was presented with the BMI Impact Award at the 2023 BMI London Awards. Full story at https://lucire.com/insider/20231003/gary-kemp-p2j-honoured-at-2023-bmi-london-awards/
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00:00 Good evening everybody. This is crazy. I want to say thank you to God first and
00:10 foremost for giving me the talent to do what I do. When I was growing up as a kid
00:14 it wasn't cool to be African and when I started making Afrobeats in 2009 it
00:21 wasn't cool either then. I remember people saying "nah nah that's not
00:27 gonna hit right now, how you gonna make money from it?" and the answer I gave them
00:32 was "I don't know, I couldn't tell you where the money was gonna come from or
00:37 how I was gonna make it but I just knew that the sound needed to be out there in
00:42 the world."
00:50 And I remember having a conversation with Shanee, our darling Shanee. I remember
00:59 she threw me into a camp one time and I remember sending her the songs back and
01:03 she was like "oh yeah this is nice, it's cool, it's cool, it's cool" and I was like
01:08 "alright, what do you want me to do? Better? No? What? It's not good enough?" and she was like "nah it's good, I know you can do this and I know you can do that but I want you to go
01:20 into the room and be P2J" and I was like "I heard you, don't worry I got you." So every
01:26 time I went into a room I didn't shy away from my elaborate percussion or my
01:32 elaborate grooves that lead towards Afrobeats music, I didn't shy away from
01:37 it and I'm just grateful that I'm here standing here with the Impact Award
01:42 because I know that those grooves have impacted the world now so I want to say
01:46 thank you to Shanee for... I love you too.
01:53 I want to say thank you to my team, Collide Club. Sam Ruth, you guys have been holding me
02:07 down for ages man, you guys are the truth man, I really love you
02:11 guys and I appreciate you guys for everything you guys have been doing for
02:14 me and I want to say thank you to Mel, she's not here right now but she's my
02:20 wife, I want to say thank you to her. She's been holding me down, it's been
02:27 crazy, it's been a crazy long road but she's held me down man. I want to say thank you to my
02:33 mom for her prayers and her belief in me from young and I just want to say thank you to
02:39 BMI again man, this is an award I didn't think I'd ever win.
02:46 Thanks.
02:48 (applause)
02:50 (cheering)
02:52 (audience cheering)
02:55 (audience applauding)