Sounds of Blackness Award also known as S.O.B.A. or SOBA is an annual Canadian awards in hip hop and urban music in Quebec and Canada.
SOBA was established by Ruddy B. Eloi, well-known from a French-language Quebec television series Watatatow . [1] He wanted to create a platform to reward artists hailing mainly from the black community of Quebec and Canada, without restricting it to just black-Canadians but open to all urban artists. He successfully organized two such events in 1996 and in 1999. But it obviously wasn't an annual event.
2007 saw the relaunching of SOBA as an annual gala event called GalaSOBA. It awards artists, singers, athletes, politicians and media personalities who have contributed to the development of the black culture in Canada.
Artists who have won Sounds of Blackness Awards include Empire ISIS, Imposs, Karl Wolf, Sir Pathétik
The music of Canada reflects the diverse influences that have shaped the country. Indigenous Peoples, the Irish, British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has also subsequently been influenced by American culture because of the proximity between the two countries. Since French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1605 and established the first permanent French settlements at Port Royal and Québec in 1608, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles.
The Félix Award is an award, given by the Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois (ADISQ) on an annual basis to artists working in the music and humor industry in the Canadian province of Quebec.
LGS standing for Le Groupe Swing is a Canadian néo-trad band of Franco-Ontarian origins. The band started as Swing before change of name in 2017. The two main members of Swing are Michel Bénac and Jean-Philippe Goulet.
Dubmatique is a French Canadian hip hop group formed in the 1990s in Montreal, Quebec. Groupmates Dj Choice, OTMC, and Jérôme-Philippe are the first French-language hip-hop group from Canada to have a number one hit single on the francophone pop charts. Dubmatique is often regarded as one of the groups that launched French Canadian Hip Hop, and within this category they are the only group to have an album certified Platinum.
The Canadian hip hop scene was established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much slower than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained largely an underground phenomenon until the early 2000s.
The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in Quebec. Until 2016, it was known as the Jutra Award in memory of influential Quebec film director Claude Jutra, but Jutra's name was withdrawn from the awards following the publication of Yves Lever's biography of Jutra, which alleged that he had sexually abused children.
Marc Dupré is a Canadian singer, songwriter and musician from Quebec.
Soba is a type of Japanese buckwheat noodle.
ADISQ is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the independent music industry in Quebec. It was created in 1978.
Damien Robitaille is a Canadian musician from the village of Lafontaine, Ontario in the Georgian Bay area, two hours north-west of Toronto. He is a Franco-Ontarian musician whose career is mainly based in Quebec, where he has lived since 2003.
Carl Abou Samah, better known by his stage name Karl Wolf, is a Lebanese-Canadian musician based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Stanley Rimsky Salgado, known by his stage name Imposs, is a Haitian-Canadian rapper, musician, singer and songwriter based in Quebec. Before becoming a solo artist, he was part of Muzion, one of the well-known hip hop bands of Quebec. He has collaborated on many occasions with Wyclef Jean during Muzion days and also as a solo artist. He is well known for dubbing the phrase "Real City" for Montreal. He is signed to Sony.
Alexandre Duhaime, better known by his stage name Ale Dee, is a Canadian rapper and singer. He had his beginnings in Mauricie region of Quebec with the musical group Chosen One. After Sir Pathétik joined in 2000, the name of the group was amended to Mine de rien.
Raphaël Bérubé, known by his stage name Sir Pathétik, is a Canadian singer, songwriter and rapper who has released a number of albums and collaborated with many artists, earning several best rapper awards from ADISQ. He started in music 2000 and when he joined the group Chosen One made of Ale Dee and Diapason after departure of Justice J, the group including Sir Pathétik was renamed Mine de rien. He and Ale Dee won the 2nd place of the competition "Hip Hop Forever 2002". After the group split up, Sir Pathétik went solo with a string of albums. He has also collaborated with many artists including Yvon Krevé, 1 Etranjj, l'Queb, Billy Nova, Da Vinci, Striger, Malik Shaheed, Asami and DJ Horg.
Joseph Achakji and better known by his stage name XLA is a Canadian urban indie artist and more recently an Electronic dance music (EDM) artist of Egyptian origin In 2006, he also established the independent music production and record label XWide Tidals. He sings mainly in French and English, but also occasionally in Spanish and Arabic. He has collaborated with a number of EDM DJs and producers notably in Mexico (EMPO) and Spain. Besides vocals, he plays guitar, piano, keyboards, drums and tabla. He is also a digital marketer and manages a number of up and coming artists.
Empire I is a singer, songwriter and social activist based in Kingston, Jamaica. Her musical style has been described as a blend of dancehall, reggae, hip hop, pop and World music. She is signed to Monumental Records and distributed by Universal Music Group and Zojak Worldwide.
Bernard Gariépy Strobl is a Canadian re-recording sound mixer, best known internationally as the supervising re-recording mixer of Arrival (2016), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Sound and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing. He has been a re-recording mixer on many prominent Quebec films of the last two decades, including The Red Violin (1998), C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005), Monsieur Lazhar (2011), War Witch (2012), Gabrielle (2013), and Endorphine (2015).
The Prix Iris for Best Animated Short Film is an annual film award presented by Québec Cinéma as part of its Prix Iris program, to honour the year's best animated short film made within the cinema of Quebec.
The Prix Iris for Best Original Music is an annual film award, presented by Québec Cinéma as part of its Prix Iris awards program, to honour the year's best music in films made within the Cinema of Quebec. Unlike some other film awards, which present separate categories for scores and songs, the Prix Iris only presents a single music category inclusive of both types of film music.
The Prix Iris for Best Sound is an annual film award presented by Québec Cinéma as part of the Prix Iris awards program, to honour the year's best sound in feature films made within the Cinema of Quebec. Unlike some film awards, Québec Cinéma does not present separate awards for overall sound and sound editing, but instead honours the full sound team in a single category; however it does also present a distinct category for Best Sound in a Documentary.