London rapper Speech Debelle‘s albumSpeech Therapy has won the 2009Barlaycard Mercury Music Prize. Speech beat out the likes of Bat for Lashes,Glasvegas, the Horrors, Friendly Fires, Florence and the Machine, Kasabian, and La Roux for the prize, which goes to the best British album of the year, as determined by a jury of British music industry figures. In addition to prestige and fame, the winner also gets a £20,000 check.

The Mercury Prize, now in its 17th year, is known for left-of-center choices, often focusing on up-and-comers over established artists. Past winners include relative unknowns like M People, Roni Size, and Talvin Singh, while giants like Blur andRadiohead have been nominated multiple times, but have never won.