The 2023 Vermont Hip Hop Awards: Let's Begin

RIP Mene Gene Okerlund.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, it is time.

The Vermont Hip Hop Awards are an annual assessment of the scene, a means of measuring respect more than success. All awards are ultimately popularity contests, surely, but this is a community affair, a consensus of peers.

We are operating on an accelerated schedule this time around. The VTHH Awards got a voter turnaround rate of 67% last year, just like the average Presidential election, and the fact is, most of those votes came in right away. So let’s turn up the tempo a bit.

Nominations are open, starting now, and run until Thursday, January 4th at midnight. You can nominate as many names as you like for each category; you do not have submit nominations for every category. (But that would be mighty nice.) If you're already part of the VTHH Academy, that Nominations Round email is sitting in your inbox right now. If you're interested in participating and haven't before, get in touch. Remember, though: this isn't for family members and this isn't for fans. This is for participants.

There’s only one change from last year. If an artist gets nominated twice for a category, I'm going to remove the second nomination and put whoever was in 6th place on the ballot instead. Call it The Rivan Rule: being nominated twice for a category like Best Verse or Best Music Video just winds up splitting the vote for someone who would have otherwise won the category. Plus we get to spotlight more worthy names.

From here, the Final Ballot goes up on the morning of Friday, January 5th. Voting closes on the Sunday the 7th and come Monday, January 8th, we announce the winners. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

As ever, this hinges entirely upon the goodwill and hard work of you, the voters. Thank you so much for your time.