Chance The Rapper + Hip-Hop Win Regardless - Now, The Grammys Can Win Too [Opinion]
Chance The Rapper is nominated for seven Grammys — and for the first time in recent memory, the Academy isn’t playing catch-up.
Every year, we run through the award show’s ridiculous history with hip-hop. There’s the list of rap artists who have never won a Grammy Award: Nas, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Rakim, DMX, and the list goes on. While hip-hop was busy building up a legacy of legendary MCs and becoming a cultural force within America, the Grammys — the supposed crowning achievement of artistic excellence for musicians — consistently came up short. DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince won the first Grammy for Best Rap Album, and they famously boycotted the show because the award wasn’t televised; the award show never gave other artists any reason to act differently. Jay Z, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Rick Ross and Public Enemy have also bashed or boycotted the awards over the years.
Millennials saw the Grammys’ missteps firsthand in 2014, when the awards infamously gave Macklemoreand Ryan Lewis the award for Best Rap Album instead of Kendrick Lamar and his instant genre-shifting classic good kid, m.A.A.d city. Of course, the Grammys weren’t seen as being at the forefront of the culture, considering the previous transgressions. But the choice seemed so clear: Kendrick Lamar had a platinum plaque, critical acclaim, the major label cosigns, other artists following his lead and adulation from predecessors. Macklemore had a huge year with songs like “Thrift Shop” and the marriage equality anthem, “Same Love,” to be certain, but it was more of a pop moment than it was a hip-hop moment.
Once again, a generational hip-hop talent was disrespected by the powers that be.
Kendrick would be honored the following year with his single “i” and his masterpiece of an album, To Pimp A Butterfly, but as deserving as it was, it will often be seen as a makeup call instead of the obvious right decision. Many rap fans will never forgive the Academy for not recognizing Kendrick when it should have. Still, the awards have slowly been improving their recognition of black music. Robert Glasper’s Black Radio won the Best R&B Album Award in 2013, and seeing slept-on acts like Foreign Exchange receive nominations was encouraging. There was also the invention of the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Award — which, even though it has often been unclear and has had a tinge of otherization to it, it has still given a chance for artists like The Internet and The Weeknd a chance to flourish with hardware they may not have received under the award show’s previously rigid tastes. So despite the award show’s terrible history, it seems like they have actually been listening since its huge mistake two years ago.
In 2016, Chance The Rapper is the game's Most Valuable Player — not just for rap, but arguably for music as a whole. His latest mixtape Coloring Book was made available only on streaming services, not on retail. He had a head start on what fans wanted, and they followed: Coloring Book became the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard Top 200, and songs like “No Problem” were landing on radio. By the end of the year, Chance was as inescapable as most bubbling artists with major label deals and albums in stores have ever been, landing multiple magazine covers, endorsement deals, award show and TV performances, and high-profile collaborations. That, and the music was exceptional: Coloring Book was a powerful, timely exhibit of vibrant lyrics, exuberant vocals and production that beautifully integrated soul, gospel and live instruments without compromising any of the elements that make those genres so captivating. Chance was undeniably one of music’s brightest stars, and the industry took notice.
Before this year, The Grammys required all of its nominees have a bar code. Even though it seemed like an archaic rule considering the direction that rap was headed in, artists like Danny Brown and Run The Jewels would add their albums to digital stores to make them available for nomination. But Chance, more than anyone, represented the progressive side of the music industry. Imagine how the Grammys would have looked leaving out the most important artist from its award show. Chance The Rapper and hip-hop were winning regardless; the only question was whether the Grammys would straighten up?
But this year, the Recording Academy did the obvious and the unthinkable: they adapted to reflect the times. In June, they announced that streaming-only releases would be eligible for consideration as long as they were on at least one of the major streaming services that have a paid tier. It was a reasonable compromise: there still had to be a commercial component to the project, but landing it on such services respected legitimacy without being restricted by it. With the new rule, everybody wins: Chance The Rapper receives the recognition he deserves as one of music’s most promising young artists, and the Grammys gets to be on the right side of history for once. Nominations for acts like Anderson .Paak and KING (!) were further cause for celebration.
The Grammys still have work to do to improve and make up for lost time. Drake’s Views should have only received nominations for its singles, not for the whole body of work. The Best Rap Album category still has multiple snubs with the exclusion of albums like Travis Scott’s Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight, YG’s Still Brazy, and even after getting six Grammy nominations for his 2012 album Channel Orange, Frank Ocean intentionally left his album Blonde out of consideration for the awards because he disliked their nomination and awarding process. But progress comes in steps and with this year’s embrace of Chance The Rapper, it appears that the Grammys and the Recording Academy are moving forward instead of tripping over their feet.
William E. Ketchum III covers entertainment, pop culture, race and politics for the likes of The Guardian, NPR, Billboard and more. Follow him (and us!) on Twitter at @WEKetchum.