The hip hop community’s frayed relationship with The Grammy Awards dates back to the very first year a category for the genre was created. Its been 32 years since the Recording Academy decided to start acknowledging rappers with the Best Rap Performance award in 1989. Will Smith The Fresh Prince, DJ Jazzy Jeff, LL Cool J and Salt-N-Peppa boycotted the awards show then, and several other artists have followed suit, such as Public Enemy in ‘91, Jay Z in ‘02, and now The Weeknd.
Yesterday (March 13), Cardi B, the first female rapper to have a diamond song, took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the Grammys. While she clearly understands the contempt towards the awards show, Cardi chose to remind her 17 million followers on the app to, “congratulate the small black artist that got nominated.” “It’s their moment finally!” she wrote.”
In a statement typed in the notes section of her phone, Cardi wrote, “I do feel that there were some albums and songs that should have been considered for nominations, maybe next year they will get it right. However, let’s not forget the Grammy’s nominated soo many independent Black artists this year that don’t get the exposure by blogs, magazines, and other award shows.”
Cardi called out artists like D Smoke, Chika, Royce da 5’9”, Jay Electronica, Freddie Gibbs Kaytranada, Robert Glasper, Brittany Howard, and Free Nationals, Thundercat, among others.
“It’s frustrating sometimes to work and work on your craft and you feel overlooked because you might not look like others, are not mixxy, so you not always around other artists, you rap or sing about different material, you stay out of drama and the media or yet still not as popular,” she said. “However you’re talented ass fuck and one day you wake up and you find out you’re nominated and got a notice from one of the biggest award shows purely cause of your TALENT!”
“This is their moment too,” she added. “Let’s not overshadow it with feelings cause your favorite might not be on the list.”
The tweet drew mixed reviews from fans and trolls who either continued to debate the validity of the award show or chose to side with Cardi. One user posting from a Cardi B fan account, created a collage of the Black artists the “Up” rapper mentioned.
“I’m highlighting these underrated artist that got nominated and no one blinked a eye to congratulate them cause everybody throwing tantrums over artist that submit their music to a award show that they claim they hate,” she replied.
Robert Glasper, Chika, Royce 5’9”, and Mikal Kilgore were among the artists appreciate of Cardi’s support.
“Thanks for the shout out,” Glasper tweeted.
The Invasion of Privacy rapper has been nominated for eight Grammys. She won an award for Best Rap Album in 2019, and is scheduled to perform at the 2021 show.