Sister Carol Says Her 1996 Grammy Nomination “Came As A Shock”

Veteran Dancehall deejay Sister Carol — the first female Dancehall artist to be nominated for a Grammy — says the announcement of her Lyrically Potent album as one of the Recording Academy’s picks for the 1996 Best Reggae Album, came as a shock to her at the time.

“I wasn’t expecting nuttn like dat,” Sister Carol, 64, told DancehallMag in a recent interview. 

“When I learnt about that – my lawyer called me and told me and he said ‘congratulations’, and I said ‘for what?  He said”: ‘you’ve been nominated for the Grammy”.  Mi seh ‘for what?’  Not remembering that we just had an album that came out,” she added.

The Dread Natty Congo artist said that she co-produced the album alongside her husband on their Black Cinderella label.

“We produced it ourselves, our own company.  My husband and I have a company – Black Cinderella productions.  So we got Heartbeat Records to license it… and once it was released and got nominated, for the Grammys, with the likes of, at that time it was Skatalites, Gregory Isaacs and Maxi Priest,” she explained.

“So to be among that set, that class of Reggae people mi just feel like a winner already.  It was a gratifying, rewarding feeling and it brought some more love and light to my career and people still talking about it,” the Kingston native added.

The critically-acclaimed Lyrically Potent, which was release on June 18, 1996, was described as a “perfect antidote to the lowbrow slackness of female sing-jays”.

The album, which included a mixture of straight deejay tracks on some of the popular Dancehall beats at the time, as well as Reggae songs on which she sing-jayed, was also praised for its “quality in production values and subject matter”.

Among the tracks on that album were Dancehall tracks Red Eye, Dread Natty Congo, Strong and Fit, and the Dancehall/Hip Hop-fused Can’t Stop Reggae.

Sister Carol, whose real name is Carol Theresa East, is a native of Denham Town in West Kingston.   Considered a foundation and cultural deejay, she has been blending Dancehall riddims with conscious lyrics over the decades.

Alongside Lyrically Potent, her other albums include Mother Culture (1981), Black Cinderella (1984), Jah Disciple (1989), RAS Call Mi Sister Carol (1994), Potent Dub (1997), Isis – The Original Rasta Womb-man (1999), THC (The Healing Cure) (2017) and Opportunity (2020).

She also featured on Jason Mraz’s Billboard-charting Reggae album, Look For The Good, on the eighth track Time Out in 2020.   

Sister Carol migrated to Brooklyn, New York in her teens, and was influenced by Dancehall pioneer Brigadier Jerry to pursue deejaying, instead of singing.

The Cinder Black sound system operator has been hand-picked to perform in some of the world’s most far-flung countries, among them Monaco at a concert which was staged by the royal family. 

She also performed at the Commonwealth Games in Australia 2005, at Constitution Hall in Washington DC as well as home-coming ceremonies in Gambia and Senegal.  She was also specially requested to perform for the aborigine chief in New Caledonia South Pacific.

The deejay, whose given name is Carol Theresa East, has received many awards in her career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International African Awards in Detroit and another from the Institute of Caribbean Studies in Washington DC for her contribution to Reggae Music.

Her contribution to society has not been limited to music.  She has a first degree in education from the City College of New York and has appeared in Hollywood feature films by director Jonathan Demme “Something Wild” and “Married to the Mob” which starred Michelle Pfeiffer as well as Rachel Getting Married and Failure to Launch.

Her music is also synced on several Hollywood movie soundtracks including “The Mighty Quinn” which starred Denzel Washington.