Not getting a Grammy nomination does not diminish your works - Rocky Dawuni

Grammy nominated reggae musician Rocky Dawuni has said not being nominated in the Grammys does not diminish one’s music as an artiste.

Rocky who was the first Ghanaian to be nominated in the Grammys was nominated in the Best Reggae Song Category.

Ghanaian musicians have lately been infatuated with the Grammys with artistes releasing songs and describing them as “Grammy worthy.”

Mugees of R2Bs fame recently noted that Grammys can’t judge African Music.

Speaking in an interview on the Class Drive on Class91.3FM, Thursday, 18 June 2020, the Ghanaian Grammy nominee explained that he only puts his heart and soul into what he does and for award winning purposes.

He told show host Prince Benjamin that: “Personally, I don’t do music for awards, I’m not the kind of artiste that makes music and starts chasing for award. So I just focus on creating very important works and putting my heart and soul in it and learning too from whether it’s a new artiste, an unsigned artiste or an established artiste, I’m constantly studying and so when I come to Ghana even, I would learn from the upcoming artiste and I would learn from them…..”

He however emphasised that the Grammys is globally respected.

“So the thing is that it does not matter where you are in your career your ability to make incredible works, your ability to aspire to higher heights, no, but the industry is about hype and standards. Even we have Ghana Music Awards, we have the Afrima all of this stuff but the Grammys for a long time, when it comes to music if there’s an award that you can go to every country, regardless of what awards they have is respected across the board.

“The reality is that this is something that we didn’t put there, not even artistes who are there put it there, it’s a standard that has been put there and the standard has music from different parts of the world.”

Rocky indicated that he was not expecting to get nominated at the Grammys and although being nominated is a win, it should not be used as a yardstick to judge music.

“The thing is that Grammy should not be the yardstick for judging our music. It should not be the yardstick for judging music but it is also a yardstick to be able to acknowledge the great works of art that happen within a certain generation. So you’re able to put it in historical context but you can imagine artistes like Fella, Bob Marley were never nominated. Ever, but through the works that they did the works grew. They’re grammy worthy but they were never nominated.

“So it’s not because you don’t get nominated that doesn’t diminish your ability or what you’re doing or being nominated does not make me better than any Ghanaian artiste.”