South African award event
The South African Hip Hop Awards (commonly abbreviated as SAHHA) are an annual hip hop award ceremony, that celebrates achievements within the South African hip hop culture, established in 2012. The awards are presented annually, and are broadcast live on SABC. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by artists, and some of the awards of more popular interest are presented in a televised ceremony.
History.
The South African Hip Hop Awards (SAHHA) had their origin in 2012. It is presented by Ritual Media Group (RMG) and celebrates great achievements within the local hip hop culture by focusing on how the past has shaped the phenomenon called "SA Hip Hop". The very first ceremony was held at Alex Theatre in Braamfontein, Johannesburg and then moved to the Gold Reef City Lyric Theatre, Johannesburg. The event was initially televised on ETV, but has since moved to MTV Base and to date is on SABC 1. 
The show is known for breaking out South African Hip hop artists as most of the artists have won their first ever award at the SAHHAs such as Cassper Nyovest, iFani, Emtee, Nasty C, Khuli Chana, Stogie T, Reason and Miss Pru.
Awards.
As of the 4th SAHHAs, in 2015, there are a total of thirty-one categories awarded. 
Top nine awards.
These are the top nine award categories of the SAHHAs. 
Categories.
Top categories in the South African Hip Hop Awards are as follows:
Eligibility and entry.
As per the committee guidelines, only citizens and permanent residents of South Africa are eligible for a nomination. Entries are made online and a physical copy of the work is sent to the SAHHAs. Once a work is entered, reviewing sessions are held, involving the advisory board, to determine whether the work is entered in the correct category and with the exception of the Honorary award and Song of The Year award, using their expert knowledge and prior artist acknowledgements and achievements so that they can be judged on merit. The resulting lists of eligible entries are circulated to Voting Members, each of whom may vote to nominate in the general fields (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Freshman) and in no more than nine out of 30 other fields on their ballots. The five recordings that earn the most votes in each category become the nominees. An audit company then calculates the results on which the list of nominees is based and certifies that end results have been reached in accordance with aforementioned rules.
Trophy.
Winners receive a statue called "The Pyramid". The statue shows printed Africa in the middle with two little statue artists climbing the pyramid and reaching for the stars. 
Voting.
Voting is based completely on judges’ scores in the following categories: 
Voting depends on the judges' scores and open votes (60% judges and 40% open) for the Top 5 categories: 
Voting is completely based on online votes for the following category: 
Public voting.
The winners of the following SAHHAs are not chosen by a panel of judges:
Judging criteria.
Nominations are made in accordance to an album release and image of a band or an individual. Contenders are judged on performances and achievements made in the previous year between 15th September the previous year and 15th September the following year.
Ceremonies.
The first awards ceremony was in 2012, there have been 11 editions to date.
Notable moments and controversies.
AKA distancing himself from the event (2012).
At the 1st South African Hip hop Music Awards, hip hop artist AKA released a statement distancing himself from the event because of a lack of communication and mismanagement, because he had eight nominations he felt that he should have been asked to perform at the event something which was meant specifically to promote the genre he represented mostly. Due to those reasons, he withdrew himself from the awards and did not wish to participate. 
K.O and Kid X excluded in the nominees for the SA Hip Hop Awards (2014).
In 2014, rapper K.O and Kid X had effectively been excluded from the nomination list of the 2014 South African Hip Hop Awards. It was thought that the duo were snubbed despite their single garnering one million views on YouTube and blazing local charts for weeks on end. However, the SA Hip hop awards organisers took to Twitter to set the record straight and said that Cashtime Life had asked to be excluded from the nominees and they had "kindly obliged".
Nasty C snubbing the SA Hip-Hop Awards (2017).
In 2017, rapper Nasty C did not submit his music for consideration in the 2017 South African Hip-Hop Awards as he believed the organisation did not properly acknowledge his success. 
South African Hip Hop Awards honouring HHP, Ben Sharpa &amp; ProKid (2018).
The 7th annual ceremony which took place on Wednesday, the 19th of December at The Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City, Johannesburg. Hip Hop masses that were in attendance were entertained with special tributes to Ben Sharpa, Pro Kid and HHP.
References.
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External links.
 