Grammy 2019: Hip-Hop vs. The Recording Academy
Grammy season is always a weird time to be a Hip-Hop fan. There's always this hope that the Recording Academy will recognize the genre for the cultural phenomenon that it is while also the disdain for knowing that the same people will vote stupidly for the wrong people to win. Therefore, by the time the ceremony arrives, the entire community stands together in negativity, with the word "jaded" printed onto our faces. Grammy 2019 wasn't any different. It went to the point that I didn't make a full article or post about my predictions based on the nominations; only what I believed would be nominated by them, because I knew that it would be different from every rap enthusiasts opinion, so why do it?
But how did we get to this point in time?
The history of the discord between the Hip-Hop community and the Grammys can go back to the very beginnings of the genre. In an academic breakdown, Hip-Hop is a product of the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, created by a disillusioned black community who didn't care for the pop produced disco sound of the period - what was accepted by the Academy. It would take to the 31st edition of the Grammy Awards (1989) until rap was awarded an award. However, the nominees opted for a party in protest when the Academy didn't put them on the televised show. Afterwards, the idea of boycotting the Grammys became a question of the establishment not respecting the artistry for people such as Jay Z, Nas and Drake.
Some of the Hip-Hop nominees for the 1989 Awards, including Salt N' Pepa, Public Enemy and The Fresh Prince to name but a few.
The Grammys respected the genre this year with Childish Gambino right?
The question of respecting the artistry has become more important than what it was. To award Childish Gambino the award for "This is America" is putting a Band-aid on an issue. To begin, is the song truly that good? No. I don't know many people who listen to the song without the music video or even the clean version, because to do either removes from the overall political message that Gambino wanted to give. To remove the YouTube video from the streams would cut an impressive amount of the streams attributed to the song. It seemed more like pandering to the community and a strong political move to give it to Gambino with the anti-establishment artist with the song that shows the disenfranchisement of African-Americans and the entertainment that America gets from those same people. Wonderful.
What could've fixed the situation? Who and what should've won in my opinion?
I don't believe that the problem will be fixed in a single Grammy ceremony with a Hip-Hop artist winning 'Record of the Year' and 'Song of the Year'. That is ludicrous in nature. I believe that the best person should've won that respective award: Childish Gambino didn't deserve all those Grammys. Giving it to him gives credence that it was pandering to the easy choice, not rewarding the best choice. Another example of that comes with the best album selections, with Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe worthy of winning ten-times over Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves. Same can be said by Invasion of Privacy; while a good project, it's rapping ability and ideas are nowhere in the same level as what we saw from both Mac Miller and Travis Scott. But to give it to the easy choice or to the choice that you know the Hip-Hop community won't agree with is wrong. To pick 'This is America' to avoid sounding like a racist by not agreeing with the choice doesn't save the Grammys stupidity. Who I believe should've won, based on the nominations, is in the chart at the bottom.
I previously explained my choices for 'Best Album' and 'Best Rap Album', therefore I move onto what 'This is America' should've won, which would be 'Best Music Video' and 'Record of the Year'. That's it. The reasoning comes from the completeness of the entire project, which is what the record award is supposed to represent. 'Best Rap Performance' should've been 'SICKO MODE' thanks to whatever Future did on his verse. 'Best Rap/Sung Performance' should, in my opinion, always be a collaboration where both parts can complete one another yet both be individually good. While I respect Post Malone's and 21 Savage's attempts at singing/rapping respectively, is there really any better than Kendrick Lamar and SZA's 'All the Stars'? Finally, Drake should've won 'Song of the Year' as it isn't the best rap song, period - that could be 'Lucky You' by Eminem and Joyner Lucas - but the most popular and arguably a better song than everything else that they put up there in contention.
To conclude, the Grammys have a lot to fix when it comes to the relationship to Hip-Hop. Normally, I believe that any relationship with a problem has to be fixed by all parties involved, this mess is one sided in nature. Don't claim pride is holding the artists back, or else there would be no art to begin with. How to help would be to include the fans in the decision, in the vain of the NBA All-Star game, where the fans have a control of 50% or even 25% of the voting, because what we see on a yearly basis with the Recording Academy is asinine. In a world in which Hip-Hop artists are the biggest artists in the world, for them to openly call you out for leaving the genre out is painful to watch.
Please Grammys, change.