Koby ‘Posty’ Hagan
U.K. grime music has seen a dramatic increase in popularity both in the U.K. and beyond with artists such as Stromzy, Dave, and Krept & Konan achieving mainstream success. This has not always been the case as recently as a decade ago many of these artists were shunned by mainstream media outlets. During this period there were a few startup media companies that took matters into their own hands streaming videos and uploading content online and creating underground superstars long before many of these artists were well known. One of these companies is GRM Daily set up by Koby ‘Posty’ Hagan.
Posty was born in Enfield, North London but spent much of his childhood in Ghana before returning to London at 12 to finish school and go to university. Growing up he had a strong interest in the up and coming U.K. garage music scene that was emerging with acts such as So Solid Crew and Dizzee Rascal starting to get mainstream success. “I fell in love with the music and loved that people from similar backgrounds to me were creating music and having success” he says.
He initially started making music himself but realized this wasn’t his calling. However, whilst studying Law at university, he realized that, while a few artists were breaking through, many artists were not getting the exposure they deserved. YouTube was growing in popularity at the time and the idea to set up a “home where artists could put their music and contribute to a music revolution” came to mind.
The name GRM Daily spawned from an intention to release various forms of content daily through their website, YouTube, and social media. However, given the team size at the beginning this proved difficult. Initially, the team uploaded the best content from other sources but quickly realized they needed creative control and started to find resourceful ways to film and repurpose content in order to keep up with their daily commitment. “One 20 minute interview with an artist would deliver 5 various pieces of content,” Posty says. Many of these iterations of the content, such as “Crep Check” and “Daily Duppy” have gone on to become their own series.
However, whilst success came, in large part due to Posty’s ability to spot many artists who are now household names early, there were hurdles along the way. The YouTube page was briefly taken down at one point, which meant the team had to find alternative ways to distribute their content and be once again be resourceful which led to further growth and resilience as a business and “is an experience which helped strengthen the business.”
GRM Daily has grown from strength to strength and is now one of the premiere media companies highlighting the best of U.K. music talent. They have collaborated with a number of brands and continue to push out relevant content daily, staying ahead of the curve breaking many new artists. More recently they have launched the GRM Daily Rated Awards, an award show celebrating the best of black British music. Wednesday September 9 marks the fifth year of the award show and it has a star-studded line up which includes the likes of Kano, Dizzee Rascal as well as hosts Mo Gilligan and Julie Adenuga. Given Covid-19, the award will be hosted online and it gives GRM Daily another opportunity to showcase U.K. talent in an authentic way.
The award show will be streamed on YouTube at 7 pm and follow @GRMDAILY and @ratedawards on socials to keep up with all-things #RatedAwards
This article is part of a series featuring underrepresented people making a difference. To submit ideas for features or keep up to date with new releases you can find me on Twitter – @TommyPF91.
