Reggae Grammy Album Predictions: Five Likely Contenders To Watch For The 2021 Awards

The music world has now officially gone into Grammy Awards season, as the eligibility period for the prestigious peer awards came to a close on August 31.  Upon assessment, it appears all five eventual nominees for the Best Reggae Album in 2021 could be Jamaicans.

Last year more than 120 solo artistes and bands submitted their albums for consideration for nomination for the award.  On D-day, at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 26, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Reggae princess Koffee took home the award for her Rapture Album.

Koffee edged 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.

The Grammy Awards are regarded as the highest honor within the music industry and are 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.

It is left to be seen what will be the outcome this year as many artistes were constrained by the COVID-19 virus, while others, who had been working on albums from as far back as last year, moved full speed ahead with their releases, while others who had released albums late last year too are in contention for the winnings.

According to the Recording Academy, this year, the Product Eligibility Period for bodies of work spans September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020.

It order to be eligible, recordings, including those from the Reggae genre, must be for sale commercially via general distribution or made available as a digital recording, either for sale or via a recognized streaming service.  In other words, recordings must be available to the public as stand-alone purchases or audio-only streams.

This year, the first round of voting will take place between September 30 and October 12.  The nominations announcement will take place on a date to be determined.

Final round voting will take place between December 7, 2020, and January 4, 2021, with the winner being announced during the 63rd GRAMMY Awards telecast, which is set for January 21, 2021.

In order 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.

While Academy membership is open to creative or technical music professionals, such as singers, composers, producers, art directors, and engineers, 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.

Below are the five albums, in no specific order, which, based on chart performance, the international profile and track record of their creators, and their history of past Grammy nominations and wins, are likely to be considered by their peers, for nomination for the prestigious award:

In Search Of Lost Time: Protoje

The St. Elizabeth native’s fifth studio album was released on August 28, three days shy of the closure of the product eligibility date.  The 10 track album has been hailed as one of Protoje’s greatest efforts yet and features collaborations with his compatriots Popcaan, Koffee, Lila Iké, and US rapper Wiz Khalifa.

In less than 24 hours after its release, the album shot to number one on the Reggae album on iTunes charts.  In Search Of Lost Time follows the 39-year old’s A Matter of Time album, which copped a Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album in 2019.

Got to Be Tough: Toots & The Maytals

The legendary band is no stranger to the Grammys, having copped the Reggae Grammy Album Award once, back in 2004 with True Love and nabbing nominations four other times with Reggae Got Soul: Unplugged On Strawberry Hill in 2012; Light Your Light in 2007; Ska Father in 1998 and An Hour Live in 1990.

Got to Be Tough, also a 10-track album, was also released on August 28, two days before its 77-year-old lead singer Toots Hibbert was hospitalized with COVID-19. (Update: Toots passed away on September 11.)

Before his hospitalization, Toots said the album speaks out about injustices while pointing to a better time and teaches about a path to recovery and step to better days on the journey ahead.

It 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.

Upside Down: Buju Banton

Buju Banton dug deep and went all out with this 20-track album, which was released on June 26.   Since then, he has been doing a vast amount of promotion of the album, appearing on The Tonight Show, and others.    Upside Down 2020 is the Gargamel’s first album in a decade and sold 2,995 copies in its first week.

Buju too has a high Grammy profile, copping the Best Reggae Album Award in 2010 for Before the Dawn and hauling in nominations for Rasta Got Soul in 2009; Too Bad in 2006; Friends for Life in 2003, and Inna Heights in 1998.

Higher Place: Skip Marley

This seven-track EP was also released on August 28, by the 24-year-old who is the son of Cedella Marley, and grandson of Bob Marley, whose voice is featured in the intro of the title track Higher Place.  Make Me Feel, Slow Down, a collab with multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning artiste H.E.R.,  My World, Faith, No Love, and That’s Not True are the other featured tracks on Higher Place .

Slow Down propelled the Kingston native further into global stardom, and almost immediately amassed tens of millions of global streams, making it the quickest-streaming song in the history of the Marley clan.   There is no doubt that is album is a huge contender among the ‘big boys’.

Heavy Rain: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

Don’t be surprised if the eccentric, but legendary Lee Scratch Perry cops a Grammy nomination.  With one Grammy win and four nominations under his belt, and a raft of global news coverage and publicity for the album, plus the distinction of being the legend who kick-started Bob Marley’s career, his Heavy Rain album is well-poised.

Last December, the 12-track album debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae Albums Charts.  As a result, not only did Lee achieve his first number one album in his 60-year career, but at age 83, he became the oldest artiste to top the Billboard Reggae Albums table.

Perry, who is originally from Hanover in Jamaica, copped Grammy nominations in 2014 for Back on the Controls; in 2010 with Revelation; in 2008 with Repentance, in 2007 with The End Of An American Dream following his claim on his first Grammy win in 2002 with Jamaican E.T.

Other Likely Jamaican Submissions

Much noise was made about Vybz Kartel‘s Of Dons & Divas being worthy of a Grammy win or at least a nomination.  The incarcerated singer also To Tanesha in January.

Other Jamaican acts who produced solid albums within the eligibility period include Lila Iké‘s The ExPerience, Govana‘s HAMANTS, Popcaan‘s FIXTAPE, and Etana‘s Gemini.