OPINION

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By Jack McGill

The Grammy Awards are supposed to be music awards of the highest level. It is an enormous honor to receive a Grammy as a musician or group. But over the years, fans and critics have begun to question the Recording Academy’s decisions in nominations and winners of certain awards. This year is no different.

Recently, the nominations for the 2023 Grammy Awards came out, and some of the choices were questionable. One is the award for Best Rap Album of the year. The albums that were nominated: GOD DID by DJ Khaled, I Never Liked You by Future, Come Home The Kids Miss You by Jack Harlow, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar, and Almost Dry by Pusha T. Harlow’s album was the most pronounced question mark within these nominations. Albums like Melt My Eyez See Your Future by Denzel Curry or 2000 by Joey Bada$$ are just better but slightly less popular rap albums that were snubbed. 

Another nomination that I was dumbfounded by was for Song of the Year. I find it laughable that the song, “abcdefu” by teen singer Gayle, was nominated for the award for SONG OF THE YEAR. “abcdefu” is a cheesy song that is a play on the order of the alphabet, which leads to Gayle singing the lyrics, “F*** you, and your mom and your sister and your job.” An interesting choice for the award, in my opinion. These are not the only interesting decisions made by the Academy, but they are the worst of the nominations made this year.

Rap artist Kendrick Lamar Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons user Fuzheado.

On the more positive side, I am glad to see the admiration that the Academy has shown to Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar, who is  nominated for seven Grammys, including Rap Song and Song of the year, Rap Album and Album of the Year, and Best Melodic Rap Performance. I hope to see him win at least one of these awards. I also would like to see Zach Bryan win a Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance, for his song “Something in the Orange.” For categories like Record of the Year, I wouldn’t mind whoever ends up winning them. This is due to the fact that for once the Academy did well on the nominations. They actually put some thought into nominating well-made songs instead of hype-filled, terrible songs.

This is not the first time in the history of the Grammys where people have questioned the decisions of the Recording Academy. In 2018, many people believed that Travis Scott’s Astroworld was a clear winner for the Rap Album of the Year. But the Academy decided on Invasion of Privacy by Cardi B, which was possibly the worst of the five albums nominated that year (Astroworld by Travis Scott, Invasion of Privacy by Cardi B, Swimming by Mac Miller, Daytona by Pusha T, and Victory Lap by Nipsey Hussle). When this happened in 2019, many fans stormed to social media to share their opinion on the blasphemous decision. Twitter user @n4yxmm stated, “How Cardi B won Best rap album over Astroworld is a(n) absolute joke till this day.” Another user, @jb347966, replied to a tweet saying, “Should have been Astroworld or Swimming. Both deserved it.” User @JollyDarkness said, “Astroworld is far better than invasion of privacy,,,,(Travis Scott) should have won (the) Grammy.” 

An 2020 article from Vulture highlighted the many snubs that the Grammys have committed over the years. In their opinion, the snubbing started in 1970 when Blood, Sweat & Tears’ album, Blood, Sweat & Tears, won over the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Johnny Cash’s At San Quentin, and Crosby Stills & Nash’s Crosby Stills & Nash.

In many people’s opinions, the Recording Academy has been snubbing artists and bands for a long while, and unfortunately it will most likely continue. I know that the artists and bands that I want to win awards won’t all win them, but some of them don’t even have a chance when some of these worse songs and albums are nominated. I believe that the Academy needs to take more consideration into thinking more about quality instead of hype and popularity. They just need to be better.

Featured image credit: flickr user Thank You (23 Millions+) views.