If you’re a fan of music, then you know what the Grammy’s are. The awards show has been a staple in the industry for many decades recognizing the best in their profession every year. However, as time progresses the prestigious award show has now become a disgrace among the community. Politics and many factors over the years have caused the perception of the Grammy’s to decline. Especially in the last decade there have been many circumstances that are evidence of the downturn.
The 2014 Rap Album of the Year
2014 was a great year for music. During that year, the most powerful genre at the time and now is hip hop/rap. Therefore, most eyes were on those categories, especially the rap album of the year. The albums that were in consideration for this award were Nothing Was The Same (Drake), Magna Carter Holy Grail (Jay-Z), Yeezus (Kanye West), Good Kid Maad City (Kendrick Lamar) and The Heist (Macklemore). From looking at this list of nominees, I have to ask myself, how in the world did Macklemore beat out all these legends compared to these other albums? Nevertheless, he left the awards that night sweeping the show in the rap category. Many people, including himself, agreed that Kendrick Lamar should’ve won the award that year.
Who Deserved it More: Cardi B or Travis Scott (2017)
Three years later, we’re back with the same problem. That year many believed that Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” would reign supreme, but was sadly undermined by “Invasion Of Privacy” with Cardi B. Similar to before, many fans believed that the awards were rigged and Travis didn’t get a fair chance.
Drake Disses Grammys During Speech (2019)
Later on that same night, Drake, who’s had his fair share of wins at the awards, won the Best Rap Song with his hit single “God’s Plan”. With the spotlight firm on him at this moment, Drake takes a chance to reflect on the awards show during his speech. He discusses how the fans should mean more to the artists than the recognition of the Grammys. Of course the show had to stop this as soon as possible so they cut off his mic. I guess the truth hurts. However, the disrespect would ramp up due to a familiar face.
Kanye West Shows Ultimate Disrespect (2020)
In September of last year, controversial rapper Kanye West made news as he posted a video of him pissing on his grammy. Not much an explanation needed here.
What’s even more mind boggling is that he STILL won a grammy this year while doing this months before nominations came out ( Best Christian Album) He disrespected the awards show in the worst way possible and got a nomination before The Weekend.
The Final Nail In The Coffin (2020)
Abel “The Weeknd” Testafare had a successful year in 2020. His album”After Hours” went platinum. He has multiple songs on the charts, and he even performed at this Super Bowl. What baffles me the most is that he didn’t receive a single nomination. Not one.
Twitter blew up due to the news and many fans were frustrated with the committee on their decision making. However, it would come out later on that the possible reason for the grammy snub was The Weekend performing at the Super Bowl in Tampa this year. The Weeknd wasn’t happy about this either and decided to boycott the awards show.
Can The Grammys Rebuild Their Reputation?
The Grammys reputation might be a little too late to repair. Especially with the outrage of The Weekend and even BTS fans on their lack of nominations this year made the show look even worse than it had previously.
If they really want to gain respect back they have to make changes, starting with personnel. You have to put people who care about the music in the committee. Once that is done, they’ll have to repair relationships with artists, which would be pretty difficult to do. Nevertheless, as a former fan of the awards show, I’m saddened by the decline and I hope that the Grammy’s can move in the right direction going forward.
