Rapper, producer and entrepreneur, Jay-Z called out the organisers of Grammys for failing to acknowledge and reward artistes that truly deserve their awards.
Jay-Z noted that artistes are robbed by the Recording Academy and that he had to sit out the Grammys when he was nominated but DMX was not.
Jay-Z said “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, I use the status of sippy cup for blue. Blue’s grown up now. She doesn’t take sippy cup and she has her own Grammys. Um, first of all, um, thanks to Dr. Dre. He said he knows he’s somewhere up. There he is. Andre Young. Thank you, sir. All the doors that you open, you know, showed us that we can be, um, rock stars, seeing you on the Rolling Stone. Obviously, there’s one DMC with the leathers and arrow Smith.
“But when it came out West, you took it to a whole new level, put us on covers, Rolling Stone, put us around the world. You and Snoop, all these jobs did all the records. Y ‘all broke. So thank you for this.
“It’s an honour to accept it, it’s an honour to accept it. And thank you to the black music collective for all the work that you guys do for scholarship for young creatives. And hopefully, you know, I’m adding to, you know, what you guys are doing out here.
Jay-Z explained why there was a boycott many years ago. “Obviously, uh, it’s, uh, it’s great to have an award for such an icon. How far we’ve come with, uh, Will Smith and them, Chazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince winning a first Grammy in 89. And boycotting because it wasn’t televised and then they went to like a hotel and watched the Grammys I didn’t even understand they….. it wasn’t a great boycott. But then 98, I took a page out of their book.
“I was nominated for best rap album and DMX had dropped two albums that year. They both were number one that year, shout out to DMX and he wasn’t nominated at all, so I boycotted and I watched the Grammys. I’m just saying we just want y ‘all to get it right.
“We love y’all. We love y ‘all We love y ‘all. We want y ‘all to get it right, at least get it close to right and obviously it’s subjective, y ‘all don’t gotta clap at everything,” the audience laughed and clapped some more.”
Jay-Z added “Obviously it’s subjective, you know because, it’s music and it’s opinion-based, but you know some things, you know I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and she never won album of the year, so even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that, the most Grammys but never won album of the year. That doesn’t work, you know.
“Some of you some of you gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed, some of you may get robbed, some of you don’t belong in the category.
“When I get nervous I tell the truth but outside of that, we got to keep showing up and forget the Grammys for a second, just in life. As my daughter stands and stares as me as nervous as I am, just in life you got to keep showing up, just keep showing up forget the Grammys, you got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve, until they call you chairman, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time, feel me? Jay-Z said as the audience cheered him.
Many music fans have echoed Jay-Z’s sentiment especially because Afrobeat stars like Davido, Burna Boy and Asake&Olamide who were all nominated in their category did not win.
