The 2016 Juno award nominations have been announced and once again a Vernon-raised artist is on the list.
Hip hop artist SonReal (née Aaron Hoffman) has seen his latest EP, For the Town, nominated for two awards, including Rap Recording of the Year as well as Video of the Year for the title track off the album.
This is SonReal’s third nomination for Rap Recording of the Year.
In 2014, he received the nod for his song Everywhere We Go, while 2013 saw him nominated along with Toronto MC/producer Rich Kidd for their album The Closers.
For the Town was released in April on Black Box Recordings, and features singles Preach, Whoa Nilly, and the title track.
SonReal faces some heavy competition in the rap category, including releases by Drake, Kardinal Offishall, k-os, and BADBADNOTGOOD with Ghostface Killah.
In the video category, For the Town director Peter Huang is up against Montreal film director Xavier Dolan (Mommy) for his video of Adele’s Hello.
Huang was nominated for a 2014 MuchMusic Video Award (MMVA) for Director of the Year for his work on Everywhere We Go.
In the video for For The Town, SonReal is seen rapping in a back alley alongside a troupe of female dancers, before everything turns surreal when he starts to emerge out of computers, phones and TVs belonging to people who are watching the video.
A graduate of W.L. Seaton Secondary School, SonReal’s success started in Vancouver and took shape online when several of his music videos and mixtapes collected hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube back in 2011 and 2012.
In 2014, SonReal took home the award for the MMVA MuchFact Video of the Year for his viral hit Everywhere We Go, which currently has more than 2.3 million views on YouTube.
SonReal has just released a new video for Whoa Nilly off For the Town, and is about to head on the road with Halifax hip hop artist Classified for a cross-country tour, which stops in Kelowna Feb. 29.
The 45th annual Juno Awards will be broadcast on CTV from The Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary April 3.