Do the Grammys Have a Rap Problem?

(photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Kanye West has amassed 21 Grammys. That’s three more than Paul McCartney, whose career (of some note) began 40 years before West’s. Only 10 other artists have won as many as 21 Grammys dating back to the inception of the awards in 1958. So you might assume that West has nothing but good things to say about the Grammys.

Guess again. At a concert in Phoenix in December 2013, four days after that year’s Grammy nominations were announced, West blasted the Grammys as part of a 20-minute monologue/rant. He had received just two nominations, Best Rap Album for Yeezus and Best Rap Song for “New Slaves.” He was disappointed, to say the least.

“So, when the Grammy nominations come out and Yeezus is [one of] the top one or two albums on every single [critics’] list, but only gets two nominations from the Grammys, what are they trying to say? Do they think that I wouldn’t notice?… People come to me and they congratulate me on those two nominations. F— those nominations… I would have rather had no nominations.”

A year earlier, West blasted the Grammys during a show in Atlantic City. “I love Maroon 5, but when I lost for Best New Artist to Maroon 5… Or when Watch the Throne and [My Beautiful] Dark [Twisted] Fantasy, neither of them got nominated for Album of the Year, or when ‘N—-s in Paris’ didn’t get nominated for Record of the Year… So don’t expect to see me at the Grammys this year…”

It’s odd to see a 21-time Grammy-winner blast the Grammys, but does West have a point? Probably.

Twenty of West’s 21 Grammys have been awarded in the rap field. West’s only Grammy that wasn’t in a rap category was for co-writing Alicia Keys’s “You Don’t Know My Name,” which took the 2004 award as Best R&B Song.

Jay Z has also won 21 Grammys. (These sometime collaborators are tied as the rappers with the most Grammys.) Jay Z has won four times in non-rap categories — three in R&B for his work with Beyoncé on “Crazy in Love” and “Drunk in Love,” and one in the music video field for “Suit & Tie” with Justin Timberlake.

You might be surprised at just how few awards rap artists have won over the years in the “Big Four” categories that command most of the media’s attention.
Two hip-hop albums have won Album of the Year — Lauryn Hill’s solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. (Note: The Grammys classified Hill’s album as R&B, but it straddled the line between R&B and rap.)

Only three hip-hop artists have won as Best New Artist — Arrested Development, Hill, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

No hip-hop artists have won for Record or Song of the Year — not even as part of a “rap/sung” collaboration.

Many hip-hop artists have been nominated in these “Big Four” categories over the years — especially since 1995, when the Recording Academy first convened a committee of insiders to determine the final nominees in those categories. But rank-and-file Grammy voters (who determine the winners) have proved resistant. Grammy voters tend to be middle-aged music professionals whose musical tastes were formed prior to rap’s explosive growth in the 1980s. They seem to be more comfortable with pop, rock and alternative music.

Things could change this year. Kendrick Lamar is nominated for both Album of the Year for To Pimp a Butterfly, the most critically acclaimed album of 2015, and Song of the Year for “Alright.” (Wiz Khalifa is also nominated for Song of the Year for “See You Again,” but that hip-hop ballad is more pop than rap.) This is Lamar’s second Album of the Year nomination. He was nominated in the same category two years ago for good kid, m.A.A.d. city. Lamar fans no doubt hope that he follows the same awards trajectory as Hill and OutKast, both of whom won Album of the Year on their second try. Hill was first nominated as a member of Fugees for 1996’s The Score. OutKast was first nominated for 2001’s Stankonia.

The Grammys didn’t have any rap categories when rap exploded in the mid-1980s. As a result, Run-D.M.C.’s groundbreaking 1986 album Raising Hell (which included their classic remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”) was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The Grammys finally added a rap category, Best Rap Performance, in 1988. The first winner was “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” the genial crossover hit by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.

M.C. Hammer’s 1990 blockbuster Please Hammer Don’t Hurt 'Em was the first rap album to be nominated for Album of the Year. Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” from that album was the first rap single to be nominated for Record of the Year. Two years later, Arrested Development and Kris Kross became the first rap artists to be nominated for Best New Artist. No rap songs were nominated for Song of the Year until 2003, when Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” became the first.

A total of 17 rap albums have been nominated for Album of the Year (counting Hill’s album as rap). Eminem and West have each been nominated in the category (as lead artists) three times, though neither has won.

A total of 16 hip-hop singles have been nominated for Record of the Year — counting Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), which the Grammys categorized as pop. Eminem and Jay Z have each been nominated in the category three times.

Eight rap songs have been nominated for Song of the Year. West has been nominated in the category three times, with “Jesus Walks,” “All of the Lights,” and “American Boy” (the stylish Estelle hit on which he was featured). A total of 13 rap artists have been nominated for Best New Artist (counting Hill).

So the problem isn’t that rap artists aren’t nominated in the four marquee categories. It’s that they so seldom win. That’s why some rap artists, notably West, feel marginalized and even disrespected. And it’s why some rap fans feel like they rarely get their turn to celebrate in the most-watched categories.

Will this be their year? I don’t think so. Taylor Swift’s 1989 (or perhaps Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color) will probably edge To Pimp a Butterfly for Album of the Year. And several songs, notably Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” have a better shot at winning Song of the Year than “Alright” does.

Let’s wait to hear what West has to say about that!

It’s only fair to point out that the Grammys are trying to make up for past slights to rap artists. Run-D.M.C.’s aforementioned “Walk This Way” was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame two years ago. This year the trio will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, making them the first rap act to receive that recognition. Two other rap recordings have been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame: Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) and “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five featuring Melle Mel & Duke Bootee (1982).