It was only late yesterday that we found out about Speech Debelle winning the 2009 Mercury Prize, and yet the London-based rapper has already experienced a massive surge in popularity. Besides her £20,000 prize money and obvious bragging rights, her debut album Speech Therapy has seen a sales hike by an impressive 4,000 percent.
According to statistics from Amazon UK (as given to the Guardian), the album has exploded in sales since the prize was awarded. The MP3 version of Speech Therapy is currently on sale for £3 in the Amazon store, and buyers are shelling out to hear the record, which until now went relative unheard.
The album was released by Big Dada earlier this year, but only sold around 3,000 copies before the Mercury buzz came about.
"This is arguably the most unexpected win in Mercury Prize history," Amazon UK rep Julian Monaghan told the Guardian. "Speech Debelle wasn't even in the Top 1,000 bestsellers list at the beginning of the week, so the impact of this win will be incredible."
Gennaro Costaldo, a PR rep for HMV, echoed Monaghan's sentiments, saying, "Speech Debelle can now look forward to a huge surge in sales of her album over the next few days and weeks now that her music has been given a platform to crossover into the mainstream. She could follow in the footsteps of Dizzee Rascal, whose album won in 2003."
According to statistics from Amazon UK (as given to the Guardian), the album has exploded in sales since the prize was awarded. The MP3 version of Speech Therapy is currently on sale for £3 in the Amazon store, and buyers are shelling out to hear the record, which until now went relative unheard.
The album was released by Big Dada earlier this year, but only sold around 3,000 copies before the Mercury buzz came about.
"This is arguably the most unexpected win in Mercury Prize history," Amazon UK rep Julian Monaghan told the Guardian. "Speech Debelle wasn't even in the Top 1,000 bestsellers list at the beginning of the week, so the impact of this win will be incredible."
Gennaro Costaldo, a PR rep for HMV, echoed Monaghan's sentiments, saying, "Speech Debelle can now look forward to a huge surge in sales of her album over the next few days and weeks now that her music has been given a platform to crossover into the mainstream. She could follow in the footsteps of Dizzee Rascal, whose album won in 2003."
