Quote of the Day – Cristy Barber (VP Records) on the Reggae Grammy

posted on February 2nd, 2010 by in Article

The quote of the day comes from Cristy Barber (VP Records) who states her opionion on the Reggae Grammy in an interview with Jesse Serwer (via LargeUp):

“For 25 years it seems the same people get nominated and win the award. It never reflects what’s going on. Everybody’s been grumbling about it for years. About four years ago I started to investigate it and found out we don’t have a lot of people in our genre that are actually voting. For the lack of a better analogy, [the typical voter] is a white guy from Minnesota and he’s looking at the list [of eligible albums] going, ‘Oh Mavado, Busy Signal, Beres Hammond, Etana, ooh Black Uhuru, I loved ‘em in ‘72.’ Click. He’s just going with people he knows. He doesn’t have a clue who Busy Signal or Mavado is.”

While I’m not the biggest VP fan, Barber’s definitely got a point here and she was just proofed right again at the 52nd Grammy awards which got down last Sunday:

Stephen Marley has won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album for his acoustic version of the album ‘Mind Control.’ This original ‘Mind Control’ also won the same award back in 2008. (via Robbo Ranx).

Other nominees were: Buju Banton (“Rasta Got Soul”), Gregory Isaacs (“Brand New Me”), Julian Marley (“Awake”) and Sean Paul (“Imperial Blaze”). Pretty lame selection, eh?

This is how the nominations would have looked like if we were the jury:

Terry Lynn – Kingstonlogic 2.0

Jahdan Blakkamoore – Buzzrock Warrior

Santogold – Top Ranking

Major Lazer – Guns Don´t Kill People … Lazers Do

Dubblestandart & Lee Perry – Return From Planet Dub

What about you?

8 comments on “Quote of the Day – Cristy Barber (VP Records) on the Reggae Grammy”

  1. quincy bones said at 7:51 am on February 2nd, 2010:

    sant(i)gold isn't reggae, it's hipster pop. major lazer is techno and ya'll are the only people who give a fuck about terry lynn

  2. quincy bones said at 7:51 am on February 2nd, 2010:

    sant(i)gold isn't reggae, it's hipster pop. major lazer is techno and ya'll are the only people who give a fuck about terry lynn

  3. toastyle1210 said at 8:20 am on February 2nd, 2010:

    Well, looks like you haven´t listened to that Santigold LP I was talking about, you have no clue about Techno and are pretty good in ignoring the rest of the world when it comes to Terry Lynn: http://www.kingstonlogic.com/index.php?id=120.

  4. Griff said at 10:19 am on February 2nd, 2010:

    These nominees don't reflect 'what's going on' either. I rate Terry Lynn, Jahdan and Major Lazer, but for the average reggae listener I would put in Tarrus Riley, Movado and Sizzla albums as well. Then you got the bigger picture.

  5. toastyle1210 said at 2:50 pm on February 2nd, 2010:

    Ye, had Mavado and Tarrus on my list, too, but wanted to boil it down to five. But that's why I asked about your personal faves at the end of the post :)

  6. bedaranks said at 4:17 pm on February 2nd, 2010:

    My choice would look similar, but Santogold & Terry Lynn were released in `08, no?
    Add Courtney John “Made In Jamaica” and i sign… ;)

  7. toastyle1210 said at 9:39 pm on February 2nd, 2010:

    “Santogold & Terry Lynn were released in `08, no?” – true – my bad. Jus had a quick look on the German Amazon store where both albums are listed as '09.

  8. toastyle1210 said at 9:44 pm on February 2nd, 2010:

    btw: my to-come nominees for for 2011:
    - Jr. Gong & Nas
    - Protoje
    - Jah9

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