The nominees for the 2012 Juno Awards were announced this morning, and here are the Rap Recording of the Year nominees:

Classified - Handshakes and Middle Fingers (Half Life*Sony Music) - http://www.classifiedofficial.com
D-Sisive - Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye (URBNET* Fontana North) - http://www.d-sisive.com
Drake - Take Care (Cash Money*Universal) - http://www.drakeofficial.com
Kardinal Offishall - Anywhere (Ol’ Time Killin’ Part.2) (Black Stone Colleagues* Universal) - http://www.facebook.com/kardinaloffishall
Swollen Members – Daggermouth (Battle Axe/Suburban Noize*eOne) - http://www.swollenmembers.com

Keeping in mind that the award is supposed to be decided solely based on musical merit of the recording, NOT popularity or commercial success, which recording do you think should win the Rap Recording of the Year Juno?

Gee I wonder who West Coast mogul KRafty voted for...hmmmmmmm.

WOW!! Junos really went out on a limb this time.......lol

wait...i thought the kardi joint was just a single....i'm lost here.

Kdot - I assume you were referring to my vote in this poll I posted on this site, but just in case you weren't I want to make it clear that neither I nor anyone else on the Juno's Rap music advisory committee is allowed to be a judge. This is in order to minimize any potential conflicts of interest and to insure the judging process is as blind as possible (only CARAS staff and the accounting firm that tabulates the votes know who the judges are).

Deezuz - I feel you, and I wish we were able to give some lesser-known artists some shine as well, but its not like any of these nominees weren't deserving of their nod. The reality is that there was 70 submissions to Rap category this year (including about 15 that I thought were high enough quality to stand a good chance of being nominated), and only 5 nominee spots per category so the judges definitely had their work cut out for them. The Rap music advisory committee is working on pitching CARAS on creating a second Rap category to allow more artists to get some shine, and the bottom line that comes down to having enough quality submissions. I think we definitely achieved that this year, and all we can do is keep trying to increase the number of Rap submissions to make the best case possible to CARAS for the creation of a second Rap category.

Royce - you are correct the Kardi nomination is for a single, the category is still "Rap RECORDING of the Year", not "Rap ALBUM of the Year". Since digital music has taken hold in the last few years there is a growing trend towards more artists releasing singles and EPs separately from albums, so we think its best to leave it as Rap Recording of the Year instead of forcing people to release an album to be eligible. Watch for more artists to continue to move towards releasing less music more frequently in the coming years to help maintain momentum...

Easy


Krafty

Still not really in agreement on that.

But I won't complain on it either.

Best of luck to all the nominees.

Royce,

What specifically are you not in agreement with, and why not?

Please clarify.

Thanks


Krafty

D-Sisive's 3rd Juno Nominated (and 2nd Polaris Prize Long Listed album) can be downloaded below completely free of charge!

Congratulations to all of the nominees!





http://d-sisive.bandcamp.com/
http://d-sisive.bandcamp.com/
http://d-sisive.bandcamp.com/

How does that make a fair comparison putting up one song against a whole album? Either have it so that albums are in one category and singles are in another or else have some sort of level criteria. That makes zero sense to have 4 artists with albums and one artist who just had a song. If that's the case, then can I break up an album into 15 different nominations for each song on the album?

Ok. I just took a look at the nominee list for the Junos.

WOW, the entire Urban section is like that! (Rap, dance, r&b).

I just feel (from my perspective) that its a way of how they view urban music in general here in Canada. As a matter of fact I view it as a slap to the face of every urban artist who work their butt off to make (and take the time, money) albums.

IF they had ONLY singles as recordings of the year. It would be cool.

I dunno I view it as a big disrespect. Did anyone even object to the thought on the panel?

Comparing albums to singles is definitely not a fair comparison, but it is the way the category is set up - to allow for singles that have not yet been released on an album during the eligible release period. If the single was on an album that came out during the release period, than the album is what has to be submitted for consideration.

As previously stated the Rap music advisory committee is working towards getting CARAS to create a second rap category, and "best rap album" and "best rap single" categories are one possible way the 2 rap categories could end up being configured. First we have to get them to agree to a second Rap category at all before we can discuss what each category would be.

As far as your question about breaking up an album into single submissions goes, if the album was released during the eligibile release period that is what has to be submitted. One of the functions of the music advisory committee is to help check that no singles were submitted instead of albums that were eligible.

Easy


Krafty

I can understand as an artist working to release albums at present how you wouldn't like singles being compared to your work (or potentially taking away a nomination spot from your album assuming of course that you did in fact submit your album for consideration) however without singles being allowed in the category "Northern Touch" couldn't have won the Rap Juno... do you not think it was deserving?

Regardless the "recording" as opposed "album" categories date back to when there were so few submissions in each respective category that they had to allow more than just albums just to retain enough submissions to keep from not having eliminate or combine categories. Just as recently as the 2009 Junos there were only 15 albums submitted for the Rap category. This year of the 70 submissions for the Rap category 17 were singles, so if singles were made ineligible that would still leave 53 submissions and still leave the category very healthy.

HOWEVER asking CARAS to change the category and eliminate singles from eligibility would make it that much harder for us to get the number of eligible submissions high enough to get CARAS to seriously consider the creation of a second rap category. I trust with that in mind you can understand why our focus lies in getting the submissions numbers as high as possible? Ultimately we're trying to get a second category created to help get even more deserving artists (who submit their music for consideration) some shine, feel me?

easy


Krafty

lol @ classifieds album being there

most of those albums are shit really

drakes album was okay for a couple of tracks, but I never listened again

d-sisive's is the only one that had the best tracks on it overall, even though it wasn't his best album

I hope it wins but they'll probably give it to Drake cuz of the scandal last juno's right

I don't think that there should be an assumption that Drake is going to win the Rap Recording of the Year Juno this year any more than there should have been an assumption that he was going to win last year. While him not winning any of the Junos he was nominated for last year could arguably be labeled as a scandal, that should have no bearing on whether he wins the Rap Recording of the Year Juno this year.

The Rap Juno judges are supposed to be basing their votes solely on musical merit of the nominated releases, and if they are giving the most successful rapper in the country a sympathy vote because he didn't win anything last year not only are they not doing their jobs as judges but they also have their priorities screwed up. If however they believe his album is the strongest of the five nominated releases and they vote accordingly then more power to them, but that is definitely not a foregone conclusion anymore than it was last year when Shad won.

Easy


Krafty

lol dude please stop trying to sound like an intellectual

you sound like a fuckin retarded robot