Voting for Dubby’s
Voting for the inaugural Digital Music Awards, better known as the Dubby’s, closes today on the website of the organisers Dubwise Jamaica.
More than 50 reggae artiste as well as industry practitioners have been nominated in the 10 categories which include Best Reggae Album/ EP; Best Reggae Single
Male; Best Reggae Single Female; Best Collaboration; Best Reggae and Dancehall Collaboration; Best Roots Single and Best Breakout Artiste for 2020.
Reggae singer Chronixx leads the list of nominees with a total of six nods which include Best Reggae Single for Dela Move, as well as in the category of Best Reggae Collaboration in which he has three nods for Same Prayer featuring Kabaka Pyramid, Note to Self with Jah9 and Days of Stone with Dre Island.
Kabaka Pyramid is next with five nominations including Best Reggae and Dancehall Collaboration for the Loco remix with Agent Sasco and Bounty Killer.
Lila Ike and Protoje both have four nominations. She is nominated for Best Reggae Album/ep for The experience; Best Reggae Single, Forget Me Not; and Best Roots Single for Thy Will. Protoje has been recognised for Best Reggae Album for
In Search of Lost Time; Best Reggae Single Self Defence and his single Like Royalty, which features Popcaan, has been nominated for
Best Reggae and Dancehall Collaboration. Both Protoje and Lila Ike have also been nominated for Best Reggae Collaboration for In Bloom.
Other artiste with multiple nominations are Skip Marley, Buju Banton, Dre Island, Sevana, Jah9, Jesse Royal, Koffee, Blvk H3ro, Runkus, Royal Blu, and Leno Banton
According to Jason Panton of Dubwise, The Dubby’s are a moment whose time has come, as this was something that has been swirling in his head for some time but was only able to take root at this time given the pandemic and the extra time available to think through things.
“This was a response to three major factors,” Panton told the Jamaica observer.
“I saw where there was just a great amount of work being put out this year, both in terms of quality and quantity and I just wanted to recognise that. This become even more important given that this year there have been no shows. I just felt that the artistes deserve a pat on the back for producing this incredible body of work and for pushing through even though the world is experiencing a pandemic.”
Panton consulted with a wide range of industry players in order to obtain a broad perspective as to what is happening in the local music industry.
“It was necessary to talk to people, which ranged for the young to the more experienced. For the first year, we wanted to limit the number of