SOJA
American reggae band
SOJA (an acronym of Soldiers of Jah Army) is an American reggae band based in Arlington, Virginia. Formed in 1997, their music is currently produced under ATO Records. The eight-member band has released a number of singles, albums, and DVDs, including SOJA – Live in Hawaii. Their third full-length album Born in Babylon peaked at number 11 on the Top Heatseekers chart, while their 2012 album Strength to Survive topped the Billboard Reggae Album Chart. The band continues to tour and record new music.
History
1997–2005: Founding, early releases
Before the band was founded, the members had performed together on and off for some years. Frontman Jacob Hemphill (vocals, guitar) and Bob Jefferson (bass) met in first grade shortly after Hemphill had returned with his family from living in Africa, where Jacob's father was the IMF resident representative in Monrovia, Liberia. Hemphill and Jefferson then met Ryan Berty (drums), and Ken Brownell (percussion) in middle school and high school.
Creeping In (1998)
After forming SOJA in 1997, Jacob Hemphill, Bob Jefferson, Ryan "Byrd" Berty and Kenneth Brownell recorded their first album Creeping In in 1998.
SOJA EP (2000)
They released their first EP, self-titled SOJA, independently with sound engineer Jim Fox at LION and FOX Recording Studios in 2000.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “SOJA” as american reggae band. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american reggae band. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2298729. VIAF identifies the subject as 232931822. The Library of Congress control number is no2012035543. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997, 2012, 2005 and 1998.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “SOJA” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.