Hip-hop, soul, and spoken word artists win big at 2nd annual Upstate Music Awards ceremony – GREENVILLE JOURNAL – Greenville Journal

Earlier this year, the Greenville Journal published a story about Greenville’s rising hip-hop scene and its struggle to gain equal footing with other genres. If this year’s Upstate Music Awards ceremony was any indication, that foothold is getting stronger by the day.

The Upstate Music Awards were created two years ago to pay tribute to the best in local, original music, and the second awards ceremony was held on Sunday, May 16 at Zen in downtown Greenville.

Hundreds of artists were nominated, more than 10,000 votes were cast and there were winners in 12 different categories, including Best Album, Best EP, Best Producer and Artist Of The Year. An enthusiastic audience shared in the joy when hip-hop, neo-soul and spoken word artists like Moody Black, DJ Swale, Barryle, Shyland Flowers and Maxx Good$ took home trophies.

The finalists and winners are:

864 AWARD (for public service and music-scene advocacy)
Finalists:
Glynn Zeigler
Grey Thompson
Heidi Chapman
Mike Frazier
Pet Tunes

WINNER: GLYNN ZEIGLER

BEST ALBUM
Finalists:
Fahr & Tapp —“JOY.FM”
Finding Freedom — “The Good Ship”
Gláss — “Wilting in Mauve”
Lecretia & ThunderRoad — “Better Thangs”
The Piedmont Boys — “Almost Home”

WINNER: GLASS, Wilting In Mauve

BEST ALBUM ART/VISUAL DESIGN
Finalists:
Alpnglo Creative for “The Good Ship” by Finding Freedom
Bastian Faulk for “It Doesn’t Matter, It’s Just An EP” by Psycho Psycho
Brett Wilbanks for “They Knew, But Didn’t Tell Us And Sold Stock” by The Old Earthquake
Christian McKinney for “F8” by 888shiva
Grey Thompson for “Lampyridae 1” by Nitegazer

WINNER: ALPNGLO CREATIVE

BEST COLLABORATION
Finalists:
DJ Swale — “Her Song” ft. Maxx Good$ and LA Kenzie
H3Lix — “Return” ft. Scotty K.
Moody Black — “This Life” ft. A. Bond, L.C. Branch, and Max Hightower
Ven Perp — “Forgotten” ft. Revelator
Vilai Harrington — “Baggage” ft. Wasted Wine

WINNER: DJ SWALE, MAXX GOOD$ & LA KENZIE for “Her Song”

BEST EP
Finalists:
Kings Ransome — Tales
Neighborhood Shares — “Neighborhood Shares II”
Phat Lip — “Bembona”
REdEFIND — “Let’s Party”
STATUS206 — “Overflowing”

WINNER: STATUS206

BEST VIDEO
Finalists:
Black River Rebels — “Rosenbridge” (directed by Brando Jones Films)
Bobby Weidman — “Back Around” (directed by Bobby Weidman)
Kirby Bright — “Cloud That I’m On” (directed by Calvin Hunt)
Lö Indigo — “Wasabi Flow” (directed by Happy Sun Productions)
TommyBlaze336 — “Whatchu Need?” (directed by Irick Images)

WINNER: TOMMYBLAZE336 & JUSTIN IRICK, “Whatchu Need.”

BEST NEW ARTIST
Finalists:
Austin Joyce
Barryle
Cameron Shaw
Serotonal
Slowdisco

WINNER: BARRYLE

Shyland Flowers, best single

BEST SINGLE
Finalists:
Bad Weather States —”Equity”
Ill Intentions —”Pond Water”
Lanclier — “Boy”
Practically Paradise —”On Read”
Shyland Flowers —”85″

WINNER: SHYLAND FLOWERS —“85”

Gridd, best solo artist

BEST SOLO ARTIST
Finalists:
Alex Hunnicutt
DaVinci Kitsuné
Doug McDonald
Gridd
Rögg Collins

WINNER: GRIDD

BEST STUDIO PRODUCER/ENGINEER
Finalists:
Brad Phillips (Studio 101 Recording)
Cliff Witherspoon (Red Arrow Studio)
Jay Arrington (Greenbriar Studio)
OkayHozay
Shane Nelson (Asaph Records)

WINNER: SHANE NELSON

WRITE-IN VOTE (for artists not nominated in other categories)
Finalists:
Andrew Oliver
Brandon Gallagher
Jessica James
Keith Groover
McAde Dixon

WINNER: BRANDON GALLAGHER

Moody Black, artist of the year

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Finalists:
Gláss
Mary Norris
Maxx Good$
Moody Black
Rögg Collins

WINNER: MOODY BLACK

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