Beres Hammond received the Lifetime Achievement Award as the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association marked 15 years of its Honour Awards on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston — an evening the Gleaner had billed as “a 15th-anniversary salute to influencers, pioneers, and luminaries of the reggae industry,” with awards in more than 20 categories.

The popular-vote categories told the story of the past year in Jamaican music. Teejay’s “Drift,” the TikTok-fuelled dancehall hit of 2023, was named Song of the Year over YG Marley’s “Praise Jah in the Moonlight,” Damian Marley’s “My Sweet Lord” and Masicka’s “Fight For Us,” the Jamaica Observer reports. YG Marley — grandson of Bob Marley and son of Lauryn Hill and Rohan Marley — took Breakthrough Artiste of the Year ahead of Johnmark Wiggan, Nigy Boy, Amanyea and Janeel Mills.

Stephen Marley’s Old Soul was named Reggae Album of the Year, beating Samory I’s Strength, Buju Banton’s Born For Greatness and Marcia Griffiths’ Golden; Masicka’s Generation of Kings was Dancehall Album of the Year and Kevin Downswell’s Grace the gospel winner, according to the official winners list. Phillip “Winta” James won the new Producer of the Year category.

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Sister Nancy was honoured as Iconic Female Artiste; Sean Paul and Pluto Shervington shared the male honour. Black Uhuru took the duo/group award and the Sagittarius Band the band award. Posthumous honours went to bassist Robbie Shakespeare and album designer Neville Garrick. Producers Stephen Stewart and Tommy Cowan, engineers Richard Browne and Earl Smith Jr, and musicians Uziah “Sticky” Thompson and Daniel “Danny Axeman” Thompson were recognised, while Main Street Records founder Danny Browne was honoured for mentorship. Bernard Collins of The Abyssinians, co-writer of “Satta Massagana” and “Declaration of Rights,” received the songwriter award.

The first Ibo Cooper Icon Award, named for the Third World co-founder and educator who died in October, went to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, where he taught. Fatman Sound System and New York’s Road International were honoured among sound systems; Whitfield “Witty” Henry of Uptown Mondays as promoter; Joan Flemmings and Judith Gayle as gospel icons; Clinton Lindsay (radio and television), Rev. Vivian “VB” Burke (gospel), Buzzz Caribbean Lifestyle Magazine (new media) and the Jamaica Observer (print) in media. Dr Lenora Antoinette Stines received the Gregory Isaacs Foundation Award.

“When you are being recognised and honoured for your work it is always a satisfying feeling,” said Lindsay, the New York-based broadcaster who had been recognised by the International Reggae and World Music Awards five days earlier. “I welcome the fact that local organisations are seeing it fit to honour people like me who have carried the Jamaican flag high and with pride in a foreign land, even when we were teased and told to go back on the banana boat with our jungle music.” He urged JaRIA to look next at pioneers such as Ken Williams, Karl Anthony, Earl Chin, Jeff Barnes and Ronnie McGowan.

Performers on the night included Kevin Downswell, Joan Flemmings, Ras-I, 2024 JaRIA Song Competition winner Kevoy Clarke, Bella Blair, Richie Kanary and Kuzikk, the Gleaner reported ahead of the show. JaRIA is chaired by Ewan Simpson.

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Sources: Jamaica Observer — “JaRIA honours the extraordinary” (Howard Campbell, Mar 30, 2024); JaRIA — 2024 Honour Award Winners; Jamaica Gleaner — “JaRIA honours titans of reggae music” (Mar 19, 2024).

Editor’s note: This story is part of an archive backfill covering Jamaican music news from 2022 to 2026. It is dated to the events it reports.