One day before music’s biggest night, with all ballots cast and votes closed weeks ago, the Best Reggae Album race has global music watchers zeroing in on one clear favorite. While the category is stacked with fresh talent, World Music Views predicts Lila Iké will take home the trophy.
Her album Treasure Self Love, released via Wurl Iké Records & In.Digg.Nation Collective under exclusive license to Ineffable Records, is the most critically embraced project in the lineup.
It is the only nominee to earn a 4-star rating from World Music Views upon its August 22, 2025 release.
Selected by the Recording Academy, this year’s contenders represent the spectrum of modern reggae:
• Vybz Kartel — Heart & Soul
• Lila Iké — Treasure Self Love
• Keznamdi — BLXXD & FYAH
• Mortimer — From Within
• Jesse Royal — No Place Like Home
Kartel and Royal return as past nominees, while Iké, Keznamdi, and Mortimer celebrate first-time Grammy recognition.
The 11-track project opens and closes in tribute to Garnett Silk, creating a thematic arc rooted in renewal, love, and spiritual grounding.
Songs like “Fry Plantain” capture warmth and rural memory, while “Sweet” and “Serious” explore the interplay of vulnerability and resolve. “All Over the World” widens the lens into a borderless anthem.
What sets it apart:
• Critical distinction — The only album in the category with a 4-star World Music Views rating
• Vocal centerpiece — Production keeps Iké’s voice front and emotionally present
• Genre fluidity — Roots reggae blended with soul, R&B, and global pop textures
• Cohesive storytelling — Sequenced as a full-body listening experience
• Emotional resonance — Themes of healing, self-knowledge and care are subjects relevant to the modern listener.
Still, Vybz Kartel’s pulling power has all the ingredients Grammy voters tend to lean toward and he could pull off his first win.
After one of the most visible and culturally dominant years in music in 2025, Kartel has momentum, name recognition and dancehall’s mainstream energy in his favor.
If voters lean toward cultural impact and legacy, he could pull off the unthinkable upset, and the award would go to the first dancehall act since Beenie Man’s Art and Life won Best Reggae Album at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2001.
