“What a big piece a sell out gwaan ya so white folks winning best reggae album over Jamaicans wtf🤔.” -BOUNTY KILLER
The Grammy Awards was hosted on Sunday night and one of the biggest upsets was the fact that the Best Reggae album award did not go to a Jamaican artist or group.
Expressing his disappointment, Jamaican dancehall artist, Bounty Killer whose real name is Rodney Price, pulled the race card as he argued his point. The award was won by Virgina, USA based, SOJA (Soldiers of Jah Army). Nominees in the category included Spice, Etana, Gramps Morgan, Jesse Royal and Sean Paul.
Bounty Killer followed up his first outburst with, “Dedicated to di Jamaican government who’s fighting our culture music and even we language but still uses it to promote our campaigns. That’s why dutty Billboard and Grammy feel they can style di thing folks.”
Jamaican artist, Shenseea took to The Shade Room where she wrote, “Why unu dweet???” beneath an image of SOJA that had been shared. Beenie Man simply wrote, ”Smh”.
Amid the strong offense taken by some artistes and industry stakeholders there has however been contradictory remarks by some Jamaicans. On social media some argued that the result at the Grammys was due to the content being delivered by artistes. ”I do hope artists start to take their craft more seriously! Gun lyrics and trap music cannot pass the airport …… Congratulations to the winner,” said one person. Another wrote, “See when we a tell the youth them to wise up and sing strong stuff uno say we a fight artist we just get disgrace in front of the world how uno feel now? Robbery still but this a what we warning about just like foreigners come tek the best part of Jamaica and we a fight for ghetto areas the music is the same.”
In recent years there have been calls for entertainment professionals in Jamaica to register with the Recording Academy in a bid to have a stronger presence when it comes to casting ballots for the category. Shaggy, in the past said the Recording Academy is not at fault.
