Mar 02, 2016
Rapper A$AP Rocky will host the freshly redesigned MTV Woodies Awards this month at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
Over the past 11 years, the annual awards show has set out to discover and highlight emerging artists, presenting them with a small wooden trophy at the awards ceremony. The 2016 ceremony has been entirely refreshed and even renamed, now titled the “MTV Woodies/10 for 16”. The awards ceremony itself has been done away with, and instead, ten musicians the show believes are set to rise to prominence in 2016 will be featured.
“This is all about shedding light on the music of this generation, the love and bond between different artists,” A$AP Rocky said in an interview shared on Billboard. “We want to shed light at the Woodies on those who influence a lot of people and those who don’t get credit.”
https://twitter.com/asvpxrocky/status/705059619534536704
The winners for this year are yet to be announced, but they’ll be joining an esteemed list of past winners including Adele, Drake, and A$AP Rocky himself, who picked up the Best Collaboration Woodie in 2014 for his work with Skrillex.
The executive vice president of music and multi-platform strategy Erik Flannigan hopes Rocky returning as a host will show the significance of the awards. “We want to introduce new artists to our audience,” he said to Billboard. “With A$AP, it shows the power of the Woodies. To have him come back as a host shows the trajectory of his career and the show’s involvement.”
You can stream the awards ceremony live on Wednesday March 16, 9.00pm ET/PT on the MTV website here.
IMAGE: Zunino Celotto / Getty Images