Jay-Z’s blockbuster Grammys speech has sparked a lot of conversations about whether the show truly respects and recognizes Black artists. It’s also led to discourse about how The Recording Academy has treated his superstar wife, Beyoncé, over the years.
While accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, he called out the academy’s continued snubs of Bey for Album of the Year. She’s been nominated four times, but somehow has never won. The “Renaissance” queen has 32 Grammys — the most by anyone in history, but she keeps getting shut out of the major categories.
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” Jay-Z said during the show.
Reactions to his comments have ranged from supportive to questioning whether someone as successful as Beyoncé can really be snubbed. One of Bey’s fellow Destiny’s Child bandmates is showing her love for Jay’s big moment. At the “Bob Marley: One Love” premiere on Tuesday, Kelly Rowland discussed her love for the “Empire State of Mind” rapper’s comments.
“Shawn Carter is one of the greatest men I know and his words ring so loud to me,” Rowland told Entertainment Tonight. “I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
“I’m just really happy for a lot of things that he said. I think that he made a lot of artists feel very seen and very heard in those minutes that he took on stage.”
Jay-Z telling The Recording Academy that their system is messed up while accepting a special achievement award on the Grammys stage is a message they can’t ignore. I’m not saying his words are going to drastically move the needle, but when added to the growing chorus of artists like Drake and The Weeknd, it lets the entire music world know that Black artists will not continue to smile and accept the disrespect without calling it out.