BLUE LAB BEATS

The duo won a GRAMMY in 2023 for their production on Angelique Kidjo's track 'Fired Up' on her Mother Nature LP, which won Best Global Music Album. With over 104 million streams to date, Blue Lab Beats won the Jazz FM Innovation Award in 2022 and have a few MOBO nominations under their belt. Having tracks featured in the UK rom com Rye Lane (and a cameo performance) was a massive honour.

Live performances with Blue Lab Beats are fully immersive, featuring drums, bass live horns and a guest vocalist (as well as NK-OK on drum machine and Mr DM on keys and guitar of course) they can be seen regularly at various community jams including Steam Down and Orii.

ON MAY 7th 2026 they release their 5th studio album The Blue Lab Beats Show. Both a culmination and celebration of the last ten years of tireless experimentation and distillation, crystalising the duo’s brilliance across 16 distinctive tracks.  Each cut serves as a journey to a different corner of the globe, it could be the Deep South with quintessential jazz sonics straight from the Big Easy, before deftly gliding into Dancehall rhythms on tracks like “Fire Up”. Having already electrified fans with offerings “North London Pace” with its sprawling, lush 70s jazz fusion, the powerful and thought provoking “Champions League” with FourNine and “Find Your Way” ft. rising UK R&B talent Essosa, the album serves as an embodiment of Blue Lab Beat’s spirit of collectivism, tying together their vast range of influences and showcasing the power of collaboration.  Elsewhere on the album, Chicagoan vocalist Jamila Woods is furnished with some of the pair’s finest work on “Slow Heart”, the duo’s vibrant, brassy instrumentation allows Jamila Woods’ vocals the space to soar as she captivates with her lyrics on love and its tensions. Dialling into another new key with “Hear It Pop” featuring unorthodox London talent Denzel Himself, the menacing, rolling snare resounds with J Dilla influences, stabs of wailing electric guitar aligning with Denzel’s documentation on the hard won spoils of his career so far.  “São Paulo to MotherLand” treats listeners to an ambitious but technically astute blend of Baile Funk rhythms and West African guitar, seeing FourNine reappear trading bars with the influential Brasilian rapper MC IGU. The South American flavour seeps seamlessly into “Watermelon”, a gorgeously sun-drenched instrumental that keeps the staccato Bossa Nova rhythms flowing into a masterfully orchestrated blend of woodwind and guitar.  Indeed the true genius of Blue Lab Beats is that the music is able to speak without a lyric ever being uttered; on “Stones Of Truth” - their take on UK Garage sees a jazz-influenced harmony flow into the deft solo guitar work of celebrated artist Al Shaham infusing something exotic, carrying with it a distinct weight and influence all its own.  Speaking on the album, David Mrakpor states  “There's a lot to express, a lot of messages in the music. We hope to bring joy, healing and vibes. It’s a moment for people to understand their freedoms, and that their own joy is needed to make the world a better place. We genre-bend on every album, and it’s especially important for creatives to understand this art is in our DNA.” NKOK mentions “By year 10, there’s no standard. It’s about what feels good when making good music.” Making up a short list of UK artists who have won a Grammy Award - for their production work on Angelique Kidjo’s “Fired Up” - Blue Lab Beats’ milestone 3-night Blue Lab Curates partnership at London’s Royal Albert Hall last summer underlined their influence at the highest levels of UK jazz, adding to their debut festival headline slot with their regular 7-piece band at the Southbank Centre for JAZZ RE FEST, they quickly sold out their own headline show at London’s Jazz Cafe last year.  Deeply committed to nurturing the next generation of musical talent, their community initiatives include mentoring emerging musicians and vocalists and facilitating recording opportunities for both developing and established performers, blending artistic innovation with community engagement that reflects their belief in music’s power to connect and elevate diverse voices within the industry.  Blue Lab Beats have underlined themselves as one of the fastest-rising production outfits in the world right now, seamlessly fusing Jazz, Hip Hop, Afrobeats, Soul and Electronica whilst representing a talented generation of musicians coming out of the United Kingdom. Starting out as bedroom producers, remixing tracks for the likes of Dua Lipa and Sampa The Great, their feature list now reads like a constellation of the global international talent - from Masego to IDK to Kojey Radical and Tiana Major 9 – Blue Lab remain one of the only acts in the world to receive a sample clearance from the Estate of the legendary Fela Kuti – a nod to their status amongst some of the world’s most iconic artists. With over 103M Spotify streams, winning the Jazz FM Innovation Award for their commitment to pushing musical boundaries and live performances from Montreux Jazz Festival to Tokyo’s Blue Note Club, Blue Lab Beats stand as the definition of quiet excellence and pioneering musical prowess. In a time where individual freedoms and joy are paramount, Blue Lab Beats aims to remind listeners of the importance of connection and togetherness through music. The Blue Lab Beats Show, not only an incredible monument to the duo’s celebration of ten years of passion, innovation and unity, but a rich tapestry of influences acting as timeless threads that weave through history and culture. This new album affirms Blue Lab Beats as one of the most electrifying and pivotal groups in the jazz landscape as they continue to break new ground.

Blue Lab Beats Publicity Campaign 2024 FOR 'BLUE ECLIPSE' THE PREVIOUS ALBUM RELEASE