Stop Bitching About The Grammys!
In retrospect, I was foolish to think the Grammys would fuck around and give Wayne (or even MIA) the really big awards. I was kinda hoping that the Grammy people would give in and try to boost their ratings by letting some young acts steal a couple of wins but instead they stuck to their guns and do what they always do; nominate aggressive, youthful music but award passive songs suited for an older generation of listeners. And guess what? They still increased their ratings!
After album of the year was announced, Raki Kam (of OhWord and Internet Celeberites) had this inspired Tweet: “If you guys didn’t know Plant was taking it, you’ve never watched the Grammy’s before.” And with all the buzz/backlash I was seeing about the Grammy’s on Twitter, it made me wonder if anyone had ever seen the Grammy’s before.
Secondly, people seem to miss the point of the Grammys entirely. This Complex list highlights that by complaining about 6 of the last 9 Album of the Year awards (as if the awards never existed before 2000) saying that the younger, hipper, artist was robbed. Take a look at the people who did win, people like Ray Charles, Steely Dan, and Herbie Hancock. People who been around for decades. Sure, they may be irrelevant
to the younger generation but the younger generation considers music to be downloadable and disposable. Acts like Kayne West may be hip today, but will he still be around 10 years from now? What about 20 years? Na, not likely.[2]
You want a real rap album to win the award? Let’s rap can even last 20 more years. Even jazz–the most authentic example of “American Music”–only won twice. Herbie Hancocks win was the first in 43 years! And again, legends like Coltrane and Miles Davis never got to take home the big prize.
The big prize for me yesterday? Getting to see SLU, which was as good as it could have possibly been. I’ve seen the performance a few times now and it still rocks. The four rappers who performed at the Grammys (including Jay-Z who once boycotted the Grammys) all performed twice. Does hip hop not have enough stars? Certainly Nas and Lupe were in attendance, and they certainly make much more thoughtful music than someone like Lil Wayne.
But besides a performance like that, the Grammys is not a young people event, even if its about music which is inherently associated with youth culture. The people on the NARAS board don’t seem too connected with youth culture. The Grammys is an event for older people with more…”refined” tastes in music.
Come to think of it, what award show is really for hip hop heads? Certainly not the BET awards, or the MTV awards. And things like the Sauce awards or the Justo Mixtape awards are always ruined by goons and general fuckery. When will hip hop ever get its just due? Wherever it is, it won’t be at the Grammys. At least not for 10 or 15 more years. If at all.
[2] Most of these people need not worry, one day they’ll be old too but by then they’ll be on the NARAS board themselves and will be giving awards to artists they came up listening to instead of whoever is hot then.
