Ken Farley (GMA Dove Awards Rock/Rap & Hip Hop Screening Committee):
I can understand people being upset, or disappointed, because some of the albums that they felt deserved to be nominated didn’t make the list or that an album possibly didn’t make a great fit in the category that it was nominated. However, the GMA Dove Awards Rock/Rap & Hip Hop Screening Committee, along with all the other committees, follows the rules and guidelines given in approving those albums and songs for their respective categories. To clarify… the screening committees do not nominate the albums and songs submitted. Record companies and professional members of the GMA make the submissions and then it is the screening committees’ responsibility to verify that they meet the required guidelines for that category. I liken it to comparing the deliberation process and outcome of a verdict in a trial. The jurors must follow the instructions given to them on how to weigh the evidence and arrive at a decision. If they were given different instructions, maybe a different verdict would have been made. It’s the same thing with the GMA screening committees. We’re given rules and guidelines to determine who qualifies to be in a category and as long as those qualifications are met, it passes the submission process and is now up for nomination. What many may not realize is that there is a very high likelihood that the albums they don’t see on the nomination list were on the much longer list of submissions, but it is then up to the GMA membership to vote on those submissions to come up with the short list of official nominations for the next round of voting.
Having been a part of the GMA Dove Award screening process for years now, I can honestly say that every effort is made to maintain the integrity of how things are done. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for discussion and re-evaluation of the rules and criteria as it applies to the Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year category, or any other categories for that matter, in the future but it is great to see that Christian Hip Hop is alive and well and that people are passionate about the genre and care about making sure that it is properly represented in the nomination and voting process.
