If you told a 21-year-old Tyler, the Creator that he’d win a Grammy seven years later he’d probably enthusiastically blurt out “wolf gang,” while cynically disregarding you said anything at all. Fast forward to the 2020 Grammy Awards, and that then-hypothetical is now a reality - and more importantly, a part of rap history - haters be damned!
So, what does that mean in the grand scheme of things for rap, the most popular genre in America? While many a critic, including Tyler, think the nomination (and subsequent win) is a consolation prize since it wasn’t in one of the Grammy Awards’ big four categories - Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Best New Artist or Song Of The Year - and while that is right, Tyler’s win in a rap category symbolizes more than that. Tyler’s win accidentally exposes the subtle - and at times, not so subtle - discrimination the committee has on rap artists. More on this in a minute.
How? Think about it like this. Tyler is the Black suburban kid that assimilated into Middle America, or for all intents and purposes, the black kid that knows how to talk to white people. From the committee’s perspective, Tyler is “safe,” like Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff were perceived to be when they won Best Rap Performance in 1989 for their song “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”
Until all three artists rebelled.
As many artists have since gone on to do, Will and Jeff boycotted that year’s Grammy Awards; Tyler didn’t boycott but was outspoken after the event. Rap artists that do not genre bend continue to get annually snubbed by the committee - and have a far less chance at being nominated in one of the big four categories, let alone win one of the rap categories - because they are not perceived to be “safe,” which exposes discrimination. More on this in a minute.
Obviously, Tyler deserved to be nominated for a Grammy Sunday night - just not for Best Rap Album. Tyler said it best in his post-Grammy interview, stating, “It sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that’s genre-bending, or that’s anything (other than rap) they (the committee) always put it in the rap or urban category.” Tyler went on to question why Black artists are never put into the pop category, which is the same sentiment that arguably the biggest pop artist in the world, Drake, said just three years prior.
In a 2017 interview with DJ Semtex weeks after that year’s Grammy Awards Drake said, “Even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song...the only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category. Maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m Black, I can’t figure out why...I won two awards last night but I don’t even want them.”
Circling back to the committee’s discrimination, it’s almost as if they use rap/urban categories to only highlight the best Black artists, with no regard for their respective genres. I mean, does anyone outside of the committee genuinely believe Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You (Deluxe) is more urban than pop? And while we’re at it, do any of the masses believe Tyler’s Igor is a better rap album than Revenge Of The Dreamers III; Championships, I Am > I Was; or The Lost Boy? The answers to those questions are what the committee subconsciously knows: No and no, but it’s evident with the history of the committee’s winners that they simply don’t care what the rap community thinks, a group comprised of mainly Black Americans.
Just to name a few, notable snubs for rap artists in the big four categories have ironically included artists that have gone on to be some of the biggest artists - regardless of genre, though two of them genre bend - today: 50 Cent, Kanye West, and Drake. The aforementioned three all lost out on Best New Artist just to go on to become three of the best artists in the world.
It’s certainly possible the committee didn’t have the foresight at the time, but when it happens on three separate occasions, rap artists and their fans are left asking, really? Best New Artist curse withstanding, was Bon Iver’s 2010 run truly better than Drakes? Or was Maroon 5’s 2003 run really as impactful as 50 Cents?
As we ponder, let’s examine Kanye’s loss, which was to John Legend. The blemish that year was not who won instead of Kanye - but why. Kanye shifted rap from its Gangsta image to socially conscious. I guess he was right when he spit the line “If I talk about God my record won’t get played, huh?” on "Jesus Walks." Basically, if the non-raunchy rapper can’t win, then who can?
Well in 2013, a rapper named Macklemore did. The smallest difference between him and rappers who were snubbed is the color of their skin, while the biggest is his inferior success at the time compared to his predecessors. Since 2000, the only other rapper to win Best New Artist is Chance The Rapper. While from the Chicago trenches, Chance’s subject-matter isn’t raunchy - especially his last album, The Big Day, which is basically an album dedicated to his family - so the committee considers him “safe.”
Now circling back to the rap artists that aren’t “safe,” one has to wonder why the committee is scared to shine the spotlight on the artists of America’s most popular genre: rap. Yes, Tyler, Chance, and Macklemore are rappers - but they frequently genre bend. Rappers such as Meek Mill, Rick Ross, and Dababy don’t.
This conundrum just highlights where we are as a society, which isn’t that far past segregation, though it was abolished 66 years ago. I guess Tyler was right when he spits, “you f*cked up as a parent, your child idols a n***a” on “Smuckers.” At an event before the awards, Diddy, a three-time Grammy winner(!?) declared that the committee had “365 days to get this sh*t together.”
Time will be our judge, Diddy, but its kinda already made its ruling; we’re just negotiating a plea now.
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