Sunday’s 56th annual Grammy award ceremony was controversial on plethora of levels. From the wedding ceremony of 33 couples by Hip Hop royalty and talk show host Queen Latifah during Macklemore’s performance of their hit song “Same Love”, to the fact that Macklemore was nominated and won four awards including Best Rap Album beating out Kendrick Lamar who was nominated for seven awards himself.
Post awards, folks were in an uproar about their win saying that Lamar was robbed of the award for his album “Good Kid M.A.A.D City”. Even Macklemore himself felt that way sending Lamar a text message, which he later screen shot and posted on Instagram that read, “You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing and I froze. “The photo was followed by a caption that read, “My text to Kendrick after the show. He deserved best rap album... I'm honored and completely blown away to win anything much less 4 Grammys. But in that category, he should have won IMO. And that's taking nothing away from The Heist. Just giving GKMC its proper respect.. With that being said, thank you to the fans. You're the reason we were on that stage tonight. And to play Same Love on that platform was a career highlight. The greatest honor of all. That's what this is about. Progress and art. Thank you. #grammys”.
After apologizing to him personally, Macklemore took to the infamous air waves of Hot 97 on Monday morning to elaborate further stating, “"Try being the guy that won that award. It's the blessing and the curse, but a little more of the curse," he said, explaining that he was concerned when the nominations were originally announced. "Kendrick is a friend of mine, I love his music and in my opinion he had the best rap album of the year. And knowing how the Grammys usually go, I knew that there would be a great chance that we'd win that award and in essence rob Kendrick. So that's what happened. It kinda sucks. I think we made a great album, but I think that Kendrick made a better rap album. And that's what it is."
The question that this award ceremony has raised for many is one of not only racial discrimination but the state of hip hop as well. TheGuardian.com stated, “For the Grammys to then reward a middling white rapper over these heavyweights leaves it very open to accusations of prejudice.” Justified actor Michael Rapaport took to Twitter to express his feelings about the “travesty” that took place at the Grammy’s. “Macklemore won best Rap record at the Grammys .OMGOODness. Hip Hop is dead & KILL the damn Grammys. Where the hell is RAKIM ? Macklemore ain't Rap. You say that like it's not a travesty a disgrace a complete damn Joke. Macklemore is a damn joke. I'm damn mad & y'all hip hop reporters need to protest this foolishness this is out of hand man. RAKIM, KRS1 & BDK are shaking there damn heads to break beat over the fact that Macklemore won best Rap album at the bullshit ass Grammys.” He ranted.
During the Hot 97 interview Macklemore also criticized the Grammy’s by saying, "What makes it awkward for me is the fact that you never want to be the person that's robbing somebody else. And I think what people don't understand, is what the Grammys are. It's a bunch of people on the Grammy committee, in the industry, that get a ballot. I got a ballot this year. Now, as I'm filling out the ballot I'm realizing I don't know much outside of the genre of hip-hop. So people are filing out bubbles of genres that they don't know about, and that's the process of it."
Which then poses the question, does the discrepancy lie within the Grammy’s themselves, and if so, what, if anything has to change in order for hip hop to be recognized for the genre that it is versus the assumptions it’s presumed by?
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Macklemore’s Win, A Fail For the Grammy’s? Updated at :
8:54 AM
Sunday, February 2, 2014
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