Kabaka Pyramid wins Grammy for Best Reggae Album
Published:Sunday | February 5, 2023 | 6:02 PM
Kabaka Pyramid has won the Grammy for his sophomore project The Kalling.
The announcement was made during the Grammy Premiere Ceremony a short while ago.
The Kalling was one of the five albums nominated in the Best Reggae Album category at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, currently underway at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The other four albums nominated in the category are Koffee’s Gifted; Protoje’s Third Time’s The Charm; Sean Paul’s Scorcha, and Shaggy’s Come Fly Wid Mi.
In a recent interview with The Sunday Gleaner, Kabaka said the album represented "Rastafari calling the youths to stand up for their rights".
“ The Kalling is really about my journey in music being for a higher purpose, not just to get rich or popular, but to inspire a higher vibration in whoever listens. While the majority seek pleasure and sense gratification, there are a few who the Most High ‘kall’ upon to keep the balance inna earth. Music is what I use to answer the ‘kall’, and you can feel it throughout this album. I think my audience will see the growth in my songwriting and delivery, along with Zilla’s top-notch and diverse production, making it easy to follow me on this journey from start to finish – no filler tracks to be skipped," he said.
The Grateful artiste worked closely with Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, who produced the tracks, made beats and even programmed drums.
He spoke highly of Jr Gong's work on the project.
“Damian outdid himself on The Kalling. It is sonically cohesive. Every song has a different signature. It is an organic production. My band [Bebble Rock] went into the studio and played some of the tracks,” Kabaka added while declining to name a favourite track.
The critically acclaimed album, which received 4.7 million on-demand streams in the US last year, is heavy on collaborations, and Kabaka calls it his “pandemic album”.
Among the songs are Mystik Man, featuring Peter Tosh; Red Gold and Green, featuring Damian Marley; Make Things Work; Grateful, featuring Jemere Morgan; Stand Up ft Nathalia; Mr Rastaman featuring TIFA; The Kalling featuring Jesse Royal, Protoje and Stephen Marley; Faded Away featuring Buju Banton; Addiction; Energy featuring Jemere Morgan; Mary Jane featuring Black Am I; EZ Ride; Life Is Everything featuring Answele and Kontraband , Pt. 2 (Bonus Track) ft Damian Marley.
The Kalling was released on Friday, September 30, and although Kabaka wasn’t focused on a Grammy nomination during the process, he noted that being named made him feel “truly honoured”.
The 2022 Best Reggae Grammy was won by SOJA for Beauty in the Silence.