Jamaicans Renew Calls to Split Reggae and Dancehall Categories at the Grammys — Industry Voices Offer Insight

Jamaican creatives are once again urging the Recording Academy to create two distinct Grammy categories — Best Reggae Album and Best Dancehall Album — reflecting the evolution of both genres in sound, audience, and global cultural impact.

This debate, long simmering in Jamaica and diaspora music circles, reignited on social media after recent chatter about Grammy submissions spotlighted the blurred lines between reggae and dancehall. While the Academy currently groups all Jamaican music under the Best Reggae Album banner, critics argue that this approach overlooks dancehall’s unique sonic identity, lyrical energy, and global reach. “They’re two completely different art forms now — in rhythm, theme, and audience,” one Kingston-based producer stated online.

Back in November 2022, Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, acknowledged the conversation, noting that separating the two genres was “possible.” His statement contrasted sharply with those of Grammy-nominated producer and music executive Cristy Barber, who in March that same year maintained that it was highly unlikely dancehall would ever secure its own Grammy category.

Barber explained that despite repeated calls over the years, the Academy’s Los Angeles-based headquarters operates with a small staff and typically reduces fields rather than expanding them. “The more fields you put in, the more categories involved, the more work that has to be done,” she said, emphasising that gaining approval for new categories is an uphill battle.

Barber also cautioned that instead of lobbying for separate awards, the focus should remain on protecting the integrity of the existing Best Reggae Album category, which she fears could one day be eliminated or diluted.

Others within Jamaica’s music establishment share that caution. In February 2019, during Reggae Month celebrations, Michael ‘Ibo’ Cooper, the late founding member of Third World and then interim chairman of the Jamaica Reggae Music Industry Association (JaRIA), argued that splitting reggae and dancehall would “set back Jamaican music.”

“Dancehall people are being fooled about separating dancehall from reggae,” Cooper said during JaRIA’s Reggae Open University session. “If you look at reggae as an umbrella category and dancehall as an offspring, it’s an easier move than trying to build from scratch.”

Cooper further warned that defining what constitutes “dancehall” could create confusion and division, echoing Jamaica’s historical pattern of fragmenting genres too quickly. “With dancehall, people feel like it should sound a particular way, so it wouldn’t be long before people say, ‘This is not dancehall because it don’t sound like this or that,’” he noted.

Still, cultural scholars insist the conversation remains relevant. In a February 2025 interview with the Jamaica Observer, Professor Donna Hope, a leading authority on Caribbean popular culture at The University of the West Indies, said the Grammys’ grouping of all Jamaican genres under reggae continues to spark annual controversy.

“For Jamaicans who know better, they are insisting that no dancehall people should be on it — worse a Vybz Kartel or Shenseea who represent pop-dancehall and hardcore dancehall,” Hope said. “But I keep reminding people that the word ‘reggae’ for people at the Grammys is really a stand-in for Jamaican music.”

Her observation underscores the broader challenge: while reggae remains Jamaica’s most globally recognised export, dancehall has become the island’s dominant sound. As the genre continues to influence pop, hip-hop, and Afrobeats, many believe it deserves its own place on the world’s biggest music stage.

Until that happens, the debate will continue — echoing the complex question of how best to honour the evolving soundscape of Jamaican music at the Grammys.