These are the winners of DJ Mag’s Best of British awards 2025

The winners in this year’s DJ Mag Best of British awards have been announced. The event took place at London’s The Steel Yard tonight (11th December) and was hosted by Emerald.

In the 19th edition of our annual celebration of UK electronic talent, Manchester’s Interplanetary Criminal picked up the prestigious Best DJ award, with Silva Bumpa taking home the title of Breakthrough DJ following a standout year.

UK garage phenomenon Sammy Virji took home Best Producer, while next-gen junglist SHERELLE was named Breakthrough Producer, having expanded her craft beyond DJing in recent years.

In the rap/vocalist categories, Nottingham favourite Window Kid won Best MC/Vocalist, while Cambridge-born rapper and storyteller JayaHadADream took home Breakthrough MC/Vocalist. Joy Orbison and Joe James won Best Rap Track for ‘bastard’, while Jim Legxacy scooped Best Rap Album/Mixtape for ‘black british music’ on XL Recordings.

Sam Binga’s Bristol-based imprint Pineapple Records took home the Best Label award, while Rossi.’s ROSSI.HOME//GRXWN. took home Breakthrough Label after a prolific 12 months.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Maribou State in the Best Album category, with their joyous third record ‘Hallucinating Love’, and London’s Moxie in Best Compilation with ‘The Sound of Love International #007’.

After dominating festival tents, clubs and airwaves all summer long, Max Dean, Locky & Luke Dean’s ‘Can’t Decide’ took home the Best Track award for 2025.

UK garage pioneer DJ EZ was presented with the Outstanding Contribution award, chosen by DJ Mag’s editorial team to honour the artist’s contribution to the scene.

In the club and event categories, Manchester’s The Loft won Best Club, while the Best Club Event gong went to FUSE, and Best Festival to Cheshire’s Hide&Seek Festival.

Save Our Scene UK, a campaign fighting to protect and support the nation’s live music venues, clubs and independent music ecosystem, took home this year’s Underground Hero award, which recognises the champions of grassroots UK music communities.

The sold-out Best of British awards party returned to London’s The Steel Yard, with sets from Interplanetary Criminal, DJ EZ, Amaliah, Moxie and La La.

See see the full breakdown of awards below.

Best DJ

Interplanetary Criminal
LTJ Bukem
Mandidextrous
Neffa-T
Shanti Celeste

Breakthrough DJ

ALISHA
Amaliah
Paige Tomlinson
Silva Bumpa
sim0ne

Best Producer

Champion
Flava D
Hannah Holland
Prospa
Sammy Virji

Breakthrough Producer

Anish Kumar
La La
MPH
SHERELLE
The Trip

Best MC/Vocalist

George Riley
James Massiah
Micofcourse
Sox
Window Kid

Breakthrough MC/Vocalist

JayaHadADream
Kasst 8
Kibo
Nicole Blakk
Pozzy

Best Label

Pineapple Records
Semi Delicious
Tempa
Timedance
White Peach Records

Breakthrough Label

Basics Records
Dimeshift
Method 808
MINDHELMET
ROSSI.HOME//GRXWN.

Best Album

aya ‘hexed!’ [Hyperdub]
Blawan ‘SickElixir’ [XL Recordings]
Djrum ‘Under Tangled Silence’ [Houndstooth]
Goldie Presents Rufige Kru ‘Alpha Omega’ [London Records]
Maribou State ‘Hallucinating Love’ [Ninja Tune]

Best Compilation

Moxie ‘The Sound of Love International #007’ [Love International Recordings]
V/A ‘Annotations’ [footnotes]
V/A ‘Ping Volume One’ [Different Circles]
V/A ‘Synergy Vol. 3’ [Black Artist Database]
V/A ‘Tectonic Sound’ [Tectonic Recordings]

Best Track

CHRYSTAL ‘The Days (NOTION Remix)’ [Chaos]
Max Dean, Locky & Luke Dean ‘Can’t Decide’ [NeXup Recz / Warner]
PinkPantheress ‘Illegal’ [Warner]
Sir Spyro & Killa P ‘Start & Stop’ [Neighbourhood Recordings]
Sub Focus & bbyclose ‘On & On’ [Positiva]

Best Rap Album/Mixtape

Asco ‘Perfect Timing’ [Mulli Music Group]
EsDeeKid ‘Rebel’ [XV Records / Lizzy Records]
Jim Legxacy ‘black british music’ [XL Recordings]
John Glacier ‘Like A Ribbon’ [Young]
Kamakaze & WIZE ‘It’s About Time’ [AHEAR Records]

Best Rap Track

Chaos & Scorcher ‘Champion’s League’ [Self-released]
Crafty 893 ‘Step 1’ [Tru Thoughts]
Joy Orbison & Joe James ‘bastard’ [XL Recordings]
namesbliss x BexBlu ‘premium wear’ [Self-released]
Wohdee ‘My Shayla’ [Self-released]

Best Club

Amber’s, Manchester
District, Cardiff
The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow
The Cause, London
The Loft, Manchester

Best Club Event

Cartulis
Dankie Sounds
FUSE
SHINE
Teletech

Best Festival

Body Movements Festival
Doof In The Park
Hide & Seek Festival
Hospitality Weekender
Watching Trees

Underground Hero
Recognising the champions of grassroots UK music communities

DJ AG
Grace Sands
Gut Level
Nathanael Williams
Save Our Scene UK

Outstanding Contribution

DJ EZ