I’ll start off by congratulating SOJA on their win! I’ll admit, I was shocked that they won, and I personally thought Jesse Royal should have won with his album Royal.  That being said, Beauty in Silence is a very good album.

The second after SOJA was announced the winner of this year’s best reggae album Grammy the backlash started, how could an American band win a Grammy….for Reggae?   The comments on social media were hard and fast:

• "If majority of Jamaicans across the world are unaware of your existence, you should not be winning a Grammy for best Reggae album, sorry not sorry,"
• "SOJA (a group of YT men) just beat 4 Jamaican musicians for Best Reggae Album"
• “SOJA's win over Spice, a Jamaican artist, reflects the reality that the entertainment industry and the people of Jamaica have "WORK TO DO."
• "The GRAMMY’S, Along With THESE CULTURAL VULTURES, Are Way Too PRESUMPTUOUS, OUR CULTURE Is Being DISRESPECTED & Blatantly ROBBED. We Need MUSICAL JUSTICE, This Ain’t It."
• "A white American group #soja won a grammy for best reggae album wtf Talk about culture appropriation," 
• "I'd encourage everyone to listen to that SOJA album before rushing to negative judgement, I cued it up on Tidal just now and I can honestly say I didn't make it past track two, because it was hot garbage. But now at least I *know* I'm right."
• "The Grammy awards are literally a competition between artists of the same genre, SOJA didn't even deserve to make it past the local bar in Virginia let alone one of music's highest honors."

Being a white male in America, I cannot comment on some of the thoughts and beliefs of those in Jamaica, but I do have a few ideas I can share.  I am a huge fan of reggae, all styles of Reggae; Roots, Dancehall, American (California, Hawaii, Surfer, whatever you want to call it), Dub, Ska, Lovers Rock.  I listen to it all and have favorite artist/groups in each category as well as those I do not like. I am pretty sure most people in Jamaica have never listened to a SOJA album, let alone a song.  SOJA music has a great message, one of unity, love, hope, peace, even incorporating social and political commentary.  Isn’t that the message of reggae?  Isn’t reggae worldwide?  Why is it that only a Jamaican should win?  I truly believe if Bob Marley or Toots or Jacob Miller were around today, they would congratulate and support SOJA.  And SOJA has gotten support from Jamaican reggae artists; Chronixx, Etana and Gramps Morgan, the latter two lost out to SOJA.

I do believe if more Jamaicans supported Jamaican artists by buying albums and songs, going to concerts, buying merchandise, things could be different.  There are Reggae artists, such as Buju Banton, that thinks Jamaicans need to put out a better product and feels they are holding Reggae music back from growing.  I also believe these Jamaican artists need to be more worldwide, get their music out to the world, tour more and even tour with these American Reggae groups.  Stephen Marley has toured with Slightly Stoopid and Rebelution, and he realizes the benefits of touring with bands like this.  It gets his name and brand out to the people who might not typically listen.

If you look at what SOJA has done worldwide you can understand why they won the award.  They have more than 1.4 million subscribers on Spotify and last year generated more than 106 million streams worldwide and 7.7 million listeners in 178 countries.  They have many videos on YouTube with hundreds of millions of views. Their live shows are continuously sold out, which also means selling merchandise and music.   On top of that, they write great music that resonates with the people.  I’m not saying you have to like their music and style, but keep in mind, there are millions of people worldwide that do.

One Love – Todd Judd