Accompanied by the lovely Thomas Dussuene I made my way through the mind bogglingly expensive French road tolls to Marseille this tuesday. for the Radio Grenouille ‘Hangtime Awards 2009′ with Mars Blackman.

In my usual slight state of petrification (sitting infront of a live microphone trying to follow a foriegn language and trying to fire out not already asked questions is quite a bizarre experience, take it from me!) But fun all the same.

I got to chat to BK-ONE all the way over in America who seemed like a very cool and open minded hip-hoppy kind of dude!

The very chirpy duo that make up Beatspoke. Barcelona based spoken word mixed with soultry female vocals and Gilles Petersons World Wide Talent Search winners of 2009 (a very nice award to add to the collection by all means!).

Then of course there was my favourite of all (and I could understand everything!) the interview with little Miss Alice Russell down there in sunny Brighton. We had a lovely chat but think poor Mars’ head as about to blow trying to hold it all in for the translation!

The infamous K’NAAN couldn`t be with us due to the fact of being a big beef signed to Universal so we had a very brief chat with Soulist (one half of the very talented French duo Souleance).

And last but not least and also waving the French banner was Bruno from UPTOWN FUNK EMPIRE. A man of many guises and projects celebrating the true meaning of FUNKY SOUL!

It was alot of fun…click here to listen to the show and see below for the award categories, winners and runners up!

BEST HIPHOP ALBUM
1. BK-ONE Radio Do Canibal
2. TANYA MORGAN Brooklinati
3. FASHAWN Boy Meets World
4. MARCO POLO & TORAE Double Barrel
5. MIGHTY UNDERDOGS Droppin’ Science Fiction

BEST FIRST ALBUM
1. BEATSPOKE No Rush
2. GIZELLE SMITH & THE MIGHTY MOCAMBOS This Is Gizelle Smith
3. KINNY Idle Forest Of Chit Chat
4. SPEECH DEBELLE Speech Therapy
5. EMANATIVE Space

BEST COMPILATION
1. ALICE RUSSELL : Pot Of Gold Remixes (Differ-Ant)
2. MULATU ASTATKE New York - Addis - London (Strut Records)
3. CAN YOU DIG IT ? (Souljazz Records)
4. PANAMA 3 ! (Soundway)
5. SPIRITUAL JAZZ (Jazzman Records)

BEST SINGLE
1. K’NAAN America
2. SOULEANCE Manana
3. MAYER HAWTHORNE Maybe So Maybe No
4. THE ROOTS How I Got Over
5. GILLES PETERSON HAVANA CULTURA BAND Think Twice
6. CéU Cangote
7. 6TH BOROUGH PROJECT Do It To The Max

BEST ALBUM
1. UPTOWN FUNK EMPIRE The Empire Strikes Back
2. FAT FREDDYS DROP Dr Boondigga And The Big BW
3. LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS My World
4. MENAHAN STREET BAND Make THe Road By Walking
5. 24 CARAT BLACK Gone The Promises Of Yesterday

Big love to the Hangtime team and of course the lovely Mars Blackman!

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