Buju, Maxi, Skip, Toots And The Wailers Cop ‘Best Reggae Album’ Grammy Nominations
Buju Banton and Skip Marley took pride of place along with their compatriots Toots and the Maytals, Maxi Priest and The Wailers, as the five nominees for the 2021 Reggae Grammy Awards.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion had the honour of naming the Reggae nominees during the Grammy’s virtual announcement ceremony, shortly after 12:30pm today.
Buju’s album Upside Down 2020 and Marley’s Higher Place, Maxi Priest’s It All Comes Back To Love, Got To Be Tough by Toots & The Maytals, and The Wailers’ One World were the albums that made the grade this year.
The announcement of the winner will take place on Sunday, January 21, 2021 during the 63rd GRAMMY Awards telecast.
However, Jamaica might have more to celebrate on that day as two R&B albums, and one single to which Jamaican singers contributed heavily also copped nominations.
Skip Marley’s collaborative effort Slow Down with multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning R&B singer H.E.R., which he also co-wrote, was nominated in the Best R&B song category, while John Legend’s Bigger Love which features the track Don’t Walk Away, a collaboration with Reggae princess Koffee, was nominated for the Best R&B Album.
In addition, the ‘Real Microphone Official’ Chronixx is also in the mix, as the album Free Nationals by the band Free Nationals, was nominated in the Best Progressive R&B Album category.
Shortly after the announcement a seemingly elated Buju posted on his Instagram page: “Let the music speak, I wanna be a silent listener. Thanks to all #UPSIDEDOWN2020”. The Gargamel’s Upside Down 2020 album, which features 20-tracks, was released on June 26 and was his first album in a decade. It sold 2,995 copies in its first week.
Skip Marley, who is the son of Cedella Marley, and grandson of Bob Marley, released his seven-track EP on August 28. Among the tracks were Make Me Feel, My World, Faith, No Love, That’s Not True and also Slow Down, with H.E.R, a track that not only propelled the 24 year old Kingston native further into global stardom, but almost immediately amassed tens of millions of global streams, making it the quickest-streaming song in the history of the Marley clan.
Got to Be Tough, a 10-track album, was released on August 28, two weeks before its 77-year-old lead singer Toots Hibbert died from COVID-19 complications on September 11. The album is the group’s first studio album in 10 years and features tracks such as Drop off Head; Just Brutal; Got to Be Tough; Freedom Train; Warning Warning; Good Thing That You Call; Stand Accuse; Having a Party; Struggle; and, a remake of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds,featuring Ziggy Marley.
It All Comes Back to Love by Maxi Priest was executive produced by Dancehall megastar Shaggy.
Released in September 2019, the production is the Wild World singer’s first full-length album in five years and features collabs with artistes such as Estelle, Bounty Killer and Inner Circle.
The Wailers released One World, the Band’s First Album in 25 Years, on August 23 this year. Co-produced by Emilio Estefan, husband of pop superstar Gloria Estefan, it features the tracks such as One World One Prayer with Skip Marley, Farruko, Shaggy and Cedella Marley; Stand Firm Inna Babylon, Good Time and Only in Jamaica.
For the 2020 Grammys, more than 120 solo artistes and bands submitted their albums for consideration for nomination. The award was copped by Koffee for her Rapture Album, edging out Julian Marley’s As I Am, Sly and Robbie, and Roots Radics’ The Final Battle: Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics, Steel Pulse’ Mass Manipulation, and Third World’s More Work To Be Done.
Regarded as the highest honor within the music industry, The Grammy Awards is the only peer-recognized music accolade that recognizes recording industry excellence.
It is a product of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the professional musical organization, also known as The Recording Academy, which was founded in 1957.
To be eligible, all recordings, including those from the Reggae genre, must have been up for sale commercially via general distribution or made available as a digital recording, either for sale or via a recognized streaming service.
For this round of Grammy nominations, the Product Eligibility Period for bodies of work spanned September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020. The first round of voting took place between September 30 and October 12. Final round voting will take place between December 7, 2020, and January 4, 2021.
For a body of work to be considered an album, recordings must contain at minimum five different tracks with a total playing time of 15 minutes or, a total playing time of at least 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement, according to the Recording Academy.
Academy membership is open to creative or technical music professionals, such as singers, composers, producers, art directors, and engineers. However, voting members must have been either producers, performers, or engineers on six or more tracks of a commercially released album or 12 or more digital tracks.