Are the Music Awards events “out of touch” with the current music and artists?
This year – like every year – the Grammy nominations snubbed Black artists like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Baby, Pop Smoke, Burna Boy, and The Weeknd, despite them topping charts and soundtracking 2020. The Mobos completely left off Unknown T somehow and its almost insulting to see loski nominated as newcomer of the year 2 mixtapes and an album deep into the game.
Frankly, I think the Grammys have never fully grasped the scope of Black music internationally, and maybe never will, as they prefer to follow a safe line keeping the choices more traditional in their awarding style.
An example is the omission of artists like the late Pop Smoke and his debut album “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” in the category for Best Rap Album, although he was nominated for Best Rap Performance for “Dior”, still doesn’t compensate the omission of his talented posthumous album in that category. Lil Baby’s “My Turn”, Roddy Ricch’s “Please Excuse Me for being Antisocial”, and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Eternal Atake” are all among the most commercially successful albums this year and yet didn’t get a single look.
What about Lil Baby’s “My Turn (deluxe)”, which dropped during the Black Lives Matter protests in June? While so many artists were trying to use that moment in a more personal way, nobody managed to synthesize the universal feeling of the moment like lil Baby did.
“Our people died for us to be free / Fuck do you mean this was a dream,”
This lyrical was undeniable powerful on the song. he captured the exact feeling that Black people had, being let down over and over again by a nation they helped to build.
“The Bigger Picture” is nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, however, I don’t think this is good enough to replace the omission of his album in 'the best rap album category', this just brings to reality the Grammys approximation of hip-hop.
In the Best R&B Album category the Grammys left out female artists entirely from this category, there were many amazing albums we received this year from the ladies, like Teyana Taylor “The Album” and Jhene Aiko “Chilombo”, Jessie Reyez “Before Love Came to Kill Us”, we are left very confused about the intricate way the panel of the event select the nominees. Are women again been overlooked for their accolades? although we had few female nominees in the other categories, i think the very talented women and the women who better represent the music scene at the moment are the one left out in the cold again.
The Weeknd was also left out the list of Best Album for his latest album, “After Hours”.
and joined Lots of artist complaining and showing their feelings, making various posts on social media:
50 Cent reaction:
“Best Rap Album,” he said followed by several grinning emojis. “They out of touch this shit ain’t it, get the fuck outta here. 50cent #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi.”
Drake wrote:
“I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones who come after.”
In 2021 (just a month away) the music awards organisation are showing again little understanding of the complex and intricate styles that are merging together and create new music and new genres all the times. they are greatly out of touch and the culture around the music scene all over the world. music should represent people's roots but, also the growth of the music inside the cultures.
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