ENTITY · PERSON (ARTIST, SELECTOR, PRODUCER…)

Kabaka Pyramid

Well supported

Kabaka Pyramid is a Jamaican reggae artist associated with the reggae-revival and global streaming era, known for lyrics that combine Rastafari, hip-hop-influenced flow and roots-reggae framing; his Grammy recognition placed the revival generation in a formal international awards archive.

No photograph yet — add one you hold the rights toOpenly licensed or your own work. We publish the credit and the licence beside it.

At a glance

Type: Person (artist, selector, producer…) →
Era: Streaming and the living archive →
Confidence: Well supported

Share a memoryWrite it, say it, or send a photo.Correct this recordA date, a name, a spelling we got wrong.Add a source leadA flyer, tape, article or photograph.

Connections

Media & sources

Footage

Kabaka Pyramid - Can't Breathe (Official Video)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · performs

Official youtube upload (channel: Ghetto Youths International); embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

Source link ↗

In stories

Story · ProbableA French reggae life, in his own words

From a Marley 7-inch on a reggae-starved island in 1977 to four decades inside France's sound systems and music press -- one correspondent's account, written directly to the Atlas, of a scene this archive had barely reached.

Debate & reception

What people argued about this record — two documented positions each time, kept apart from verified fact. Browse every argument in the archive →

Debate

SOJA's 2022 Best Reggae Album Grammy and the question of who owns reggae

One side

Cultural appropriation and Jamaican ownership of reggae

The other

Reggae as a borderless global genre judged on the music

“reggae and dancehall could have been more recognized because oftentimes other genres take from our culture and we do not get that rating that we deserve”

At the 2022 Grammys, the American band SOJA won Best Reggae Album over five Jamaican nominees, reigniting a recurring argument about cultural ownership versus reggae's status as a global genre open to all. Critics called it an instance of outside acts profiting from a Black Jamaican art form while its originators go unrewarded; defenders pointed to reggae's deliberately international reach and the Academy's genre-not-nationality criteria. Nominee Spice publicly voiced the ownership grievance. The following year the award returned to a Jamaican act, Kabaka Pyramid ('The Kalling'), which some read as a corrective.

Read the argument →