SOJA Wins First Grammy For Best Reggae Album

April 3, 2022

Add “Grammy Award Winning Recording Group” when introducing the Virginia based reggae band, SOJA. After years of nominations, it was announced during the 64th Annual Grammy Awards that SOJA had won their first Grammy for Best Reggae Album with their 13 track record, Beauty In The Silence.

The album dropped on Sept 24th, 2021 via ATO Records and features a slew of guest appearances with Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads, Stick Figure, Rebelution, Collie Buddz, J Boog, Eli Mac, Mihali, Nanpa Básico, Common Kings as well as Ali Campbell of UB40.

The other 2022 Best Reggae Album Nominees were:
Etana – Pamoja
Gramps Morgan – Positive Vibration
Sean Paul – Live N Livin
Jesse Royal – Royal
Spice – 10

Three times a charm for SOJA as they were first nominated in 2015 when they were up for Best Reggae Album with Amid The Noise & Haste. That marked the first time an American Reggae-Rock group had been up for Grammy nomination. That year, unfortunately for SOJA, the award went to Ziggy Marley for Fly Rasta. SOJA was nominated again in 2017 with Live In Virginia but once again saw the award go to Ziggy Marley with his self-titled record.

Now, in 2022, SOJA can not only say they won a Grammy, but they were the first American Reggae band to do so. Since SOJA’s first nomination in 2015, other bands from the Reggae-Rock community have received their official nominations. In 2017, Rebelution was nominated for their album Falling into Place along with J Boog‘s Rose Petals EP. J Boog was nominated again in 2018 for his Wash House Ting full length, but so was Common Kings that same year with Lost In Paradise. Whats cool about that, is Common Kings front-man, Junior King, use to be a back-up vocalist for J Boog before starting Common Kings, only for both artists to be nominated for separate albums on the same year.

(AP Photo/John Locher)

[Related: Interview – SOJA]

In a 2017 Interview with SOJA front-man Jacob Hemphill, we discussed The Grammy’s where Jacob shared the excitement of their very first nomination in 2015: “I was onstage in Rio doing a soundcheck, and I flipped out! The first one was like ‘oh my god, I want to tell every single person in my family.’ That word GRAMMY, that means [a lot]. When you tell people you play reggae and you’re American, they’re sort of like, ‘Oh that’s cool.’ And then you tell them it’s a living, and you make a living, they’re like, ‘Oh that’s cool.’ But if you tell them, ‘hey we’re on The Tonight Show’ or ‘Hey, we’re nominated for a GRAMMY.’ They’re like, ‘Oh shit! You’re an actual musician!’ Different titles mean different things for different people. I think the more this genre gets into stuff like that the better it is for everybody – the fans, the artists, the genre and everything.”

SOJA – Beauty In The Silence Short Documentary

You can find SOJA on tour this summer with Dirty Heads, Tribal Seeds, with Artikal Sound System and The Elovaters opening select dates. Tour dates are below — Here is a full list of all Best Reggae Album Winners since the categories inception in 1985:
2022: SOJA – Beauty In The Silence
2021: Toots and the Maytals – Got To Be Tough
2020: Koffee – Rapture
2019: Sting/Shaggy – 44/876
2018: Damian Marley – Stony Hill
2017: Ziggy Marley – Ziggy Marley
2016: Morgan Heritage – Strictly Roots
2015: Ziggy Marley – Fly Rasta
2014: Ziggy Marley – In Concert
2013: Jimmy Cliff – Rebirth
2012: Stephen Marley – Revelation Pt. 1 – The Root of Life
2011: Buju Banton – Before the Dawn
2010: Stephen Marley – Mind Control Acoustic
2009: Burning Spear – Jah Is Real
2008: Stephen Marley – Mind Control
2007: Ziggy Marley – Love Is My Religion
2006: Damian Marley – Welcome to Jamrock
2005: Toots & the Maytals – True Love
2004: Sean Paul – Dutty Rock
2003: Lee Perry – Jamaican E.T.
2002: Damian Marley – Halfway Tree
2001: Beenie Man – Art and Life
2000: Burning Spear – Calling Rastafari
1999: Sly and Robbie – Friends
1998: Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers – Fallen Is Babylon
1997: Bunny Wailer – Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary
1996: Shaggy – Boombastic
1995: Bunny Wailer – Crucial! Roots Classics
1994: Inner Circle – Bad Boys
1993: Shabba Ranks – X-tra Naked
1992: Shabba Ranks – As Raw As Ever
1991: Bunny Wailer – Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley
1990: Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers – One Bright Day
1989: Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers – Conscious Party
1988: Peter Tosh – No Nuclear War
1987: Steel Pulse – Babylon the Bandit
1986: Jimmy Cliff – Cliff Hanger
1985: Black Uhuru – Anthem