The debut album by Toronto area hip-hop artist Haviah Mighty was named winner of the 2019 Polaris Music Prize on Monday night.
13th Floor, released in May, was selected by a panel of 11 music journalists, bloggers and programmers from across Canada as the year’s best album, based on artistic merit.
Previous winners of the award include Jeremy Dutcher, Arcade Fire and Kaytranada.
Mighty, who left a full-time job earlier this year to focus on music, won the $50,000 prize at a ceremony in Toronto.
“My truth, how important it is, and how dismissed it often is, I don't care about that," the 27-year-old Brampton resident said in her acceptance speech, according to the Canadian Press.
“I've had the same thoughts and the same sentiments since high school, and every time it was 'not the time,' and it 'wasn't the place,' and here are the Polaris 2019 [and] it is the time and the place.”
Mighty released five EPs and mixtapes between 2010 and 2017 and an album with hip-hop group The Sorority in 2018. She was chosen as one of the winners of the 2018/2019 Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class.
Other acts with albums on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist this year were Jessie Reyez, Shad, PUP, Marie Davidson, Elisapie, FET.NAT, Dominique Fils-Aime, Les Louanges, and Snotty Nose Rez Kids. Each received $3,000.