Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
Beabadoobee, Jorja Smith and Nemzzz are heading back to the places where their careers started for a collection of intimate Spotify concerts.
Titled Hometown, the three part project will begin next month when Smith performs near Birmingham in her native Walsall on Sept. 6. Nemzzz will take the stage in Manchester on Sept. 12, before Beabadoobee concludes the series in London on Sept. 17. The locations for the concerts have not yet been revealed.
Each performance will allow the artists to reconnect with the cities that helped shape their early musical ambitions. Their most dedicated Spotify listeners will receive invitations to attend, while recordings of the concerts will later become exclusive films. Spotify is also working alongside the musicians to help community projects in their hometowns, with contributions going to organisations supporting young people.
Smith is releasing her third album, What Are The Odds, this Friday, Aug. 21. Reflecting on her connection to the city in an official statement, she said, “Walsall is where I first started writing and recording music as a teenager.” She continued, “It’s where my love of music began and the people, experiences and sense of community there continue to influence my creativity today. It’s home, home is where my heart is and home is where I found my voice! I hope it’s a moment that inspires the next generation to believe that big things really can come from Walsall.”
Nemzzz, a rapper from Manchester, is preparing to release his latest record, Locked In, on Sept. 4. Discussing his involvement in the project, he said, “I’ve always made a point of celebrating Manchester and representing where I’m from, so getting to do Hometown with Spotify feels like a natural extension of that.”
“There’s a pride that comes with doing it at home, around the people and places that have been there from the beginning. No matter where this takes me, I’ll always find a way to bring it back home.”
Beabadoobee’s upcoming album, Pylon, will arrive on Sept. 18 and follows her 2024 record, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, which earned two BRIT nominations. Her Hometown appearance will also benefit The Avenues, a west London charity providing specialist social care.
Explaining why the event means so much to her, she said, “London has always felt like home to me, it’s where I started finding my people, making music, playing tiny shows and figuring out what I wanted to do, so Hometown feels really special.”
“It’s also really cool that we’re also able to give something back to the community with [west London social care charity] The Avenues and support young people locally, that part feels really important to me.”
Hometown builds upon Spotify’s recent live programming, which has brought British musicians closer to their strongest supporters through smaller performances. The platform hosted Skye Newman at Hackney Church in May for a concert marking her SE9 project, with footage from the evening later shared as an exclusive film.
During an interview with Billboard U.K, Andy Sloan-Vincent, Spotify’s managing director for the U.K., Ireland and Netherlands, discussed how the streaming service uses concerts to champion British talent. “Skye is a [Spotify] Radar artist in the U.K., which means we’ve made the commitment to develop her. She has an incredible voice; when you go into the room with her, everyone wants her to win,” he said.
“I think the reason we want to get behind artists like that is because we want the artist to win. That’s our outlook on things.”
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An application from Reading Festival seeking permission to present music on Thursday evening has faced opposition from nearby residents concerned about additional noise.
Organisers revealed in July that the two site festival had requested an amendment to its licence that would permit Thursday performances, effectively expanding the event to four days.
Wednesday and Thursday traditionally serve as arrival and preparation days, allowing attendees to enter the grounds and arrange their campsites before the entertainment begins on Friday and continues through Sunday over the August bank holiday weekend.
According to a report published by BBC News in July, Festival Republic asked for amplified performances to be permitted on the main stage every Thursday between 5pm and midnight. Approval from Reading Borough Council could see the new arrangement introduced from 2027.
The 2026 event is scheduled for August 27 through August 30. Leeds Festival takes place during the same weekend and already holds permission to present Thursday music. It will use that licence for the first time this year when Kasabian headline the main stage.
The plan to host performances in Reading from 5pm until midnight on Thursday has prompted criticism from the surrounding community, with hundreds of people objecting because of potential noise disruption.
Elisa Miles, chair of the Warren & District Residents Association, known as WADRA, has now clarified that the group is “not opposed” to Reading Festival itself. However, it remains worried about how an additional night of amplified entertainment could affect people living nearby.
“Through this long-standing partnership, we have helped [Festival Republic] better understand the impact the festival has on nearby residents and have worked together to develop practical solutions,” she said via BBC News. “Loud amplified music late into the evening will disrupt sleep for those who have no choice but to remain at home.”
Malcolm Pemble of the Caversham and District Residents Association, also known as CADRA, supported those concerns and described the proposed change as “unfair” to the local community.
Festival Republic has defended its application, saying an assessment concluded that Thursday performances would not “adversely impact” residents. The organiser argued that scheduled evening entertainment would give visitors somewhere structured to gather instead of “being left to congregate in the campsites or less supervised areas”.
Fontaines D.C., Florence + The Machine, DAVE, Charli XCX, RAYE and Chase & Status have all been announced as headliners for Reading and Leeds.
This year will also introduce major changes to the stages and arena layouts, which organisers have called the most extensive transformation in the festivals’ history. Little John’s Farm in Reading and Bramham Park in Leeds will both receive an updated Main Stage, renamed The Grid, alongside two new spaces called The Gallery and The Warehouse.
During a conversation with NME about the redesign, festival director Melvin Benn said the plans had made him “as excited about Reading & Leeds as I’ve ever been”.
“I’m as excited about Reading & Leeds from when I started Leeds, in fact, in 1999. This really is the next phase of Reading & Leeds festivals,” he shared.
Benn also addressed the strong presence of headliners from the UK and Ireland on this year’s bill and whether that emphasis had been planned.
“We happen to have found ourselves this year in a position where we have six-seven headliners that wanted to play Reading & Leeds that are all UK and Ireland-based,” he said. “When you add people like Kneecap, for instance – who headlined their own show just two weeks ago down in Crystal Palace, with 25,000 people at it – it shows the strength of UK and Irish music. I do think festivals like Reading & Leeds have played their part in developing that.”
Before the 2026 festivals begin, Reading & Leeds have partnered with Spotify to introduce fans to new performers through customised playlists shaped by each listener’s music habits.
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