Big Surprises In Reggae Grammy Nominees

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The nominations for next year 53rd annual Grammy awards are in, and there are some major surprises in the reggae category.

Yesterday Urban Islandz told you that reggae star Buju Banton two month old album Before The Dawn was given a Grammy knod. This came at a big surprise to not only reggae fans, but also Gargamel himself.

Sources close to Gargamel studio, told Urban Islandz that Banton was very surprise upon getting the news on Wednesday, but feel humbled by it.

“When we spoke to him Wednesday evening he was very surprise at the announcement, we never thought the album would be nominated for a Grammy,” the source exclaim.

But why are we so surprise, when Before The Dawn has garnered so much attention in the first few weeks of its release. Although, Buju 9th studio album have since lost much of its momentum leading up to now, it rose to number one on major charts around the world in its first two weeks of release. In fact, Buju might have the best shot at taking home a Grammy this time around.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the reggae nominees was the exclusion of Gyptian album Hold Yuh. Yes its true, Gyptian was not nominated for a Grammy.

We are talking about the same Gyptian that recently took home the MOBO and Soul Train Awards.

Reggae fans are in total disbelief that reggae star Gyptian, who is arguably the top reggae/dancehall artist of 2010, was not nominated.

But why Gyptian’s Hold Yuh was not included?

According to information reaching Urban Islandz, Hold Yuh has failed to pick up on the momentum that Gyptian song of the said name started earlier in the year. Despite spending 19 weeks to date on the Billboard reggae charts, the album Hold Yuh did not make the final cut. Maybe less than satisfactory sales is a major cause. Disappointing isn’t it?

We are not done yet.

Another huge surprise in the Grammy nominees is the exclusion of Damian Marley and Nas critically acclaimed collaborative album Distant Relatives.

Some of you may wonder if Distant Relatives is a rap or reggae album. The answer is both, Distant relative covers both rap and reggae genre. In fact, Distant Relatives currently sits at number 2 on the Billboard reggae album charts, after spending some 29 weeks on the charts, peaking at number 1.

So why was Distant Relatives not nominated? We are yet to know.

The full list of reggae nominees are:

Before The Dawn
Buju Banton
[Gargamel Music, Inc.]

Isaacs Meets Isaac
Gregory Isaacs & King Isaac
[King Isaac Music]

Revelation
Lee “Scratch” Perry
[Megawave Records]

Made In Jamaica
Bob Sinclair And Sly & Robbie
[Yellow Productions/Universal Music France]

One Pop Reggae +
Sly & Robbie And The Family Taxi
[Phase One Communications/Taxi Records]

Legacy An Acoustic Tribute To Peter Tosh
Andrew Tosh
[Box10/Tuff Gong]

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