The 2021 Grammy Awards Show recently happened, and their operations need to be discussed, specifically regarding the rap music category. The Grammys are the pinnacle of musical achievement, or at least how they are portrayed. In the echelon of awards a musician or producer can achieve, the Grammys always hold superiority over other awards such as the MTV Music Awards as well as the Billboard Music Awards and the People’s Choice Awards.
What is known how the Grammys determine winners of their awards is the fact that they are classified in three categories: voting, professional or student members. This seems to indicate that the Recording Academy (the organization that determines the winners) is made up of the nominees’ peers.
Nominations are determined by submissions sent to either a member of the Academy or registered media companies. Once the nominees are decided, members can vote in the four general categories as well as 15 other categories.
This method of determining nominations and winners has led several people to accuse the Grammys of being an opportunity to push artists or labels the Academy members they have relationships with rather than be a fair, objective process.
So far, none of these claims have been factually proven, but there is one category that they have historically mishandled over the years: the category of rap music. The first issue is that the category of best rap album of the year wasn’t established until 1996. This means a lot of classic albums such as “The Chronic,” “Illmatic,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “Paid in Full,” “Reasonable Doubt” and others aren’t even officially recognized by the highest-standing organization of musical achievement despite being regarded as some of the best work to come from the genre.
At first, the Grammys seemed to have a true grasp on the category of Hip-Hop. From 1996-2000 The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, 2Pac, The Fugees, Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest and even Coolio were all artists who received nominations and/or awards from the Academy. An organization that seemed hesitant to even recognize the category had finally come around to showing and highlighting the best rap had to offer.
However, sometime around the mid-2000s to 2010, there was a shift in focus from the Grammys in Best Rap Album of the Year category. The category deferred to whatever was selling the most instead of what was actually the best of the best or just deferring to giving the award to artists who have already been recognized by the Grammys. Eminem won the 2010 award for Best Rap Album of the Year for his album “Relapse,” despite having an overall score of 59 on Metacritic and often being considered one of his worst releases. Perhaps the biggest mishandling of the category, however, is the 2014 award show.
In 2014, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won Best Rap Album of the Year over other nominees such as Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Drake and Jay-Z. This was met by immediate backlash from fans, with Macklemore apologizing to Kendrick Lamar and admitting that he should have won the award. Despite the backlash from this, the Grammys didn’t even learn from their mistake right away. Eminem received the following award the next year over ScHoolboy Q’s “Oxymoron” project, which was higher reviewed on Metacritic as well as other well-respected rap and music publications such as XXL and Pitchfork.
This trend of whatever sold the most instead of what was more well-received continued until the 2018 Grammy’s. Artists such as Freddie Gibbs, Royce Da 5’9.” D Smoke, Cordae, 21 Savage, Tyler the Creator and the often overlooked Rapsody have all received nominations. There has been much debate about the winners of the categories, with Cardi B and Nas winning the awards in 2019 and 2021 and Tyler, the Creator winning in 2019 (despite saying his album “Igor” shouldn’t be categorized as just a rap album). However, it seems like the Grammys have finally shifted their focus away from whatever albums sell the most to genuinely being concerned about what albums have been received well by fans.
The process is still flawed and there is another discussion that needs to be had about the Urban Contemporary category, but whether it be because of the public outcry regarding how the category has been historically handled or because of a genuine want to improve the representation and quality of the category, it seems that the category of Best Rap Album is being treated with a much more careful eye and ear than it has been.
Teren Kowatsch can be reached at [email protected]