Jay-Z & Beyoncé Showed Up Late To The Grammys
It was a big evening for Beyoncé at the Grammys who led the nominations and now, broke the record for most Grammys won by any woman and any singer, male or female. She currently has 28 Grammys and as mentioned during her acceptance speech, she has been doing this since she was a child. The 28 Grammys also makes her tied with Quincy Jones for the most Grammys won by a living person. Plus, Blue Ivy picked up a Grammy, as well.
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Even though it was a massive night for Beyoncé, many suspected that she wasn’t about to pull up to the show. She declined to perform last night, and with the recent uptick of artists boycotting the Grammys, many suspected that Jay-Z and Beyoncé wouldn’t have pulled up at all. They did, just halfway through the show. The power couple was seen halfway through the socially-distanced show right before Beyoncé’s consecutive wins.
The couple was seen in black masks as a camera did a quick close-up on them but Twitter had much to say already. Many had joked that the two were casually pulling up after dinner just to see Megan Thee Stallion and grab Blue Ivy’s Grammy.
Even though Jay-Z didn’t scoop any wins as a performer, he did take away two awards for Beyoncé’s “Black Parade” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” remix as a songwriter.
Check out some of the best reactions to Jay and Bey’s appearance at the Grammys last night.
Beyoncé’s Daughter Blue Ivy Becomes Second Youngest Grammy Winner
Last night, Grammy history was made with both Beyoncé and her oldest daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Beyoncé became the most decorated woman in Grammy history on Sunday, earning her 28th award for Best R&B Performance for her song “Black Parade.” Blue Ivy won her very first Grammy on Sunday for Best Music Video for “Brown Skin Girl,” which the eldest Carter sibling is featured in. SAINtJHN and WizKid are also featured on the track, making it a Grammy win for them as well.
9-year old Blue Ivy Carter is now the second youngest person to ever win a Grammy, with the youngest being 8-year-old Leah Peasall, 11-year-old Hannah Peasall, and 14-year-old Sarah Peasall in 2002. The sisters covered the Carter Sisters classic “In the Highways” for the soundtrack of George Clooney’s film O Brother, Where Art Thou? The soundtrack won Album of the Year at the 2002 Grammy Awards. The next youngest person to win a Grammy after Blue Ivy is LeAnn Rimes, who won Best New Artist in 1997 at the age of 14.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Grammy Awards were certainly different than usual, especially after a two-month delay. Some artists, like The Weeknd, have boycotted the ceremony entirely out of spite that their awards were “snubbed” or that the ceremony is corrupt and rigged. Whether or not this is true, milestones were certainly passed at this year’s Grammy Awards.
We’re sending congratulations to Blue Ivy for this achievement!
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Kash Doll Goes Nude For 29th Birthday
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Kaytranada Reacts To Winning Two Grammy Awards
Montreal-based artist Kaytranada recently secured a major win at last night’s Grammy Awards, taking home two prizes for Best Dance Recording and Best Dance or Electronic Album. Though the win took place ahead of the televised ceremony, Kaytranda shared a few words by way of a video acceptance speech, his excitement evident. “This is crazy, this is insane,” marveled the producer. “I’m taking this one back to Montreal.”
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Though he was unable to complete the hat trick, ultimately losing out Best New Artist to Megan Thee Stallion, that didn’t stop Kaytranada from celebrating the milestone win on his Instagram page. Sharing a few pictures from the ceremony, the Canadian artist described the whole experience as “Surreal,” elated by validation his fans have long deemed to be deserved.
It should be noted that Kaytra’s Best Dance Recording win came for his “10%” single, which featured a guest appearance from Kali Uchis. The Best Dance Or Electronic Album was for his sophomore drop Bubba, which landed back in December with features from GoldLink, Pharrell, Mick Jenkins, and more. Though the Grammys are not without fault, it’s certainly nice to see talented artists like Kaytranada earning validation for everything he’s brought to the table. Check out his celebration below, and show some love to Kaytranada in the comments below.
Lil Wayne Shares A Message: “F*k The Grammys”
The biggest annual event in music has come and gone with the Grammy Awards happening on Sunday night in Los Angeles. This year’s celebration was as controversial as any other year, with artists including The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, and others boycotting the awards show over “secret committees” and more shady business. You can officially add one of hip-hop’s most well-respected legends among the group of artists that aren’t impressed with the Recording Academy after getting more decisions wrong last night, as Lil Wayne has made his stance on the Grammys loud and clear.
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“F*k the Grammys,” said Lil Wayne on Twitter. The rapper was nominated in one category, Best Recording Package, for the art direction on his latest album Funeral. Aside from that, the legend was not nominated in any categories at the show. In fact, the last time he won a Grammy was in 2016, for his feature on “No Problem”.
At the end of last year, Wayne previously called out the Grammys, saying, “As an artist, when I see da Grammys coming up & I’m not involved nor invited; I wonder. Is it me , my musik, or just another technicality? I look around w respect & wonder competitively am I not worthy?! Then I look around & see 5 Grammys looking bak at me & I go to the studio.”
Tunechi’s gripe with the awards show likely comes from his own snubs over the years, but it could also do with his artist Nicki Minaj’s position on the event. In November, Minaj called out the Recording Academy for giving the Best New Artist award to Bon Iver instead of her in 2012. She was trending again on Twitter after this year’s ceremony, drawing comparisons to Doja Cat after the star was snubbed in all of her nominated categories.
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What do you think of the Grammy Awards? Do you stand with Lil Wayne, The Weeknd, and the countless others that aren’t vibing with the organization?
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Lil Wayne Says ‘F@!k the Grammys’
The 2021 Grammys Made An Effort To Honor Hip-Hop That Normally Gets Overlooked
From the fraught first year that the Grammys acknowledged hip-hop, it was clear that the then-emerging genre and the old-Hollywood music business establishment that puts the show on each year would never see eye-to-eye. Hip-hop is a youth movement; the average age of the Recording Academy was well into middle age until very, very (seriously, like 2018) recently. Hip-hop comes from the experiences of mainly underserved Black, Latin, and Asian creators; the Grammys — again, until recently — have always been very, very white.
And while the Grammys have made a concerted effort to address its shortcomings regarding its treatment of rap and hip-hop, the genre itself has undergone massive changes since The Fresh Prince first led a hip-hop boycott of the 1989 ceremony to protest the Grammys not televising the new Best Rap Performance award. For one thing, The Fresh Prince is now better known for his extensive filmography and the extreme dad energy of his Instagram and TikTok posts than he is for his mic skills.
Meanwhile, the very attributes a rap performer must display to be taken seriously have changed from night to day. Rather than reeling off rapid-fire punchlines about how “Fresh” you are, you’re more likely to switch breezily from chattering double-time cadences to cool crooning. The synthesizers and programmed drums of the early years have given way to cavernous 808s thundering away over warped samples from classical music and drumless soul loops spinning away behind intricate, ultra-violent drug tales.
So, it’d be difficult for the Grammys to “get it right” even under the best circumstances. Yet somehow, incredibly, that’s exactly what the show managed to do this year — even if no one will ever be truly satisfied with the results. The field, which included projects from California newcomer D Smoke, Midwestern coke rap kingpin Freddie Gibbs, New Orleans mystic Jay Electronica, New York veteran Nas, and Motor City rhyme mechanic Royce Da 5’9, represented one of the most balanced group’s in recent memory, pulling from multiple regions, generations, and sounds, with one thing in common: A commitment to the original tenets of “dope rhymes over dope beats.”
And while any rap fan could find plenty to complain about — once again, there was a dearth of women nominated, despite the sharp uptick in overall representation over the past several years, and no artist nominated was under 30 — there’s going to be a breaking point between having legitimate concerns and just plain moving the goalposts. In prior years, the complaint went, “The Grammys are too commercial,” only selecting projects from artists with sales numbers and widespread press, letting the importance streams overtake the value of artistic vision.
While this is a position that’s already hard enough to defend, considering the subjective nature of artistic vision in the first place, the fact remains that the Academy took long strides in addressing those concerns this year. Acknowledging longtime underground favorites like Freddie and Royce, paramount musicianship from D Smoke, and the bulletproof legacy of someone like Nas, the Grammys sent a clear message: That they heard those prior years’ complaints and took them seriously.
So, of course, it’s only natural that rap fans find something else to take issue with — namely, Nas’ win over Freddie. While both albums were collaborative efforts between two of rap’s top technicians and a pair of well-established producers in Alchemist and Hit-Boy, the fact remains that Nas is the more recognizable artist between the two among Grammy voters. He’s been a perennial contender for Best Rap Album, and while playing “what if” is always dicey, it’s almost certain that a win for Freddie over Nas would have drawn just as many vocal protests after the Queensbridge icon was once again “snubbed,” adding to his double-digit list of losses.
The fact someone like Freddie Gibbs could even receive a nod is a victory in itself — especially when you consider how many other artists were considered snubs this year. Lil Baby had one of the most-streamed albums of 2020, a No. 1 single in “The Bigger Picture,” and many rap fans’ hopes riding on him to legitimize the trap rap movement in the mainstream purview. Despite multiple female artists releasing worthy projects in 2020 or late 2019, none were nominated. No year’s field could ever be perfect, but the Gibbs nomination proves the Grammys are trying.
It also shows that maybe just adding more Black, female, or “young” voters isn’t quite enough. There’s no guarantee that these measures will ensure significant variance between voters’ tastes — after all, Grammy voters also tend to run more “intellectual” and “refined,” which helps explain why rough-edged rappers like Lil Baby might fly under their radars. That said, the show’s producers picked up the slack elsewhere; newcomers like DaBaby, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, and Roddy Ricch not only appeared on the show — one of the biggest platforms to help them launch their future bids for mainstream recognition — but Megan also won for other categories, while Chika and Doja Cat were mentioned among the Best New Artists of 2021.
Those moments count too. After all, Nas’ win was as much a result of his stature among Academy voters as it was a consolation for all the other golden gramophones he never got to display on his mantel. Cardi B pointed out as much before the show; just giving these under-the-radar artists the look helps them further their careers, which is the real goal. The Grammys aren’t the be-all, end-all. Like Nipsey Hussle — another Best Rap Album “snub” who won a different award posthumously the next year — said, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Perhaps that’s the view rap fans should take with the Grammys’ halting progress toward a more perfect relationship with hip-hop. While rap is too broad and diverse a genre to ever be able to honor every artist in every nook and cranny of rap’s various versions, there’s nothing wrong with giving them credit where it’s due, even as we ask them to consider angles they haven’t yet. That’s what they’re trying to do — heck, it’s what we should all aspire to do — and when even getting “snubbed” helps artists so much, that’s an effort that should be appreciated.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Azealia Banks Calls Out Doja Cat After Saying She Deserved A Grammy
A few weeks ago, Azealia Banks was bashing Doja Cat at every turn, calling out the rapper on social media and body-shaming her, calling her fat and bullying her on Instagram. After realizing that Doja had previously praised Azealia’s music publicly, her opinion of the “Say So” hitmaker seemingly changed. While Azealia has held less malice toward Doja Cat, she clearly still doesn’t love the Los Angeles-based singer. Still, she recognizes that Doja probably should have won a Grammy Award at Sunday night’s ceremony.
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“Dojacat deserved a Grammy,” wrote Azealia on Instagram Stories, before theorizing that she wasn’t awarded because of her work with Dr. Luke, who was previously involved in a year-long legal war with Kesha, who accused the producer of sexual, verbal, physical, and emotional abuse. “It’s def the Dr. Luke politic.”
Azealia’s commentary over the night was entertaining, including her reaction to Beyoncé winning her record-breaking twenty-eighth Grammy, which Banks says was “deserved”. She also spoke about her arch-rival Kanye West’s win, which she says gives her hope after the artist shared a video of himself urinating inside one of his Grammy Awards last year. “The fact that Kanye won a Grammy after peeing on one in the toilet gives me hope,” wrote Azealia. “I’ve gotta make a gospel song and pee on someones leg.”
Instagram
Instagram
While she previously seemed peeved that Doja Cat didn’t win a Grammy, Azealia later switched her tone again, calling out the rapper for allegedly texting her and asking her to stop body-shaming cupcakKe. “But tbh the nerve of doja to try and check me via text about body shaming cupcakKe (who threatened to shoot sukihana’s three children in the head and also called me a skinny crackhead before I even knew what a cupcakKe was) when doja works for an entire rapist. Maybe that’s the karma she gets for trying to get smart with her mother (me) and not staying in a child’s place. Hmmmph.”
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What do you think about this?