English alum Jacob Hemphill's band SOJA brings home a Grammy

English alum Jacob Hemphill's band SOJA brings home a Grammy

The Virginia-based band SOJA (Soldiers of Jah Army) and lead singer Jacob Hemphill, a 2004 graduate of Mason's English Department, won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for Beauty in the Silence.

“We wanna thank all our influences when we were growing up," Hemphill said about the award. "Starting our reggae band was kind of our dream and the only thing we wanted to do. And then one day people started coming to the shows.”

As DancehallMag reports, "Beauty in the Silence was released on September 24 via ATO Records and had peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Reggae Albums... This is SOJA’s third nomination and first Grammy win. They had copped a nomination for the Best Reggae Album for SOJA: Live In Virginia which was released in 2016.  Prior to that they were nominated for Amid The Noise And Haste in 2014."

You can find more about SOJA at their website.

Congratulations to Hemphill and his bandmembers!