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Verge: Kendrick Lamar and the Grammys’ hip-hop problem

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Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
That will not help, the hip hop industry vets that are voting would still be out numbered by the other voting members. It goes back to this from the op's article Its like seperate but equal.

That quote if pretty funny cause if you a rock fan then you know the Grammys fuck them around a lot too.
 

effzee

Member
GAF doesn't like award show or think it matters! Shocking! Utterly shocking!

People need to make up their minds - it either matters or it doesn't. If it matters then fine be mad but if you never thought the Grammys mattered why get worked up? BTW which award show matters or counts?

So Kendrick didn't win who the fuck cares? His performance will resonate far more than him winning.

Grammys don't have one set standard on how they hand out these awards. If it was based on most popular or sales, then Taylor deserves it. Like or hate her music, she dominated the charts and sales for the past 1.5 years so its not shocking that she won.
 

Cartman86

Banned
The Grammy's are the single most bland major awards show. It's such a shit show it's almost impossible to even know what prejudices are behind anything. Any specific music genre fan (Country, Metal, Indie Rock whatever) could come in here and say how their great albums have been snubbed and they would be right.
 

zeitgeist

Member
Kendrick wins 5 Grammy's and people still pissed he didn't win AOTY?

Taylor Swift released an amazing pop album, one of the best in years. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but it's a very well made album of pop songs, literally just hit after hit after hit.

I thought TPAB was a good album, though I think it's a good step below on the whole than GKMC... A lot of TPAB I just skip through these days to get to the few tracks I still like.. I can put on GKMC and just start to finish it still to this day.

I thought the best hip-hop album of 2015 was I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside by Early Sweatshirt.

Just being nominated for a Grammy is a fucking victory, this whole focus on losing is just lame.

...and damn that's like the most Pitchforky list of albums ever by Valhelm with no theme at all to tie them together... it's like "hey look at me, I look cool music!!"

The Bolded comments nail it. TPAB is absolutely amazing but it's still like, only 25% as important as most fans think it is.

People need to take it down a notch and stop over reacting about a Grammy award.
 

Kuroyume

Banned
As a metal fan... Hard to sympathize.

At least they get to perform. They get recognition.

The fucking metal category award winner wasn't even announced on the main show. Like, how fucked up is that? Fucking ridiculous given metal bands have more talent than any of the musicians that appeared on the main show. Metal bands tend to not only perform their music with their instruments but they actually compose their shit. Not hire ghost writers or sample music people have done before.

They reality is metal never gets any respect. Not from the grammy. Not from the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Hard to give a shit about these awards given all this.

Awards are stupid anyway.
 

LionPride

Banned
You skip most of TPAB but don't skip Real?

pGO1twC.png

I thought that was just me who noticed that, personally there are more songs on GKMC that I skip than I do on TPAB. I also love that fusion with jazz, it was different than what I would expect and it worked.
 

karasu

Member
I feel like I live in a world where people get all hyped about these awards showings(Oscars included), knowing they are bullshit, but then act really surprised when they're delivered evidence of that bullshit.
 

Dishwalla

Banned
I still don't see why anyone is surprised that 1989 won it, as soon as that list of nominees was released with it on it the deed was done. The Grammy's do something different and not name the shoo in AOTY? As if!
 

LionPride

Banned
Since twice as good doesn't work, a hip hop album will probably have to be three or four times as good as it's competition and pander to Grammy voters to get out of the Hip Hop Award ghetto.

So something that will not happen for the forseeable future while I remain in my feelings regarding rap albums that should've been AOTY?
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
It's really hard to say "Fuck the Grammys" only because they still mean quite a bit, not only to the performers at large, but when someone sees that little sticker at Target that says Album of the Year Grammy Winner, that shit sells.

Taylor Swift doesn't deserve this award. This belongs to K.Dot. You don't get more defining than a record that was a sound of a people, a generation and exemplifies the idea that music can rise above and be more than pop diddies that bang out as singles. He released an album, Taylor released a collection of singles under the guise of an album.

So no. I wouldn't say fuck the Grammy's. They can still mean something. It's just going to actually take judges who give a fuck about more than their shitty little bubbled life.
 

hawk2025

Member
Kendrick wins 5 Grammy's and people still pissed he didn't win AOTY?

Taylor Swift released an amazing pop album, one of the best in years. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but it's a very well made album of pop songs, literally just hit after hit after hit.

I thought TPAB was a good album, though I think it's a good step below on the whole than GKMC... A lot of TPAB I just skip through these days to get to the few tracks I still like.. I can put on GKMC and just start to finish it still to this day.

I thought the best hip-hop album of 2015 was I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside by Early Sweatshirt.

Just being nominated for a Grammy is a fucking victory, this whole focus on losing is just lame.

...and damn that's like the most Pitchforky list of albums ever by Valhelm with no theme at all to tie them together... it's like "hey look at me, I like cool music!!"


Why should a list of best albums in a year have a theme?

What a weird criticism.

My favorites were Joanna Newsom and OPN. Oops?
 

RDreamer

Member
As a metal fan... Hard to sympathize.

At least they get to perform. They get recognition.

The fucking metal category award winner wasn't even announced on the main show. Like, how fucked up is that? Fucking ridiculous given metal bands have more talent than any of the musicians that appeared on the main show. Metal bands tend to not only perform their music with their instruments but they actually compose their shit. Not hire ghost writers or sample music people have done before.

They reality is metal never gets any respect. Not from the grammy. Not from the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Hard to give a shit about these awards given all this.

Awards are stupid anyway.

There was only one metal category, too. Best metal performance. I don't even understand why they would half ass it so much as to even have just that one.

As someone that listens to rock, metal, progressive, and indie most the Grammy's just suck beyond belief.
 
Its also extremely revealing a genre with the level of popularity and cultural impact as rap has such poor recognition in cross genre categories.
 

bort

Member
Isn't Taylor a voter too?

I did a search while making this post and found this from reddit

I'm a Grammy member, so I'll answer :) She's been able to vote for the Grammys for a Looooong time. Since her first album. There are two major categories of members. Associate members (meaning you working in the industry, but you have less than 6 credits so you are a member, but you don't vote) and Voting members (You have 6 or more credits) . Since you need 6 credits to vote, single songs can be credits, so she's been a voting member for a long long time. You can get a credit contributing to any part of the album. So she's gotten credits as a songwriter, guitar player, vocalist, etc... You can get credits for A&Ring a record or even writing the liner notes. It takes a TON of people to produce a record, so every single person involved in that process that is credited somewhere in the album gets a "credit". During that video, She was officially accepted into the P&E wing, which is a special group of voting members. P&E stands for production & engineering. You need to have 6 credits as a producer and/or engineer. This group of voting members gets vote in the second round of voting for certain categories, where as a general voting member (which she previously was) can only vote in the "general" categories 2nd round. They also get certain events and privileges specifically for the P&E wing members. (The taylor video was actually a P&E member only event) The reason it exists is to make sure the absolute best produced albums get nominated for the awards. It keeps people that don't know much about production and engineering specifically from voting on the production awards before the last round of voting. Basically the experts in that field get to pick the final nominees for the actual Grammy. With 1989 Taylor got enough credits as a producer to say she had the expertise to be in the P&E wing. So now she gets to vote for a couple extra categories in the preliminary rounds than she did previously.

Yes, pretty much all recording artists are voting members.(if they choose to join) And I swear I am. It's not that crazy actually. I would say 90% of the members you've never heard of. Remember, people can get credits from playing instruments, writing liner notes, A&R, publicity, etc... Also, it's just from commercially available records. Meaning, pretty much anyone that can verify their involvement with a record available on iTunes can be a member. It's not just for recording artists. It's for the recorded music industry. I'm in record promotion, and I've been involved in vocal production in a couple of indie records. So I promise I'm a member, and I promise you've never heard of me. lol

I would say very influenced in some aspects and in others not. Demographic plays into it: The largest demographic of grammy voters in middle/older aged white men, which would partially explain why Beck won AOTY last year opposed to Beyonce. But also name recognition/charts play a big part as well. As a member you get to vote for up to 20 categories in addition to the general categories. Obviously, it's extremely unlikely that a person is going to have listened to all the nominated recordings in 20 categories, so some people start voting with name/song recognition after they vote in the categories they truly know about. For example, a lot of voters voted in the rap category that don't really listen to rap. A lot of them didn't listen to the rest of the songs, but they knew "thrift shop", which is partly why that record won. It's kind of messed up in some ways, but the grammys are weird that way. I think Taylor has a HUGE advantage this year. It was by far the biggest selling album, which AOTY is supposed to go to the album that truly defined the pinnacle recording arts that year. I really can't think of one that better defined 2015 than 1989. Also, she's now a P&E member, which gave her a little more "street cred" (lol) among some of the members. Another advantage she has is she's still Nashville's sweetheart, and we have one of, if not the, largest voting member body. People in Nashville know her name, and now people in pop do too. Add the fact that it's a Max Martin record, and I would be completely shocked if she didn't take it home.
interesting

So you have thousands of voters that don't even listen to everything and just say "I recognize this and will vote for it"

Great system for the most prestigious award in music!

Well, ask me after Dec. 7th, and I would be able to tell you my opinion. I think that ROTY might be a harder win than AOTY, because it's probably going up against "uptown funk", which was such a HUGE hit. I think SOTY will be hard up against (probably)"Thinking out Loud". I think Style was a better song, but Blank space was also very good, and it did better on the charts.... and after she talked about it to the P&E wing (which she didn't do for Style), I think choosing blank space makes perfect sense. I think her best chance for a major award is AOTY since 1989 was such a huge deal sales wise... and you couldn't get away from it's marketing! I honestly don't know anyone that hasn't listened to and enjoyed the album. I can think of tons of people that haven't listen Kendrick's album for example. But again, like I said earlier the grammys are weird and kind of known for upsets. Either way, 1989 is going down in history as one of the greats. Especially since it might very well be the last album to sell at such a capacity. And I'm glad I could talk! anytime! Do well on your homework, graduate, and come work in the music industry and join the Grammys! Maybe one day you too can talk to real celebrities! ( and be a Reddit celebrity for an evening! (haha ;) )

AND THERE IT IS!! This person posted this 4 months ago!

https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/3on1xx/did_taylor_become_a_grammy_voting_member/
 
Kendrick wins 5 Grammy's and people still pissed he didn't win AOTY?

Taylor Swift released an amazing pop album, one of the best in years. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but it's a very well made album of pop songs, literally just hit after hit after hit.

I thought TPAB was a good album, though I think it's a good step below on the whole than GKMC... A lot of TPAB I just skip through these days to get to the few tracks I still like.. I can put on GKMC and just start to finish it still to this day.

I thought the best hip-hop album of 2015 was I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside by Early Sweatshirt.

Just being nominated for a Grammy is a fucking victory, this whole focus on losing is just lame.

...and damn that's like the most Pitchforky list of albums ever by Valhelm with no theme at all to tie them together... it's like "hey look at me, I like cool music!!"
Nah, the snubs go well beyond Kendrick and if you actually read the article, you would know the discussion encompasses more than "Kendrick should have won" and gets into the pattern that goes back 25 years.
 

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
You skip most of TPAB but don't skip Real?

pGO1twC.png

I ain't gonna lie, that album ends with Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst.

Kendrick won 5 Grammy's against basically other rappers. His peers. I'm sure he is happy about that. But when its time to recognize rap/hip hop on a bigger scale against all the other music out there, suddenly rap can't be recognized. It's an entirely bullshit argument to say "dude won 5 grammys, why is anyone saying shit". We're saying shit because regardless of the quality of project a hip hop artist puts out, there is an outright refusal to give them a W and it's garbage.

We all know the Grammys aren't going to concern themselves with any of this, that's why it "doesn't matter", but like the Oscars etc this is validation for your work on the highest stage. It matters to artists to be given a fair shake for the work they produce. And yeah other genres get snubbed in the Grammys as well, it's also shit. If they are gonna base it on sales than just be upfront. But every year they flip flop the fuck around on the criteria and that is the worst part of it.

Getting a nominee is recognizing the importance of it. People getting bent out of shape because they don't like Taylor Swift. She was as deserving of the award as much as Kendrick. Though I think her album was more solid, but Kendrick's album's message and themes were great, I just don't think it's a great cohesive album.
 

Gastone

Member
As a metal fan... Hard to sympathize.

At least they get to perform. They get recognition.

The fucking metal category award winner wasn't even announced on the main show. Like, how fucked up is that? Fucking ridiculous given metal bands have more talent than any of the musicians that appeared on the main show. Metal bands tend to not only perform their music with their instruments but they actually compose their shit. Not hire ghost writers or sample music people have done before.

They reality is metal never gets any respect. Not from the grammy. Not from the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Hard to give a shit about these awards given all this.

Awards are stupid anyway.

This, all day
 

MrToughPants

Brian Burke punched my mom
My Name Is by Eminem won best solo rap performance over 2pac's Changes..

All you need to know about the white award show.
 

SecretDan

A mudslide of fun!
but when someone sees that little sticker at Target that says Album of the Year Grammy Winner, that shit sells.

All the albums nominated were huge success that tons of copies.

It doesn't really matter beyond recognition from whoever it is that votes.

Kendrick deserved it, but it won't make a difference to him beyond feeling he didn't get the recognition from the voters he deserved.
 
I can't take this issue seriously. The people who give Grammy awards have a long history of not caring about a variety of genres, specifically rap and metal. I'm stunned that people are stunned that the older Grammy voters liked the catchy 1989 more than the dense TPAB (which has no radio hits btw). I'd go even further and argue it didn't more votes than the Alabama Shakes album either, which is another album that appeals to Grammy voters.

Taylor Swift dominated the radio and sold millions of copies of her album. That's why she won. Sometimes the Grammys throws a curveball and awards an "indie" record with the big win (Arcade Fire, Beck) but usually the winner is quite obvious. And spoiler alert: Adele will win AOTY next year.
 
I can't take this issue seriously. The people who give Grammy awards have a long history of not caring about a variety of genres, specifically rap and metal. I'm stunned that people are stunned that the older Grammy voters liked the catchy 1989 more than the dense TPAB (which has no radio hits btw). I'd go even further and argue it didn't more votes than the Alabama Shakes album either, which is another album that appeals to Grammy voters.



Taylor Swift dominated the radio and sold millions of copies of her album. That's why she won. And spoiler alert: Adele will win AOTY next year.

Yeah, the Grammy's are a total pop-popularity contest and people who think they arent snubbing other genres are just ???
 

TheXbox

Member
The Grammys are for pop. That's it. I was kinda surprised Beck even won last year, but I guess that album had a couple pop songs in there. TPAB dumps on everything that came out last year and everyone knows it. Kendrick wins in our hearts

edit: I think what's weird about the Grammys is that when you look at equivalents for film, books, etc, the Grammys are BY FAR the most pandering towards mainstream shit. The Oscars don't really go in for that, the Hugos are still sort of prestigious, but the Grammys? Them giving Taylor Swift AOTY would be like The Avengers winning best picture or something. It's nonsense. That's not to say there isn't a boatload of marginalization that goes on with those other awards, cause there totally is. But this populist attitude is sort of unique to the Grammys.
 
Having a higher percentage of voters be hip hop fans... Wouldn't help?

What else can help? If the majority were hip hop fans then you'd have other genres possible under represented.

Award shows are pretty much assenine popularity contests no matter how you shake it.

Having more hip hop fans would help but, not enough to overcome the stigma and racial undertones currently attached to the genre. Its the most influential genre of music of the last 30 years yet the artists grammy wins are mostly attached to the their own genre. To prove my point Jay Z and Beyonce two of the most influential and popular artists of all time have 41 grammy's between them(Jay-Z with 21 and Beyonce with 20) yet neither has won a single grammy outside of their categories both double up Taylor swift in grammys wins yet somehow shes won album of the year twice.
 

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
My Name Is by Eminem won best solo rap performance over 2pac's Changes..

All you need to know about the white award show.

Changes is shit tier Pac.

Skipping backseat freestyle should be bannable

Agreed.

Oh. So you were straight up making shit up then. I see you.

U1Tx2mw.png

It's not skipping when I just change albums.

I don't even see how someone can legit argue that TPAB is better than GKMC. It's not even close with how much better GKMC is.
 

LionPride

Banned
Having more hip hop fans would help but, not enough to overcome the stigma and racial undertones currently attached to the genre. Its the most influential genre of music of the last 30 years yet the artists grammy wins are mostly attached to the their own genre. To prove my point Jay Z and Beyonce two of the most influential and popular artists of all time have 41 grammy's between them(Jay-Z with 21 and Beyonce with 20) yet neither has won a single grammy outside of their categories both double up Taylor swift in grammys wins yet somehow shes won album of the year twice.
It's the same way the only hip-hop/rap albums that have won album of the year were Speakerboxx/Love Below and Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Two albums that weren't really traditional hip hop at all. Speakerboxx had Andre doin whatever the fuck he was doing and Big Boi rapping while Miseducation was more singing than rap
 
I ain't gonna lie, that album ends with Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst.

:/

Getting a nominee is recognizing the importance of it. People getting bent out of shape because they don't like Taylor Swift. She was as deserving of the award as much as Kendrick. Though I think her album was more solid, but Kendrick's album's message and themes were great, I just don't think it's a great cohesive album.

For a genre as big as hip hop you don't think its odd that a hip hop production has won, Album, Song, or Record of the year since 3 stacks miracle win?

I'm not even trying to hear anything about Taylor being as deserving as Kendrick because that's ridiculous. I don't like TPAB as much as GKMC but the CD is an incredibly ambitious effort of complex themes, sounds, instrumentals and concepts. It told an extremely good message, it was an artists attempt to both say something and create a fulfilling project. I would have been happy about any of the other 4 albums winning over Taylor because 1989 is nothing new, exciting or captivating. It's mass marketed pop where a bunch of singles were crammed into an album.

Someone else said it but I can't seriously take the idea seriously that 1989 is as deserving of TPAB in anything other than a sales award.
 

Striek

Member
Having more hip hop fans would help but, not enough to overcome the stigma and racial undertones currently attached to the genre. Its the most influential genre of music of the last 30 years yet the artists grammy wins are mostly attached to the their own genre. To prove my point Jay Z and Beyonce two of the most influential and popular artists of all time have 41 grammy's between them(Jay-Z with 21 and Beyonce with 20) yet neither has won a single grammy outside of their categories both double up Taylor swift in grammys wins yet somehow shes won album of the year twice.

Song of the year for Beyonce?
 

LionPride

Banned
Changes is shit tier Pac.



Agreed.



It's not skipping when I just change albums.

I don't even see how someone can legit argue that TPAB is better than GKMC. It's not even close with how much better GKMC is.
Top to bottom TPAB is a better album. I believe Kendrick has improved with every album. Overly Dedicated, Section.80, GKMC, TPAB. He's one upped himself constantly. Hell TPAB wins just for "u" alone
 

Schattenjäger

Gabriel Knight
I think it all comes down to musical completeness and lack of singing

Hip hop, edm, and metal involve very little singing

When was the last time an instrumental album won anything?
 
I really feel like people are doing the entire conversation a disservice by trying to twist this as some agenda against Hip Hop. I am sure the voters are biased against it, but they are biased against ANYTHING that isn't pop as far I have seen.

I hate most award shows and don't follow them at all but what other genres have managed to pull some of the big wins at the Grammys? Are there any Heavy Metal albums that have pulled down some of the big awards?

The only time I can think of the Grammys surprising me was when Arcade Fire won for Suburbs. Have there been any other surprises over the years that I missed?
 
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