Same Old Rap: The Grammys' Race Toward Irrelevance
With hip-hop shut out of top categories in a year defined by the genre's most urgent voices, the Recording Academy mirrors America's racialized politics.
It's time to acknowledge that the Grammy Awards has a real race problem on its hands: It's racing toward total irrelevance.
Well before the night reached its disappointing apex, viewers were already feeling let down. "[S]till mad as hell that I kept watching the Grammys after Best New Artist," Nadeska Alexis, the moderator of Complex's hip-hop commentary show, tweeted during her morning-after commute today, echoing the sentiments of most hip-hop fans. She was referring to the loss by R&B darling SZA in the Best New Artist category, despite the breakout success of her debut album in 2017. The loss by Kendrick Lamar's Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate foreshadowed the rest of the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
