UK Culture Heroes 2024

2024 has been a strange year for all, but through it all, we have had some great entertainment and also some important, sometimes painful conversations within culture in a bid to move things forward. Today, we celebrate the people who have made our world go round over the last twelve months.

Honourable mentions: DaMetalMessiah, Flashy Sillah, Rambo Is Talking, Mercedes Benson, Lippy Lickshot, Remel London, Craig Mitch, Caleb Femi, Aniefiok Ekpoudom, Margs, Rapman.

20. Naz Hamdi

Naz Hamdi is music/culture journalism’s new It-girl: to know her is to know Black London and all that is great about it. The Newham-and-proud writer has penned for many reputable platforms, including this one, TRENCH, NME, Clash, Ticketmaster and more. She also works with the No Signal/High Roller team in curating Black-centred music events and Black music radio (very important work, I’d say). Naz Hamdi: a name you can trust.

19. FDFromTheFuture

Fabio Dessena, aka FD, aka FDFromTheFuture is the future of content creation: in streetwear, in music, in UK youth lifestyle, and the rest. Getting his first big break creating content for Complex UK (his hunger to win was inspiring), FD has since gone on to work with the likes of Nike, Puma, eBay, Google, Central Cee’s Syna World and more. It’s “FD from the you know!” And if you didn’t know, now you know.

18. Travs Presents

Grime is once again the talk of the town in Black British music, and this is partly due to the consistent work of Travs and his team. When people online were collectively saying “grime is dead” just a few months back (it happens at least two times a year), Travs Presents continued to push through the noise by putting on regular radio sets/events with old and new faces in a bid to show that, in fact, the scene was alive and well—you just had to dig a bit deeper underground. Please: let us never forget the key workers in this thing.