The Recording Academy’s senior manager of hip-hop, R&B and reggae, Len Brown, is urging more Jamaican musicians to sign up with the organization.
His call came in the wake of the Academy’s introduction of three new categories to the 2024 Grammy Awards. Best African Musical Performance — the move has caused some to complain that the Jamaican genre has once again declined.nosedWe support genres such as Afrobeat, Afrofusion, and Amapiano.
Brown said. dancehall mugs In an interview, he said he needed suggestions from members to create new categories within the Academy’s structure.
He therefore encourages qualified Jamaican music professionals to join the Academy and participate in its decision-making process. Doing so could result in the creation of additional categories and other desirable changes in reggae and dancehall.
“If you are not a member, you cannot make that proposal, so nothing will change. It gives the ‘community’ when it comes time to create a separate category for reggae and dancehall. It can only be achieved through participation and communication,” Brown said.
“I think that’s next, but all we need is the right people to lead within the community,” he added.
In 2016, reggae legend Freddie McGregor was nominated for a Reggae Grammy after his albums by Devin Di Ducta, J. Boog, Ziggy Marley, Raging Fire, Revelation and Soja were nominated. He lashed out at the Academy, calling the award “an unspeakable disgrace to reggae music.” ” and “Toys and Playthings of the West Coast of America”.
Considering that the Bob Marley family has won 13 of the 39 Reggae Grammy Awards won since 1985, some believe the Academy is overly biased towards the Bob Marley family.
Related: Click here for album sales of 39 past Reggae Grammy Award winners
Brown acknowledged that such feelings of disenfranchisement may be one of the factors discouraging Jamaicans from enrolling in academies. Still, he expressed his enthusiasm to better understand and address these concerns.
“I feel part of it could be disenfranchisement. I know there is a lot of recognition in the world.” Thanks to the winners from the reggae division, it has continued for many years. he said.
“I wish I could read people’s minds. I can’t. Ultimately I don’t know what the real barrier is, but I know I want to break it somehow. We need more people from Jamaica for that.”
Membership
Membership is open to creative or technical music professionals, such as singers, composers, producers, art directors, and engineers, according to the Recording Academy’s rules.
Voting members must be either producers, performers or engineers of at least 6 tracks on a commercially released album or 12 or more digital tracks. This requirement is easily met by most Jamaican music professionals of all ages.
Prospective members must submit their application by March 1st to be considered for that year’s class, and must also submit two nominations from colleagues.
An annual membership fee of US$100 is required.
nominees and winners
The Grammy 2024 eligibility period, which began on October 1, 2022, will continue until Friday, September 15, 2023.
While there are general criteria that all applicants must meet, Brown said that increasing voting members who understand the intricacies of various musical genres, including reggae and dancehall, is key to the success of each year’s nominees and winners. emphasized that it is important in shaping the results of
“As long as you submit a set of works that were released during that time period that we notify each Grammy Awards cycle, album notes and everything else… everything is checked out from the metadata and everything else, the problem is No. As long as the music fits the category description.If it’s reggae music, it has to sound like reggae music,” he said. dancehall mugs.
Brown stressed that the Academy does not restrict nominations to artists from a particular region, which may explain some of the controversy surrounding SOJA’s 2022 win.
However, he believes the final decision will ultimately rest on a vote by Academy voters.
“Obviously they’re not just limiting themselves to Jamaicans, so that might explain some of the controversy, but in the end it’s up to the votes, and whoever votes is ultimately I feel like I’m going to nominate that person.” Or give that person the win. That’s why we need more people to understand music, to be part of that voting body, and to ensure that those who understand music have a greater voice and can influence outcomes. There is All year long. ”
Last March, Grammy-nominated producer and music executive Christy Barber said that dancehall was highly unlikely to win its own Grammy category and would prevent the “Best Reggae Album” category from being scrapped. argued that emphasis should be placed on
But Brown was optimistic that things could change at any moment.
He also said he was open-minded about what to expect from this year’s string of submissions for consideration in the “Best Reggae Album” pool.
“I’d love to see good music come out. I just wish we were more involved in the voting process on both ends. We’re just participating in the first round, the final round, all the fronts.” So obviously that means being a member and it means reaching out to me, trying not to be hard to find so we can discuss how to scale what we need .”
