Tyler, The Creator took home a Grammy award for Best Rap Album of the year for his fifth studio album IGOR. This was his first ever Grammy win. Over the years, artists and audiences expressed critiques about the awards show.
In a post win interview, Tyler voiced his mixed feelings on the awards, “On one side, I’m very grateful that what I made could just be acknowledged in a world like this. But also, it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that’s genre-bending, they always put it in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category.”
Diddy shared similar sentiments at Clive Davis’s pre-gala, “Black music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should be.”
The Grammys are infamously known for limiting black artists to categories like “rap” or “urban”, and failing to acknowledge the massive successes of black music. Some of the most famous snubs you may remember from the uproar that followed: Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly losing to Swift’s 1989 and Beyoncé’s Lemonade losing to Adele’s 25.
The Grammys have repeatedly used black artist’s success to promote their show and increase ratings but fail to award the same artists in top categories such as Album of the Year. Think back to the 2017 Grammys, which Beyoncés performances arguably ran the whole night. Lemonade was hailed as a masterpiece– a “raw glimpse at Bey’s personal life and her views on what it’s like to be a black woman in America”.It has become a lasting staple in pop culture, yet failed to receive the same recognition from the Academy.
Deborah Dugan, the recently ousted CEO of the Grammys, claimed the Academy’s voting process is heavily rigged and flawed. She described the Grammys as a “boys club”, and told CBS This Morning “I’ll say that it’s mostly white males that are in those rooms that make these decisions”. In addition, she has filed a complaint of sexual assault against Joel Katz- the general counsel of the academy.
The Grammys are extremely flawed, yet are still lauded as the most prestigious music award. Tyler’s sentiments ring true- there is a lot of torn feelings. On one side, the Grammy’s flaws are prominent, evident and inexcusable– but on the other– it still holds prestige that artists understandably strive for.