Southern independent Hip Hop, although a thriving and powerful facet of the culture, is often lesser recognized than it’s east and west coast counterparts. Now in its sixth year, the Annual Southern Entertainment Awards (SEA) aims to change that.
Last year’s awards featured over 3000 in attendance, as people gathered to honor independent southern Hip Hop artists. Houston-based BCD Music Group gave the 2008 Indy Rap Artist of The Year a $30,000 package containing a cash prize of $5,000, an all expense paid trip to their Houston facility, and a recording and EP release budget. This is just one example of the opportunities SEA founders Janiro Hawkins II, Jesse “DJ Infamous” Johnson and Brent “DJ Outlaw” Buford saw in the indie music of the south.
This year’s SEA, taking place this January 22-26 at the Grand Casino Resort in Tunica, MS, will feature events honoring women in the industry with female-focused pampering sessions, workshops and panels. There will be 18 new categories added to this year’s nominations ballot including DJ Crew/Family of the Year, Photographer/Journalist of the Year, “Beat” of the Year, Program/Music Director of the Year (radio), Internet Hustler of the Year, Slept On Model of the Year, Community Activist of the Year and Role Model of the Year. Nominees include upcoming DXnext Texas act Fedtyme, who is up for several including “most slept-on artist” in the form of recently-passed member Lonestar.
The recipients of 2009 Impact Awards have also been announced: Tony Neal (founder of Core DJs/Core DJ Retreat/Core Streets/Core Models), J. Prince (founder of Rap-A-Lot Records), Tony Draper (founder of Suave House) and the legendary Luke [click to read] (founder of 2 Live Crew and Luke Records).
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“The SEAImpact Award was created to give recognition to individuals who have contributed significantly
to the growth and development of entertainment in the South,” says Janiro. “We are excited to present awards to these four men because we feel that they have been an integral part of accomplishing this
objective.”
As the SEAs officially inducts an additional state to their SEA delegate ballot (Kentucky), in the effort to better serve the voting community, they have also made some changes to the nominations process which begins on Thursday, May 1, 2008. For the first time, there will only be online voting (no paper ballots) and a “Power Ballot” will also be introduced into this year’s voting process.
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“This special ballot will be mailed out secretly to two people per (eligible) state,” says Janiro. “These
ballots will count for 30% of the overall vote, while the online votes will round out the remaining 70%.
While we want to make sure that the voting process is fair, we will always want this to be an awards event
where the people/fans have the final say. That’s always going to be what’s most important to us.”
