Organisers of the Caribbean Music Awards (CMAs) have sought to settle claims made by dancehall artiste Kranium, which allude to disrespect and unprofessionalism following an award mix-up at the recently concluded awards ceremony.
The artiste, who took to social media earlier this week to air his grievances at the CMAs, accused organisers of creating undue conflict after declaring him the winner of the Caribbean R&B Artist of the Year category, then dubbing it a mistake a week later.
An upset Kranium did not mince words as he explained the series of unfortunate events that led to the CMAs mix-up. He explained that after turning in a phenomenal performance at the awards ceremony late last month in New York City, and subsequently walking away with the award, he was informed that the award should have been given to Dexta Daps.
He explained that the organisers expressed that a mistake had been made and he was not the true winner in the category.
To add insult to injury, Kranium said organisers not only asked for the award to be returned, but sought to cushion the blow by declaring him the winner of another category — one Kranium expressed never existed in the show’s original line-up.
“That was not even a category, period,” he said in his video rant. “Unnu disrespect mi and unu take mi fi idiot, and all I do in this business is mind my business… I will never forgive unnu fi dat, because me show too much love inna dis business fi unnu come try violate man.”
The contretemps continued a day after when Kranium threw the trophy into the trash.
This prompted a response from CMAs organisers who took to their social media platforms to defend their show’s reputation.
In their statement, the CMAs admitted to the award mix-up. They explained that during category deliberations they toyed with the idea of basing that particular award on just the artiste or the impact of a particular song from said artiste.
Organisers explained it was decided that two categories were necessary: Caribbean R&B Artiste of the Year and Caribbean R&B Song of the Year.
The statement went on to explain that the Song of the Year category was intended to be introduced in the 2026 edition of the awards, which seemingly led to the confusion.
They said that, based on fan votes focusing solely on the artiste, Dexta Daps was the clear winner, coming away with 40.8 per cent of the votes, while Kranium received 12.6 per cent. They went on to explain that had they “focused on individual songs, Kranium’s Higher Life could have led based on streaming numbers”.
The organisers went further to reveal that, after recognising the error, they decided to introduce the Song of the Year category post-ceremony while also rewarding the rightful winner of the Artiste of the Year category.
The statement said Kranium and his team “declined to accept the newly proposed category award”. They expressed that the artiste’s team also asked that “no mention of the error be included in the updated winner’s press release” — a request they said they honoured.
But a few hours after the CMAs statement, Kranium was back at it, stating the explanation was yet another attempt at disrespect. He expressed that the show’s process of deliberation is evidence of disorganisation, as guidelines on choosing a category winner are still seemingly up in the air.
“It’s clear that one artiste had more votes and the other had more streams,” he shared via social media. “This shows that there were no clear guidelines to determine a winner.”
Now hoping to put the issue to rest, CMAs organisers in their statement shared that they would be implementing new measures to prevent future errors.
