Full Disclosure, Jay-Z Was Right: Let’s Talk About the 66th Annual Grammy Awards
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece on the current state of music and the Grammy’s as a whole.
On February 4th, the 66th annual Grammy Awards were held at the Crypyto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. During the night’s festivities, many awards and amazing performances were showcased. Above everything, one moment in particular stood out from the rest: Jay-Z’s acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.
Jay-Z spotlighted his family, former collaborators, and many influential figures in the music world in his speech. In addition to this, to put it simply, he talked his shit. He noted many thoughts and feelings about the awards and criticized the Academy’s decisions, specifically noting how he didn't understand how his wife (Beyoncé) has won the most awards in history, but has never won the title for Album of the Year. On the topic, he also mentioned that some artists do not deserve to be nominated under the categories they are and the reoccurrence of snubbing artists in categories they rightfully deserve the award for.
To see this man not only defend his wife on the biggest platform in music, but also fight back against the same group of people who were giving him such a huge honor was incredibly admirable and courageous. With that being said, I agree with many things that were said. As long as I have watched the Grammy’s (yearly, starting in 2012), I honestly never understood why Beyoncé has won only one big category award in her illustrious career. Even though I am not the biggest fan of her content, the numbers have never lied regarding her achievements in the music industry and her status of being one of the biggest artists on the planet.
Think about it, she’s been snubbed five times for Album of the Year and an additional eight times for Record of the Year. I also thing it’s ridiculous that she has only received the coveted award for Song of the Year once. I also think its pretty interesting to know that regarding women of color, the prestigious Recording Academy has only given the award for Record of the Year to Lizzo in 2023, Album of the Year to Whitney Houston in 1994 and Lauryn Hill in 1999, and Song of the Year to H.E.R in 2022, Beyonce in 2010, and Alicia Keys in 2002. That’s pretty crazy to know, especially considering that these three categories have existed since 1959.
I also find it astonishing that in 2018 before stepping down, former Grammy CEO, Neil Portnow made a statement saying that female artists need to “step up”. With all these facts, it definitely shows that there is a lot of truth in Jay-Z’s statement from this year’s awards show.
In the years past that I have watched and supported the Recording Academy, many genres such as Hip Hop and R&B have never really been given the chance to be highlighted on such a huge platform or in multi-genre awards. I get that music is subjective and it’s a huge reason why we all love and passionately care about the state of music more than ever, but sometimes I feel as if urban music is blackballed at the Grammy’s unless it's a certain artist or song that made huge waves the year before. For example, as much as I appreciate the Grammy’s giving hip hop and R&B the flowers that they deserve, I feel it is to note that they rarely show the winners of these awards on the main telecast. I get it, it’s a 3 hour show and it's a lot to pack in, but we live in a day and age where as much as kids are influenced by amazing talents such as Boygenius, Olivia Rodrigo, and Taylor Swift, artists such as Travis Scott, TYLA, and Jhene Aiko can't even get the recognition they deserve in front of a proper audience.
I also don’t understand how every year they preach statements such as “all music deserves to be represented” and “we need to share the spotlight on all artists,” but as dedicated hip hop artist Killer Mike swept all the rap categories this year, he did not appear once to accept his award on the main telecast. He has been a prominent name in the music industry for 25+ years. Not to mention, it’s the 50th anniversary of hip hop, but many people didn’t know he won the awards in this category and even more didn’t know who he is. I think that is really hypocritical and a disappointing thing to know. The Recording Academy should be working to shed light on artists such as him in all the categories.
As great as the Recording Academy is, it's still a flawed system in the music industry and doesn’t properly represent all that’s going on in music as a whole. There’s still a lot of work to be done and we just want them to be at least a bit closer to getting things right. With Jay-Z’s speech on everyone’s mind, it’s safe to say that we are, at the very least, working in the right direction.