Hip Hop fans have felt shafted by the Recording Academy for consistently snubbing Hip Hop artists from winning in major categories. It’s been 30 years since they began to allow space for rap at this award show, and the beginning of that added space was a struggle with a boycott by Hip Hop’s elite in 1989.
There has always been a question mark about why rappers aren’t placed among the likes of Bruno Mars, Adele, Michael Jackson and Carlos Santana, who have swept the awards for Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year in past ceremonies. Despite Kanye West, Drake, JAY-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre and Eminem’s combined 78 Grammy wins, none of them have won the most coveted honors.
Additionally, it’s been 19 years since Lauryn Hill swept the Grammys with eight wins, including Album of the Year, for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. And the last time a rap album won Album of the Year was Outkast’s diamond-selling Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004. It’s worth noting that the majority of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and the second half of Outkast’s masterpiece LP consisted of R&B songs too.
So let’s just let’s concede, once and for all — the Grammys will never consistently honor authentic Hip Hop music in its top echelon of awards. If you are seeking validation as a fan by the Recording Academy to exalt your favorite Rap artists, you might as well say that Santa Claus is real with your fingers crossed.
With eight Grammy nominations, and the awards show being held in his hometown, many people anticipated that it would be a ceremonious Kingdom Come for JAY-Z. He got tons of advertising in TV commercials to promote the Grammys, ample airtime in his sit-down with CNN’s Van Jones to discuss politics (as usual) and sat in the front row with his Queen Bey and Blue Ivy looking as regal as they are at the show. Although Hov left Madison Square Garden empty-handed, just like his wife did in 2015 for her Album of the Year-nominated Beyonce and in 2017 with Lemonade, Kendrick Lamar fulfilled his self-dubbed “King of New York” title for the evening by sweeping the five awards in his “control” for his double-platinum classic DAMN., but came away empty-handed in the marquee categories.
It was a familiar scene for Lamar. In 2016, he led the pack with 11 nominations for his politically reflective To Pimp A Butterfly and only went home with four from the Rap categories,being bested by Taylor Swift’s 1989 for Album of the Year. The same happened to him in 2014 when good kid, m.A.A.d city was beat by Daft Punk’s retro-seventies funk album Random Access Memories. And on that same night, pop-friendly white privilege apologist Macklemore won for Best Rap Album with The Heist over Lamar, which Macklemore famously admitted he didn’t deserve it.
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“Grammy night, damn right we got dressed up,” yet Kanye, Kendrick and JAY-Z have never won Album Of The Year or Song Of The Year.
This year, pop music giant Bruno Mars was stiff competition for JAY-Z, Lamar and Childish Gambino. Rooting against Bruno Mars was like rooting against the New England Patriots — you can look at the score and feel confident that your team’s percentage to take home the hardware has increased by the minute, but in the final seconds when it really counts, you end up in disbelief that your team didn’t nab the trophy.
With JAY-Z addressing race relations and black economic empowerment in “The Story of O.J.” on his magnum opus 4:44, Lamar’s soulful allegories on DAMN., Childish Gambino’s urgent hook to “stay woke” in “Redbone” and Logic’s poignant chart-topper “1-800-273-8255” about bullying and suicide losing to Mars, Hip Hop continued being left outside the door before the Grammy parties officially end.
History proves the Recording Academy can’t do right by Hip Hop and has continued to keep rap contained in its corner. There’s the glaring absence of A Tribe Called Quest from the nominations for their politically driven comeback album We Got It From Here…Thank You For Your Service. The iconic group closed the 2017 Grammy Awards, urging the audience to resist the oppression from Donald Trump. But not giving them even a single Grammy nod this year was quite remiss by the Recording Academy.
Similar to Q-Tip’s earnest question to 9th Wonder in his Instagram video about the ATCQ snubs, Hip Hop is stuck asking “what happened” by the end of the Grammys regarding the other artists. Pop singer Alessia Cara (even though she released her album Know-It-All waayyyy back in 2015) beat the favorites Lil Uzi Vert, SZA or Khalid despite their emergence outside of the Rap and R&B realms into the pop stratosphere in 2017.Embed from Getty Images
After the 45 years that Hip Hop has been in existence, it remains the underdog at the Grammys looking for firsts. Hip Hop had a lot to ride high on going into this year’s Grammy showcase located in Hip Hop’s birthplace. But like Pavlov’s Experiment, the Recording Academy’s voting committee wags Hip Hop’s collective tail when they ring the bell every year with a myriad of nominations of Rap artists. But, once again, Hip Hop’s collective conscience received a Dave Chappelle-style “SIIIIKE!” from the Recording Academy for the most prestigious categories.
The Grammy Awards is where the old guard of the music business comes together with contemporaries. Unlike the shortage of female representation in the major categories, which longtime Recording Academy president Neil Portnow addressed and later apologized for his tone deaf statement about women needing to “step up,” he didn’t feel the need to explain the Hip Hop snubs for the Grammy’s most prestigious categories.
It seems that nominations are equated as a mere stamp of approval by the Recording Academy, but that’s not enough, and it never will be. As Chappelle stated during Lamar and U2’s performance to open the show, “the only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America” and the Academy seems afraid.
A Timeline Of Historic Hip Hop Firsts At The Grammy Awards
It’s hard to overlook the lack of awards given to Kanye’s paradigm-shifting albums, such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, or in 2000 when Dr. Dre got Producer of the Year honors but didn’t get a nod for star-studded Chronic 2001. How about 50 Cent not getting a Grammy for “In Da Club” or losing in 2004 to goth rock short timers Evanescence? There must be a double standard when it comes to Hip Hop artists versus traditional pop artists.
With Kanye West not at 2018’s ceremony and Drake boycotting it, perhaps “it’s too hard to have the balanced show” that Neil Portnow and company were hoping to have. Honoring Hip Hop in their major categories might result in “scary hours” from right-wing conservatives or fiery call-back tweets from Trump, in the aftermath.
Kendrick dominating the Grammys but yeah they hate Hip Hop for sure.
What are you talking about with your anonymous profile? How do you dominate without winning the big shit?
shut the fuck and suck dick bitch
Why the hate, that’s his opinion
1.) Either you or another mod have said this to me before as well. If you want accountable users, set up your comments section like hotnewhiphop with a login and user name. Otherwise saying this is pointless. 2.) Kendrick won five Grammys. Yeah he dominated this year. Fuck the big shit and fuck the Grammys- Hip hop doesn’t need a pat on the back, it’s the biggest music genre in the world right now.
Kung Fu Kenny dominated in ONLY the Rap categories – not the entire show for the big prizes like AOTY, ROTY, and SOTY. Therefore, he didn’t dominate the entire playing field. It’s similar to the Cavaliers who won the Eastern Conference title last season, but then got bested by the Warriors 4-1 in the Finals thereafter. If there’s no parade with the big prize for you to hoist at the end of the season, or Grammys show in this case, then there’s no domination to be accounted for. Get the drift?
You dominate by winning the most Grammys. If you only win one even if its the “big one” you dominating anything.
I’d love to be able to just sign in and NOT have an anonymous profile. You are literally the only person I’ve ever seen in this comment section who has an actual profile instead of being basically a guest. There are several repeat posters, but nobody else who can sign in and have the site recognize them. Why don’t you take it up with whoever programs the site to make that possible, I’m sure a bunch of people would use that. It’s been like this for literally like 8 years or more, let us actually register for the damn site.
You should rework that last paragraph a bit. It’s one long run on sentence and hard to make any sense of. Anyways the answer is the whites who vote for that shit are terrified of black people. And listening to the music scares them. Change the voting pool or stop giving a fuck. These awards are arbitrary anyways. Naughty by Nature won best rap album in 96 for poverty’s paradise, does that make you appreciate it more than Pac’s Me Against the World or ODBs Return to 36 Chambers? Both of which lost that year.
I don’t get this obsession some artists seem to have for being accepted. If you need awards to validate the success of your music then you shouldn’t be making music. Creating art for validation from ppl who clearly dont appreciate what youre doing is asinine. To top it off whining about how your art isn’t appreciated or regarded the same way as other art makes you look petty and immature.
You say this as you continually support a industry manufactured pop/R&B Star mascarading as a hip-hop star in Drake.
Who gives a fuck about the Grammys. Love rap and that’s all that matters
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. But five Grammy win’s in any context is a huge sign of respect to Kendrick’s art and to Rap music in general. And now Kendrick has 12 Grammy’s- three more than The Beatles. So I get the drift but disagree. And here’s why: Kendrick made a rap album. If your complaint is roughly “he only won rap awards,” that’s not much of an argument. Did you want him to win the Grammy for Best Country Album? He didn’t win Album of the Year. But the guy could hardly carry another trophy- he’ll live. Besides, the Grammy’s is a pop-dominated award show, and Hip-hop is was born out of the counter-culture. So please stop fucking with what makes this music special. I don’t want this shit to get anymore mainstream than it already is.
The Grammy’s are a joke to anyone who really loves music n art. Same as any televised award ceremony. They haven’t ever really respected genres that were birthed in the 70’s (hip hop, punk, metal, and even electronic.)
Hip Hop is late 80s fam.
Haha what
Hahahaha, are you slow or something?
Rappers delight (raps first real hit) was released in 1979!
only reason to watch the grammys is for the performances
I wish people would quit complaining about WHITE OWNED programs catering to WHITE INTERESTS. You don’t go to rock concerts expecting Hip Hop. How many times must it be said? We need to make our OWN award shows. Nobody is going to honor or respect black culture like we do and we shouldnt expect them to. Quit crying all the got damn time.
Don’t they already have BET Awards? Also there was The Source Awards too.
BET is own by white ppl. Has been for a long time now.
Dana you seeing the glass half empty. Grammy has always been a “whose got the most numbers and is killing the industry charts” competition. Hip Hop fans rate artists a little different, shit if we had our own way no lil, youn or weird pill popping lame excuse for rappers wouldn’t even get a nomination!
Very few members of the Academy are rap fans. Metal fans always have the same complaint, because Metallica or Slayer wins every year even if their album sucks just because the Academy members vote for the name they recognize rather than what they listened to and enjoyed the most. I don’t think the author of this really understands the Grammy process and is just trying to make some stupid political point about how racist America is. He probably hasn’t even listened to the non-hip hop projects that beat hip hop projects in marquee categories, yet consider yourself qualified to determine definitively that the hip hop artists were robbed. Maybe the music was just better, did that ever occur to you? And why even make that irrelevant and needlessly divisive comment about right wingers and Trump? It brought nothing but ignorance to this already ignorant article. Why do I think this comment will get deleted?
Hip hop is my fav genre, but no, I don’t place any rapper with the likes of MJ either.
You sound dumb
Well, hey, I’m not going to fault you for having an opinion. In my opinion, the only thing hip hop artists have an advantage in today is budgets and “super producers.” Today’s songs rely on engineering to make the song hot. Kendrick, Nicki Minaj, etc. — their engineers do a lot of vocal tricks in order to place emphasis on certain bars. And of course, all these a-list artists have to have majestic, over-produced instrumentals with a million things going on in the background. Gone are the days when the MC only needed a simple beat loop to put out classic music…… To the point where reviewers may subtract a point for “lackluster” beats, which usually means stripped down instrumentals. You have your opinion, I have mine.
Preach?
Forgot about Eminem’s “Recovery” in 2011 Grammy. It was so weak decision to not give Album/Song/Record of the Year to Shady.
I’M NOT TOO MAD AT BRUNO MARS WINNING. I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED 444 OR DAMN BUT HE DROPPED A GREAT ACCESSIBLE ALBUM MADE FOR ALL EARS. PLUS IT HAD HIP HOP ELEMENTS. SO ITS STILL A WIN FOR HIP HOP.
Anything Grammy related to heavy metal gets done in a separate location off camera, stop whining about how hip hop is treated you fucking babies.
The difference is, Hip Hop moves the needle on present day music. From commercials, to product placement to media to cultural life; Hip Hop/Rap is the cash cow. Not Heavy Metal. There is a difference, respect it.
Brotha, im still bumping graduation, illmatic, it was written, college dropout, SSLP, The eminem show, GKMC, Long live asap, stankonia, and alot more. I bet when those all came out pppl were saying they werent and were classics, so re-write that
Or lets be half intelligent here? Bruno mars and the like of you stated who rack in awards are the highest selling furthest reaching artists their are PERIOD and so is anyone else who wins consistently rap music reaches the SMALLEST demographic of listeners compared to the other artists listed… even kendrick lamar and jay z both pale in comparison sales wise listener count wise to the likes of beyonce taylor swift katy perry bruno mars or ed sheeran for example and they are the top of their genre listener count wise and dont even clear 30% of what the artists i named are pulling in… thats why hiphop needs its own awards and fuck the validation of the “industry” thats what hiphops about anyways… anti establishment anti mainstream anti common just going with it..
do you not know the rap music is the most streamed music??? “smallest demographic” foh where did u get your source of info??, people from other countries sing along to rap music and don’t even know what there saying
Yes hip hops the most streamed overall but individually Bruno got his numbers like crazy and pop music has always done well at the Grammys because everyone can listen to it not just a certain age group if we are talking about sales and commercial performance but we should leave commercial performance to the billboard awards Grammys should be about quality of the music released
Its definetly on the upswing i would say in the next 5 years rap will be hitting audiences broader than pop music but its just not happening yet… and raps getting more poppy so see the cause for the upswing here? Well that and the 90’s babies and teens are grown ups now and their still bumping what they were and the new school shit some of em and its become the social norm to be into rap music so yes soon rap will be outpacing bruno mars but its got some time yet…
I stopped here: “With JAY-Z addressing race relations and black economic empowerment in “The Story of O.J.” on his magnum opus 4:44” Oh please. That’s like saying a paint by numbers book, colored in by a average kindergartener, should be held in the same regard as a Picasso. Good on Jay Z waiting almost 30 years to make a black empowerment music but in reality, it was nothing new and just done at an average to above average level.
Life long hiphop fan here and I know a good classic rap album and damn definitely isn’t a classic it’s a 3/5 album.
As far as numbers, Bruno mars pulls more numbers than Kendrick and Jay Z put together, let’s talk about impact, it doesn’t matter how much you love Hip Hop, Bruno Mars delivered an album that kids and adults can vibe to it, overall the impact of Bruno Mars music is not about the Genre, is about the quality of the music, you have to respect that Bruno had a bigger woldwide impact then 444 and Damn
I can’t agree with this sentiment. We Hip-Hoppers (and us black folk) always finding something to complain about. They was NOT about to give Jay-Z ISH after he BOYCOTTED the Grammys for the past SIX (count ’em up 6) YEARS! I’m surprised that he even got ANY noms. Especially with a song blurting out “N****” in the hook. Do I think K. Dot shoulda swept the Rap category, hell to tha nah, but it is what it is. I’m happy for Bruno, bringing back that (BLACK/R&B) old school sound and KILLIN’ it!! Try that with HipHop and you get pushed off in a corner and called an “old head”. HipHop/Rap got exactly what is deserved from this round of the Grammys and like Grammy Pres told all the chicks, STEP YO GAME UP!! #dueces
Hip Hop is Dead.
Why!? I mean just look how silly Beyonce hat is smh that is why hip hop takes a back seat.. That is why.
Okay hold on a minute, we are always calling Lauren Hills album a hip hop album but now you want to point out that majority of it is RnB when it comes to her winning awards just to put the argument your way? So of drake wins album of the year some day are you gonna point out That “Oh it’s mostly RnB though”. Hip hop in past years has had a huge presence in award shows. We can’t go around saying we don’t give a d*** about awards but then complain days after albums don’t win that you feel like should. Also commercial performance doesn’t equal to quality of your album. Majority of the years in the Hip hop category alone the best hip hop albums aren’t even mentioned so don’t bring up the fact that hip hops not winning when the best of hip hop isn’t even being put up for nomination majority of the time. If it was about commercial over quality than nicki would’ve won a few awards when she would be completely undeserving especially since her first 2 albums were more pop than they were rap but hip hop sites to to claim these projects when it benefits them. Bruno Mars album won, was that album not the beat hes personally come out with ever and deserving of winning the awards thst it did. Before we start complaining about hip hop some how being excluded how about we talk about why the beat of hip hop isn’t being put up for nomination in the first place. Rick Ross released his best project in 8 years and it was a good album, why wasn’t that nominated? That’s just one album that should’ve been suggested for hip hop album of the year. Anyway rant done…. Also I do think Jays album should’ve won overall hip hop album and album of the year but that’s my own opinion
Don`t watch, wont watch and probably never will! The writing has been on the wall and there`s NOOO removing it. It`s not “respected“ as a form of traditional music (still only like 40 years old.) If you can`t go thru it, go around it, can`t go over, go under…Hip hop needs it own award show (that`s not BET) that respects the culture and not just the trends or fads that are current. Crying and bitching about not being respected gets us nowhere other that looking like crying bitches. Just look at the nominees this year..commercial on T.V.. movies, sports, schools etc…Hip hop runs the world! Gotta get that power back in the hands of hip hop somehow/someway. DEUCES!
Grammys are just another way for the white devil to keep a brotha down
GTFO with your ignorance and racism. Metal gets shunned by the Shammy awards, at least your fucking Migos and Cardi B shit gets on
In reality, it was really between Bruno and Lorde for Album of the Year, and I’m glad he won doing black music. Also, I think Jay- Z should’ve best Rap Album over Kendrick this year. I think a better point is why is it easier for Bruno to win AOTY doing black music as opposed to an artist that’s actually black. Nonetheless, I’m not mad he won at all especially considering he is in the lineage of James Brown and Michael Jackson, two of the best black acts of all time.
In 2018, I hate Hip-Hop. #CantBlameTheGrammys
The NARAS keep fuckin’ up. Point blank.
WHO GIVES A F@#K ABOUT A GODDAMN GRAMMY
These kids won’t get the reference, Old school to them is Nelly!
Is it from the Real Slim Shady?
I stop reading this crap half way. Who cares?! Their trophies and acknowledge ments have no effect on what’s going in the real world. Life goes on. You guys would still write this abysmal argument about nothing if Kendrick didn’t win anything. Sit down be humble or something.
The truth is, the community nominated 3 albums which would have split votes, K Dot, Donald and Mr S Dot. That’s the reason why hip hop hasn’t won any album of the year awards. If only one of these albums is released and or nominated, it would get all the backing of the hip hop heads that vote for these awards. Hip Hop isn’t being hated on, articles like this are spreading ignorance. And sure, we can act like a Grammy doesn’t matter, but it does. It’s vindication and validation