KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Sly & Robbie’s The Reggae Power, featuring Spicy Chocolate; Fly Rasta by Ziggy Marley; Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Back on the Controls; Sean Paul’s Full Frequency; Out of Many, One Music by Shaggy; and Amid the Noise and the Haste by American reggae band SOJA, are nominees for the Best Reggae Album category of the 57th Grammy Awards.
The nominations were revealed earlier today.
The Reggae Power is the 11th Grammy nomination for the legendary Sly and Robbie. This is their 10th in the Best Reggae album category. They won the award in 1999 for the Elektra Records opus Friends.
Released in September by VP Records, The Reggae Power contains 14 tracks. Among the artistes featured on the set are Gramps Morgan, Sizzla, Bitty McLean, Beenie Man, TOK, Romain Virgo, Alaine and Ce’Cile.
Ziggy Marley’s Fly Rasta, released in April by Tuff Gong has been the most commercially successful album in the United States by a Jamaican reggae artiste this year, with sales of over 16,000 copies to date.
Ziggy, the eldest son of reggae legend Bob Marley, has won three Grammys as lead singer of the Melody Makers. On his own he has been nominated in the Best Reggae Album category four times, winning in 2007 for Love is My Religion and this year for Ziggy Marley in Concert.
'Scratch' Perry’s Back on the Controls was released on the Upsetter label in May. It became the enigmatic producer’s highest charting album in the US when it peaked at number five on Billboard’s Reggae album chart. He won the Best Reggae Album Grammy in 2003 for Jamaican ET. Scratch has been nominated five times.
Full Frequency (VP/Atlantic Records) Sean Paul's sixth album, was released in February. He has won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album once, in 2004 for Dutty Rock. This is his fifth nomination.
Out of Many, One Music is Shaggy's 11th studio effort and was released on October 1, 2013. Produced by Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, it features collaborations with Tarrus Riley, Tessanne Chin, Beres Hammond, Chronixx, Cocoa Tea, Damian Marley, Konshens and Peetah Morgan.
This is Shaggy’s fifth nomination. He won in 1996 for Boombastic.
American reggae band SOJA, produced by Jamaican Dwayne ‘Supa Dups’ Chin-Quee, has earned its first nomination for their sixth studio album, Amid the Noise and The Haste. The album opened at number one on the Billboard Reggae Album chart and number 20 on the Billboard 200 Album chart in August with first-week sales of over 12,000 copies. To date, it has sold over 22,000 copies.
Kevin Jackson