Back 2 Da Future expands Grammy ceremony into wider music honors

Back 2 Da Future Music Limited is stepping beyond a single-category salute and turning its annual Grammy-focused gathering into a broader measure of reggae and dancehall achievement. The newly named Excellence in Music Ceremony 2026 will take place on September 15 at Courtleigh Auditorium in New Kingston, and the shift signals that the people behind the records now share the spotlight with the records themselves.

The new name matters because it keeps the original mission intact while widening the lens. Founder Kennedy Mensah wants the event to honor the instrumentalists, writers, producers, engineers, singers and visionaries whose work has shaped reggae, dancehall and global music history. That puts legacy, rights recognition, music education and storytelling into the same frame, and it changes the prestige of the occasion from a Grammy-adjacent salute into a wider cultural platform for the industry.

The 2026 edition will still recognize contributors tied to Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated projects, but it will also include British Phonographic Industry-certified discs in the presentation. Selected honorees will receive Silver, Gold and Platinum BPI-certified discs alongside Grammy Certificates. The British Phonographic Industry administers BRIT Certified Awards, which recognize the commercial success of music recordings and videos in the UK, so the added honor broadens the ceremony beyond Grammy-linked recognition and into measurable market success as well. BPI disc presentations were first introduced on a smaller scale in 2025 for Steely and Clevie, then later for Robert Browne in Florida, a sign that the recognition structure has been steadily expanding.

That expansion builds on a 2025 Kingston staging that was formally endorsed by Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and drew more than 200 members of the reggae and dancehall fraternity. Back 2 Da Future was also distributing almost 100 uncollected Grammy certificates, with about 50 set for Jamaica and others for Florida and the United Kingdom. The roster of honorees has already stretched across major credits tied to 44/876, Xtra Naked, Amazing and other landmark projects, while Wayne Wonder received two Grammy certificates in Florida on January 22, 2026 for his work on Boombastic and Friends For Life.

For reggae’s inner circle, the move from a Grammy Certificate Ceremony to an Excellence in Music Ceremony says the quiet work has finally earned a louder stage. The new title does not replace the old mission; it enlarges it, and that is the point.