Konshens Says He And Delus Had To ‘Negotiate’ With SOJA To Use Stage Name Sojah
Konshens revealed that he had to “negotiate legally” with Grammy Award-winning group SOJA (Soldiers of Jah Army) to use the stage name Sojah (Sons of Jah) when he and his late brother Delus started out in Reggae as a duo in 2005.
The Bruk Off Yuh Back singer, who was illustrating how long the Virginia-based band had been around, was commenting on the furore which surfaced following a statement Chronixx made on Instagram after the predominantly white band upstaged five Jamaicans to win the Best Reggae Album award on Sunday.
“And by the way that band SOJA I had to negotiate legally for use of the name SOJAH when me an me bredda did name suh years ago, so dat should tell u how long they been around,” Konshens had said.
Chronixx had said, among other things, that SOJA had been one of the “world’s best Reggae bands for years” and that the band has “been blessing us and sharing their platform with us for years”.
The Chronology artist had also hailed a series of all-white bands and performers and praised Italian Reggae artist Alborosie as “the god who fi get 10,000 more awards” and German singer Gentleman, whom he declared: “the god gentleman”.
However, many Jamaicans had responded by saying that they did not know of SOJA’s existence, and lambasted Chronixx for genuflecting to the people he mentioned. Konshens, in his response, had also upbraided Jamaicans for not honoring themselves and their music, and for ignoring the Jamaican organizations who issue music awards.
“Me no agree 100% with Chronixx wid di part bout sharing “their” platform but thats another story. Why should the world love us and appreciate us and uplift us and HONOR us when we don’t do that to ourselves!! We tear down an degrade and belittle each other 99% a di time. To see everybody so enraged is funny to me,” he said.
“Mek sure unnu pack rouna youth view awards and EME awards and Irawma awards etc build up our OWN ting an stop stress ovah ppl tings. Worry bout getting BOB pan a money note instead a di whole heap a politician an criminals weh unnu a call hero. Congrats to spice for destroying the RED CARPET, best dressed in my opinion,” he added.
Konshens had started his musical career back in 2005 as one-half of the duo Sojah with Delus, while living in Sherlock Crescent, and doing his 9 to 5 job.
With the Cash Flow Studios in neighboring Cooreville Gardens as their base, the siblings recorded a series of demos, before hitting with the Reggae single Medz (Pon Di Corner), a track about wanting to be able to chill with friends and doing enjoyable things once again in their volatile community.
Following the success of Pon Di Corner, which hit in Japan, Sojah went on a one-month tour of that country in 2005 and another three-week tour in 2006. They also released an album exclusively in Japan of that same year titled Sons of Jah.
On Sunday, SOJA had copped the 2022 ‘Best Reggae Album’ Grammy Award for Beauty in the Silence, eclipsing Queen of Dancehall Spice, who was nominated for her debut album 10; Etana, who earned a nomination for Pamoja; Sean Paul for Live N Livin, Jesse Royal for Royal and Gramps Morgan for Positive Vibration.
SOJA had made their first-ever visit to Jamaica in January 2015, where they made their debut performance on the island in front of a relatively small audience at the Jamaica jazz and Blues Festival at the Falmouth Multipurpose Complex in Trelawny.
Back then, they performed a series of songs including Tear it down, She still loves me, Rest of my life and Not done yet.