The Grammy Awards are here and the nominations have rolled in. Along with nominations, comes hot takes. The internet caught fire with opinions, disgruntled fans, and more. The Bounce Gvng team got together to chop it up and share our thoughts.
Trez Bell
Will The Grammys ever get R&B right?
Being not only an R&B artist but an R&B fan, they got the R&B categories wrong. Why is Jhene Aiko in the Progressive R&B Album category, but not in the Best R&B Album category? Or a better question, why is she in the Progressive R&B Album category period? Where are the women? No Brandy? Kehlani? Teyana Taylor? You have Luke James, but none of those women?
Meanwhile, Country got it right (the women ran the year).
Sam Mandell
Yeah, it’s not really surprising.
They tried too hard, especially with the “Best Rap Album” category. I’m happy for Freddie Gibbs, but Jay Electronica was not it. A lot of picks I just flat out disagree with.
Shout out to Snarky Puppy though. They grabbed a nomination for the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album . They’re one of my favorites.
Smart Boy Beatz
I acknowledge the fact that the recording academy has a lot of pressure on their shoulders to accurately represent the creatives in the music industry. Everyone works extremely hard on their craft only to have it held to a standard based on a criteria that does not accurately depict the genre or field that they actually operate in.
The times have changed and music has changed with it. It is only right that the standards the music is measured by change with it. We need to see more of these iconic women making huge impacts acknowledged in the “Rap” category.
Darren Gooden
I thought the Hip Hop noms were surprising. Much love to all the nominees, but they missed some people. They are great rappers, however, I thought Pop Smoke deserved a nomination too. Griselda had great albums that could have been nominated also. Apparently, Big Sean’s album released after the cut-off. I wish his album dropped in time.
How were no women nominated for Best R&B Album?! Are you kidding me? They forgot about Brandy.
They put Jhené Aiko, Chloe X Halle, and Thundercat in the same Progressive R&B album category. This is weird.
Wait, wait, wait! The Weekend didn’t get nominated…for anything?
This year is confusing. I’d love to see how the nominations were made and decided. Most years, people will complain about who wins. That will happen, usually, but this time the noms were messy. They threw me off in many categories.
Latnie
Winning a grammy doesn’t hold any weight anymore. If people keep getting snubbed we shouldn’t hold this award in high regard any longer. Lil Baby not being nominated for best rap album is almost as bad as Kendrick losing to Macklemore.
Hayden THC
Could this be the most disappointing nominations list we’ve ever seen from the Grammys? In my opinion, it might be. Here’s the thing, it’s not necessarily the people/projects that received nominations. And, it’s not even necessarily those that weren’t (even though there were some glaring omissions). At the end of the day, the problem is the huge disconnect between the Grammys and the industry they are trying to represent.
Every year it’s the same issue. We see categories/nominations/etc popping up every year that feel like reactions to backlash from the previous year. Problem is, it feels like these “solutions” are coming from people who don’t understand the industry and who don’t really understand the culture. People get upset about Igor being in the rap category since most people considered it a pop album. The solution? Fill the category with only “lyrical” rappers who would definitely NOT be confused with pop.
The problem is, where’s any of the Griselda squad? Where’s Eminem? RTJ? Where’s Pop Smoke? Anyone tapped into the culture and into the industry would know that all these acts put out great projects this year and definitely deserved a nod.
I didn’t even mention the glaring problem with all the women shut out of the R&B category, such as Teyana Taylor, Brandy, and Kehlani who all had some of the best R&B projects out this year.
But again, there needs to be a change. This feels like a bunch of old white men in congress making decisions on the lives of minorities they have no way of relating to. Don’t just hear the words and read the tweets. Really UNDERSTAND. Cause I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I would love to have a nominations list I’m really excited about and proud of. And unfortunately, if I’m keeping it real, this one ain’t it.
Check out other music related articles here.
