Jay-Z Stands With Hip-Hop and Defends Beyoncé at Grammys: ‘At Least Get It Close to Right’
The Carter family made a surprise appearance at the 2024 Grammy Awards as the Recording Academy presented Jay-Z with the Global Impact Award — and Shawn Carter didn’t hold back as he tore into the ceremony’s complicated history with hip-hop and Beyoncé consistently being snubbed in the major categories.
The rapper took the stage hand in hand with his daughter Blue Ivy as Beyoncé cheered them both on from the audience. At the start of his speech, he joked that his Grammy Awards used to be used as sippy cups for their daughter, who will turn 13 this week, but now “she has her own Grammys,” he boasted.
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“How far we’ve come from Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff winning their first Grammy in ’89 and boycotting because it wasn’t televised. And then they went to the hotel and watched the Grammys. I didn’t even understand. It wasn’t a great boycott,” he said, also thanking the Black Music Collective. “But then ’98, I took a page out of their book. I was nominated for Best Rap Album, and DMX had dropped two albums that year. They both were number one — shout out to DMX — and he wasn’t nominated at all. So I boycotted and I watched the Grammys. I’m just saying, we want y’all to get it right. We love y’all. We love y’all. We love y’all. We want y’all to get it right. At least get it close to right.”
“Obviously it’s subjective because it’s music and it’s opinion-based. But you know, some things — you know, I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year,” he said, gesturing to Beyoncé, who last year became the most awarded artist in Grammy Awards history with only one win in a Big Four category. “So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Some of you are gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in the category. When I get nervous, I tell the truth.”
He added: “But outside of that, we got to keep showing up — and forget the greatness for a second, just in life. As my daughter sits and stares at me nervous as I am, you got to keep showing up. Just keep showing up to get the Grammys. You got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve. Until they call you champion, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time.”
An honor reserved for Black music creators, the Global Impact Award is presented in recognition of their “dedication to the art form that has greatly influenced the industry,” according to the official Grammy Awards website.
Over the past two years, the award created in 2022 has been presented to John Legend, Dr. Dre, Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, and music executive Sylvia Rhone. This year, Jay-Z joins previously announced recipients Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey in receiving the award.
JAY-Z turns his GRAMMY into a drink cup after using his speech to call out The Academy on Beyoncé's behalf. pic.twitter.com/3Srr2mUlRx
— BEYONCé LEGION (@BeyLegion) February 5, 2024
Jay-Z has had a somewhat contentious relationship with the Grammy Awards in recent years. Before last year, when he appeared alongside DJ Khaled to perform “God Did,” he hadn’t performed during the Grammys since 2014, when he opened the show with a performance of “Drunk In Love” with Beyoncé.
In 2018, the rapper dissed the Recording Academy for nominating him for eight awards earlier that year, but leaving him to go home empty handed. “Tell the Grammys fuck that 0-for-8 shit,” he rapped.
But in an exclusive interview with Tidal in 2023, he explained: “In that moment, I was like, ‘They missed the opportunity,’ because people emulate success. In that moment, that album, 4:44, was a moment for us to say, ‘Hip-hop is viewed as a young man’s sport. Now here is this album that could take us into the next sphere.'”
He added: “I feel like they missed the moment. I didn’t feel bad for myself, because I know it’s the Grammys: I probably won some joints I shouldn’t have won and I probably lost some joints I should’ve won. That’s the way it goes, so I actually had a party. I had a great time, staying out until 6 in the morning.”
All of the rap awards at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony were presented during the pre-show. It’s the first time since 2015 that at least one rap category was not presented during the main show.
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