Grammy 2023 Predictions: ‘Best Reggae Album’
With the eligibility period for the 65th Grammy Awards having ended on September 30, 2022, here are DancehallMag‘s predictions on who could emerge among the 2023 nominees for ‘Best Reggae Album,’ which will be announced on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.
There could be once again, five Jamaicans and one American in contention for the Reggae Grammy prize. According to JonFX, a governor of the South Florida Grammy chapter, only those who have remained true to authentic Reggae and adhered to the drum patterns of its subgenre Dancehall, will be considered for nominations.
Some Trap/Pop fusion albums, which many Jamaicans had been touting as potential nominees, may have already unwittingly eliminated themselves, as the Grammy Awards rules explicitly state that:
“To be eligible in a specific Genre Field, an album must contain greater than 50 percent playing time of the genre specified by the Field. A recording may not be in more than one specialized Genre Field. However, an album may be in one Genre Field while one or more tracks from the album may be in a different Genre Field.”
According to the US Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences, the first round of voting will begin on Thursday, October 13, and end on Sunday, October 23, 2022. After the nominees are announced on November 15, the final round of voting will be held between Wednesday, December 14, 2022 and Wednesday, January 4, 2023, before the grand finale on February 5, 2023 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Unlike the 64th Grammy Awards, where the Best Reggae Album was won by SOJA, who had the only fully-Reggae entry, and bested five other Jamaicans, this year the possible top contenders could again be mainly Jamaicans, but this time, those with authentic Reggae/Dancehall albums.
The six nominated albums could be:
Refugees – Jimmy Cliff
The two-time Grammy winner and seven-time nominee, has, as expected, delivered a full Reggae album. Titled Refugees, it is the St. James native’s first album in more than a decade, and is aimed at advocating for refugees, by placing the spotlight on people forced to flee their homelands.
This album is already considered a ‘global big deal’ as Jimmy Cliff teamed up with his record label, Universal Music Enterprises, the Fugees Wyclef Jean and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is the UN Refugee Agency, “to ensure that everyone who hears the album knows how they can support refugees.”
Gifted – Koffee
Gifted, Koffee’s first full-length album, which was released on March 25 via Promised Land/RCA, had debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart on April 9. It has spent 25 weeks on the chart, the longest run among newly released albums over the last three years.
Though not entirely Reggae/Dancehall, Gifted with 10 solo tracks, five of which were produced by the 2019 Grammy Award winner herself. With tracks spanning the history-making Lockdown, West Indies, Pull Up, Shine, x10, Lonely and Gifted, it was one of the exceptional albums from a Jamaican in 2022 and could put Koffee back in contention, once again.
Wisdom – Stick Figure
Stick Figure’s seventh studio album Wisdom, which also features a collab with Jamaican Dancehall icon Barrington Levy titled Soul of the World, has the distinction of being the first Reggae project to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart in more than two years. By virtue of the album displacing Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Legend, eligible Grammy voters will no doubt take note.
Third Time’s the Charm – Protoje
If Protoje cops a nomination and happens to take home the Grammy, he would have written, spoken and sang it into being, by virtue of this album’s title. Third Time’s the Charm—an immediate follow-up to his In Search of Lost Time, which, surprisingly, did not cop a nomination in 2020—is totally Reggae.
Third Time’s the Charm is his sixth studio album and comes six years after his Grammy-nominated A Matter of Time, the first of his ‘time trilogy’ albums, which was released in 2018.
The Kalling – Kabaka Pyramid
With Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley’s golden touch as producer, Kabaka’s sophomore album The Kalling, was released on September 30 in time for the Grammy deadline, even though several of the tracks were released as singles months prior. This fifteen-track album features Roots Reggae’s biggest icons, among them Junior Gong himself (Red Gold and Green), Buju Banton; Stephen Marley with whom he collaborated on the title track, and Jesse Royal.
Currently, on his The Kalling tour, Kabaka has spent copious amounts of time touring the US over the last year with west coast-based band Rebelution, and has amassed much support there, something that could work in his favor.
Scorcha – Sean Paul
Even though Sean Paul’s eighth studio album Scorcha only managed to open on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart at No. 6, unlike his previous albums which charted higher, the 16-track production could still be a part of the six nominees.
It was a high-quality album with pop-tinged Dancehall songs such as Dynamite featuring Australian singer-songwriter Sia, No Fear featuring Damian Marley and Light My Fire with Gwen Stefani and Shenseea, which Paul described as a Rocksteady track.
The No Lie deejay has one ‘Best Reggae Album’ Grammy win for Dutty Rock, and nine Grammy nominations, including Live N Livin, which was nominated for the 2022 Awards.