Spice, Masicka, Yaksta Win Big At Reggae Month Irie FM Music Awards
Reggae/Dancehall high-rollers Spice, Masicka, and Yaksta scored big musically, at the Reggae Month Irie FM Music Awards on Tuesday.
Spice, who was nominated in six categories, won three accolades including the Female Deejay of the Year, and was a favorite of Irie FM’s ardent fans, as she copped the Listeners Choice Award. Her Go Down Deh collab with Shaggy and Sean Paul, was also voted the Best Collaboration for the Year.
In addition to being the Male Deejay of the Year, Masicka’s 438 album copped the Album of the Year award.
The Reggae experts, who voted, echoed the sentiments of Jamaicans that hyping would triumph over flossing every time by showing Yaksta that they were confident that Reggae/Dancehall’s future was safe in his hands. The ‘Bushlawd’ was not only voted the Best New Artiste of the year but also tied with Dexta Daps for Singjay of the Year.
Shenseea was voted the Female Singer/Singjay of the year, and the Best Dressed Female while Beenie Man won the Best Dressed Male award. Christopher Martin copped the Singer of the Year Award.
New artiste 10Tik also triumphed, as his Roll Deep track won Song of the Year, while Kevin Downswell was voted the Gospel Artiste of the Year.
Also on the virtual winners podium were Shaggy, who won the Reggae Ambassador Award, and Marcia Griffiths, who won the Living Legend Award, as well as Bounty Killer, who won the Humanitarian Award.
Production-wise, Jordan McClure’s Chimney Records won the Producer of the Year Award, while Chemist Records and Raheef Music’s 1 Matik, which featured Skeng’s Gvnman Shift, copped the Rhythm of the Year award.
The term “Dolly”, popularised by Shenseea was also voted the Slang of the Year.
Dirt Bounce, a dance move crafted by teenager Tyreek, and endorsed and immortalized in song by Laa Lee, unsurprisingly, won the Dance of the Year award.
A grateful Laa Lee took to Instagram to revel in the accomplishment, he shared with the teenager and Streetblock Records creators of the song’s beat.
“Not a man of many words but I wanna say Tyreke Dirt, Street Block, Well done “Dirt Bounce” Dance and Dancing song of the year 🙏🏾 thank you Irie FM @iriefm_ja for the acknowledgment 🙏🏾,” LaaLee, who arrived in person to collect the award, noted.
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ZJ Sparks, known for her large following of Dancehall stars and producers, and for keeping fans in the loop on the latest developments in Dancehall and Reggae on Instagram, was also voted the Social Media Influencer of the Year.
“Oh wow. Thank you guys for voting for me in THE REGGAE MONTH IRIE FM MUSIC AWARDS – THE RETURN… …Honoring The Music, Representing You… Gosh mi short a words. Again, thanks to everyone who voted…,” she noted in response, on her IG page where she shared Irie FM’s announcement.
An elated Yaksta, who also performed at the live awards show at Irie FM, took to Instagram hours later to count his blessings in a lengthy note.
“So last night I was fortunate and blessed enough to walk away with two awards in the categories in which I was nominated: “New Artist Of The Year 2021” and “Singjay Of The Year 2021 ” in the IrieFm music industry awards ceremony. I’m extremely grateful and at the same time overwhelmed with joy knowing the work and dedication it took me to get here,” the Ambition artist noted.
“During the presentation, when I was handed my plaque by the Most honorable minister Babsy Grange, I had to pinch myself and I asked myself the question: “What did I do to deserve this?” But then I thought: How do I not deserve this when I’ve put in nothing but hard work and dedication over the years? These are the two vehicles I used as a means of transport to get here,” he added.
The St. Mary native also thanked his bother/manager Negus and his entire team, ardent fans and supporters whom he said range from “radio and street DJs, CD men and corner shops”.
“Keep with the boombox playing YAKSTA, and thank you to everybody who have supported me over the years and thank you to everybody continuing to support me on this journey. Your support is so important in turning this dream of mine into a reality!” he noted.
To his team he added: “Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for your awesome friendships and partnerships over the years. You are my real brethren in real life and we got many more awards to claim. Together we will continue winning. This is a big win for us. Let us continue working on more masterpieces. EP title: #2022 mark the month”.
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This year’s staging was a new iteration of the awards which was halted for more than a decade, before being re-launched on February 9 during Irie FM’s Wake Up Call and E-Buzz Programmes. The first awards ceremony was staged on Valentine’s Day, February 14, in 2006 and was the brainchild of veteran broadcaster/producer Big A, who had been a longstanding advocate for the awards and led the organising team for three years – 2006, 2007, and 2008.
This year the awards were held in association with the Ministry of Entertainment with Entertainment Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange in attendance.
Irie FM has been the launching pad for the careers of some of Reggae and Dancehall’s biggest names including Sean Paul, Buju Banton and Sizzla.