Many Hip Hop fans consider Chance the Rapper one of the best in the game. His debut mixtape, Acid Rap, is a modern classic and his recent Coloring Book release made history by becoming the first project to hit Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart without any sales. Chance’s third tape is widely regarded as one of the best projects of the year so far. HipHopDX gave it a 4.6 out of 5 rating.
Despite all this hype, because his projects were not commercially released, the Chicago rapper never had a chance at winning a Grammy or receiving official recognition from The Recording Academy … until now.
The Academy announced Thursday (June 16) that stream-only projects will be in consideration for the Grammy Awards, effective immediately.
“The GRAMMYs aren’t just peer-awarded, they’re peer-driven,” Bill Freimuth, Senior Vice President of Awards for The Recording Academy says in a press release. “Throughout the year, members of the music community come to us asking to make changes to the Awards process, and we work with them to figure out how those changes might work. I’m proud of this year’s changes because they’re a testament to the artists, producers and writers — the people who rolled up their sleeves to shape the proposals and, in turn, the future of the GRAMMYs. It’s exactly what they should be doing. It’s their award.”
The Chicagoan took to Twitter to acknowledge the changes, but says that the win is larger than himself.
Fans started a petition to have mixtapes, including Coloring Book, recognized by The Academy. Chance the Rapper said he signed the petition and shared a link to it on his Twitter page.
Kanye West has also been vocal about the Grammys’ need for change. He asked why rap artists like Future and Young Thug were not recognized despite their critical acclaim and achievements. The Recording Academy’s CEO and president Neil Portnow responded to The Life of Pablo rapper on Twitter, saying he would be happy to meet up with Yeezy to discuss possible changes to the awards.
Besides allowing stream-only projects to be in consideration, the Grammys now only require voters to participate in 15 categories instead of the previous 20, “to encourage members to vote only in those categories in which they are most knowledgeable, passionate and qualified.”
The eligibility period for projects to be recognized by The Recording Academy is open through September 30. The Grammy nominations are set to be announced December 6 and the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, the first ceremony where stream-only projects will be considered, are to be held February 12, 2017.
drake gonna win that, views is illmatic classic..
#OVOffYourself
Drake is Canadian. he will not win. Grammys will do anything to supress him. Chance or Future will win
History will be made
I love Auto-Tune dats why I prefer Coloring Book over Acid Rap. Auto-Tune and trap beats are the future of hip hop. swag
Not even an album get the fuc outta here ! Need to come w a classic album period not some stream driven so called album. Could win haha yeah and I could win powerball !
Those 55 year old white Grammy judges don’t know how to pick a hip-hop album. They’ll put some names in a hat whoever gets picked congrats…..remember nas never won one for any of his albums but meclomore did….nuff said.
Your pushing 50 you shouldn’t be ageist
He talking like he won already
This dude out here begging for awards. Stuff like this doesn’t define a true artist. Big ups to the real artists who don’t care about accolades from white institutions.
Acid Rap was not his debut, 10 Day was. Get it right author!
This is rigged. Anybody can see through this.
that means drake wins all OVO SOUND GOD!!! DRAKE STAND UP!!!
lol @ a soundcloud album….buncha bums can’t release any real music so they resort to these garbage arse streaming sites…
once again, the black racist DX Mod deleted my comments for saying the truth! He left bc black racist people were discriminating against him! Watch the Breakfast club interview and see how they gave him the RACIST white boy treatment and Charlamage asked him what he has done for Black Lives Matter!!!! If you dont believe me go watch. You can delete my comments all you want you dirty Muthafucka but i’ll keep posting.
Im sure daddy will pull on more string and get him that Grammy
Just too add to my last post . Chance the rapper wouldn’t even be a rapper if it wasn’t for his daddy . It’s not like his style of rap is any different from all the 100s of other rappers we hear these days on the radio . Why do you think websites like HHDX,2dopeboyz,hotnewhiphop,datpiff,allhiphop even talk about him . Why do you think his music is played on the radio It’s OBVIOUS it’s because they are scared that his daddy will shut them down!!!!
Why are his eyes so far apart, some kind of mental/birth defect or something?
Good on his Dad for making this happen for him, he should do a duet album with Ricky Hil or maybe Chet Haze!