2011 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards

By
Josh Niemyjski
-
12

It’s that time of year again where we share what we felt were the finest moments in our corner of the scene. Last year, our awards returned from a hiatus and went off pretty well. We also added a Fan’s Choice vote and that is back again this year. Once again, several people took the reigns on this project in put in a grip of time to get everything pulled together.

Our panel collected a list of eligible music releases from the 2011 calendar year and selected categories for voting. Next we narrowed the dozens of nominees for each category to a shorter list of finalists. We had a few online and conference call debates about each category and all finalists. From there each member of the panel cast their votes for the top nominees in each category. Finally, we selected the winners for the 2011 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards.

The panel considered many variables in our decisions. Each member stated their case for each nominee and even against. We considered statistics, sales data, album reviews and many other factors. In all, we spent about twice as much time considering nominees and winners as we did for the 2010 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards. This year several categories were very closely contested while only a few others were a little easier.

There are sure to be differences of opinion with our selections. We want to hear what you think. Sound off in the comments area below and please participate in the Fan’s Choice Vote to make your voice heard (details below). You can also Tweet us @sphereofhiphop and use #sohhawards11 to discuss.

We welcome your suggestions for the 2012 edition coming next year.

Thank you to the entire panel and team of individuals that helped the 2011 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards become a reality.

peace + blessings,
Josh “plastic”

2011 Sphere of Hip-Hop Awards Finalists

Winners will be announced gradually between February 15 and February 21. Stop back for updates.

Person of the Year nominees
Matthew “Mistery” Peet

Album of the Year nominees
116 Clique Man Up
Bizzle Tough Love & Parables
Braille Native Lungs
Die-Rek The Die-Version Project
Macho Remember
muzeONE Cold War
Playdough Hotdoggin
Shai Linne The Attributes of God
Shames Worthy The Album
Sintax the Terrific & DJ Kurfu Prince With A Thousand Enemies (Winner)
Tedashii Blacklight
theBREAX Never Arrive

Song of the Year nominees
116 Clique “Man Up Anthem”
The Battery “Break” (feat. DJ Aslan)
Bizzle “Delivered”
Braille “Feel It”
Da Truth “The Whole Truth”
Die-Rek “Remember”
Eshon Burgundy “Close Your Eyes”
Jin “Shoot for the Moon”
Lecrae & Statik Selektah “Live and Let Live” (Winner)
Macho “Persauded”
muzeONE “A Grief Observed”
Playdough “My Cadillac”
Shames Worthy “The Anthem”
Sintax the Terrific & DJ Kurfu “Of Venison Meat”
Sivion “Everything Is Everything” (feat. DJ Because)
Tedashii “Dum Dum” (feat. Lecrae)
theBREAX “Perfect Storm” (feat. J.R.)
Theory Hazit & Toni Shift “Concealed Sorrow”
Thi’sl “On My Grind” (feat. Brotha Tone)
Wes Pendleton “I Made It”

Group of the Year nominees
116 Clique (Winner)
Deepspace5
Scribbling Idiots
theBREAX
Tunnel Rats (Winner)

Video of the Year nominees
Theory Hazit & Toni Shift “Concealed Sorrow” (Winner)

DJ of the Year nominees
DJ Aslan
DJ Official
DJ Promote (Winner)
DJ Rhino
DJ Will

Emcee of the Year nominees
Jurny Big
Playdough
Shames Worthy
Sho Baraka
Sintax the Terrific (Winner)

Producer of the Year nominees
Cheesebeats
Courtland Urbano (Xperiment) (Winner)
DJ Kurfu
DJ Official
Peace 586

EP of the Year nominees
The Battery One (Winner)
R-Swift Anomalous
Relic Not for Nothing
Relic Outtamind
Sev Statik Sondial EP

Mixtape of the Year nominees
Andy Mineo Formerly Known (Winner)
Heath McNease Straight Outta Console: The Nintendo Thumb Mixtape
Playdough & Heath McNease Wed, White & Wu
Praverb Da Wyse Professional Hobbyist
theBREAX Breax Over 3

Fan’s Choice Vote: February 24 – March 2.

UPDATE: Voting will begin Friday February 24th and end on Friday March 2nd. We’ll tabulate all the votes and announce the Fan’s Choice winners on March 5.

Here is your chance to let your voice be heard! Participation is easy. List your choices for the winners in each category in our comments, on Twitter and on Facebook. We’ll be monitoring all votes tagged:
#sohhawards11 @sphereofhiphop

Album of the Year
Song of the Year
Group of the Year
Video of the Year
DJ of the Year
Emcee of the Year
Producer of the Year
EP of the Year
Mixtape of the Year
Album Art of the Year

12 COMMENTS

  1. All I can say is wow…to be mentioned among the other artists is definitely motivational. Thank you for taking notice…I appreciate the fellowship and unity that this site promotes.

    Patrick

  3. I loved Hotdoggin and Shames Worthy but I think album of the year has to go to PWTE. Such a powerful and deep piece of art. And I think Hotdoggin is just beastly but PWTE narrowly edges it out. I vote Break for song of the year–I mean that song is just straight up, no chaser, OG, grown man talk from start to finish. Finally, artist of the year I would say goes to Sintax. What he has done with ipoet is just amazing, aside from everything else he has touched this year.

    Great job with the nominees guys. Very fair and you can tell you put a lot of thought into it!

  4. dope! I appreciate the consideration. 116 Clique’s finna clean up. All they gotta do is send out a tweet or two and they’ll get a few hunnid votes lol. That’s a big mountain to climb. Congrats to my big homies Jurny & 586 on the EP win.

  9. Sorry about the Fan Vote getting a late start. We had some issues with the buttons. Feel free to post you choices here in the comments and on Twitter and Facebook.

    Use #sohhawards11 @sphereofhiphop

  10. still bummed about not having the button format of voting. I have way more fans that aren’t sphere members. I was gonna “campaign” on my facebook, twitter & google+. People are lazy tho. Its easier to get them to click a link and “like” all their choices from a list all at once rather than write all their own posts/tweets on their wall/timeline. Like if I post/tweet and they just “like” or RT it, that prolly wouldn’t count as a vote right?

  11. Yeah, I messed with it for far too long trying to get it to work the way it needed to… no dice.

    Nobody needs to be a member of anything to vote. Use:

    #sohhawards11 @sphereofhiphop

  12. @sphereofhiphop
    Album – Braille “Native Lungs”
    Song – Braille “Feel It”
    Group – 116 Clique
    Video – Theory Hazit & Toni Shift Concealed Sorrow
    DJ – DJ Promote
    Emcee – Sho Baraka
    Producer – Courtland Urbano (Xperiment)
    EP – N/A (not voting due to not having heard any of them)
    Mixtape – Andy Mineo Formerly Known
    #sohhawards11

Comments are closed.