Addressing the Pink Elephant at the Grammy Awards

Jamaica, and indeed the rest of the Caribbean, is toasting the success of rising reggae star Koffee who has been blazing a trail since 2019. Her accomplishments, including tours, major venue appearances, an international record deal and a coveted spot at tomorrow’s Super Bowl Half-time Show, were recognised last Sunday when she was handed a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for her four-song EP Rapture.  

Koffee is arguably the perfect poster child for reggae. At 19, she wears dreads and a playful smile, is tomboyish in appearance and makes palatable roots-rock reggae music that sometimes segues into pop and tints of Afro-beat and dancehall. Yes, along with producers Teflon Zinc Fence and Walshy Fire (among others), she makes great music.

At the Grammys, Koffee ousted big-gun nominees like Julian Marley, Sly & Robbie, Steel Pulse and Third World, making her the youngest solo reggae act and first female to capture the Grammy nod. It is easy to see why no-one, to my knowledge, has any qualms about her taking home the golden Grammy. Easy to see, too, why there has been no controversy, as in 2018, when there was widespread debate as to whether Chronixx should have won over Damian “Jr Gong” Marley who captured the same award. And there seems to be no issue as to what constitutes an album—whether a five-song EP can win over a full body of ten or more songs.  

There is nothing to be taken from the fact that Koffee has real talent and is spitting unadulterated fire with her infectious beats. I join the rest of her fans who are celebrating with her, but can’t help thinking the Grammy panel is sending out a veiled message.  Over the years the influence of politics on the show has become more obvious. The self-advertising “biggest night in music” has been consistently pontificating on various issues, from the right to vote, to the environment and climate change, to sexual harassment. 

So what was this year’s message and was it veiled and sinister or deep and direct? Last Sunday’s Grammy Awards featured Lil Nas X in a hot-pink Versace suit. The artiste, who last year came out as gay, won two Grammys for his cross-over hit Old Town Road. The Best Rap Album was won by Tyler the Creator, described by one writer as having “transitioned from a bratty provocateur who hurled gay slurs with reckless abandon into a thoughtful confessionalist who surprisingly and rather matter-of-factly raps about his own attraction to men”. 

However, the night’s big winner was another teen: 18-year-old Billie Eilish. The singer of I Wish You Were Gay swept the 2020 Grammys, winning five awards, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year. With reggae’s international glory days possibly waning, and nothing like the era when a number of artistes were being signed by the big labels like Sony and Columbia, it appears that Koffee is the new-found Golden Child of the genre and the new Queen of the Pack. 

Can she follow the likes of Patra who soared to international stardom with her raunchy and provocative dancehall? Or even Diana King who drove Shy Guy onto the Billboard charts, selling more than five million copies of the song that in 1995 appeared in the movie Bad Boys? King, some may recall, was the first Jamaican music artiste to have ever publicly come out as gay, in a bid to break a major taboo in Jamaican culture. 

Last Sunday’s show was hosted by Alicia Keys. We may never know the direction her monologue would have taken but for the Kobe Bryant tragedy. Keys opened the show with a tribute to the basketball superstar, accompanied by Boyz II Men. She also performed a parody of Someone You Loved, starting with this message: 

“We refuse the old systems/we want to be respected and safe in our diversity/we want to be shifting to realness and inclusivity/so tonight we want to celebrate the
people that put themselves on the line and share their truthfulness.”