THE DARK TRUTH ABOUT THE GRAMMYS AND HIP HOP

During the 80's rap grew in popularity, it was surrounded by controversy. Drugs, violence and gangs were directly attributed to rap lyrics and the culture. This perception of the game left it failed to be recognized by the Grammys for a whole decade. In 1989, the Grammys finally made a categroy to recognize the genre, creating the "best rap performance" award. However, even with the undeniable popularity of rap, they decided not to televise the award. Therefore, the first winners Will Smith & DJ Jazzy Jeff, boycotted the ceremony.

Although the next year they decided to televise the rap portion and implement a second rap award, it was clear that repsected artists like Biggie Smalls and Tupac were being overlooked, in favor of rappers who most crossed over into pop music. This put the Grammy's credibility in question and started to fuel the idea that the Academy could care less about recognizing the best of the genre and instead the most popular or politically correct. In 1999, boycotts were continued by Jay Z over DMX's lack of recognition. In 1999 and 2004, Lauryn Hill and Outkast made history as the only two rap artists to be awarded the Grammy for album of the year. During her acceptance speech, Lauryn said "This is crazy because, this is Hip Hop." Also even to this day, no rapper has ever won record or song of the year, emphasizing the lack of praise for the genre. Controversy peaked in 2014 after rapper Macklemore won over Kendrick Lamar's critically acclaimed masterpiece "Good Kidd Madd City." Many of which thought he would sweep the categories with, but ended up winning no awards. Macklemore even texted him after the show saying he was robbed.

As Hip-Hop was predominatly built and popularized on Black culture by Black people, seeing white artists score a disaproptionately larger number of rap Grammys, fans & artists highlighted the racial component of these snubs and the lack of respect for the genre as a whole. After winning his first Grammy in 2020, Tyler the Creator claimed it as a "backhanded compliment". He said that whenever people like him (Black artists) make any genre-bending albums, the Grammys are quick to just drop it in the rap category and trap these efforts in that box. Overall from the boycotts to the unbelievable snubs, it's clear the Grammys have lacked any sort of credibility or respect for the genre since day one. Fans are rightfully expressing that same resentment back while dreams of winning a grammy are slowly diminishing. This year at the 65th annual Grammy Award show was put together by Quest Love celebrating 50 years of Hip Hop. The performance was monumental in that in was the first time that both new and old school Hip Hop stars took to the stage together. New age stars like Glorilla and Lil Uzi Vert performed with rap legends inclding Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J and more. Although it was a dope moment, fans and critics agree that there is still more work to do in fighting for the respect of Hip Hop across all platforms.