*This writer is not sure why Black music lovers expect the Grammy awards to be a celebration of all things Beyonce, but once again, because she was snubbed in the major categories at the 59th annual Grammy Awards, and with her third loss for album of the year, folks — fans and artists alike — are ready to boycott.
The tiresome conversation about why white folks (The Recording Academy) continue to overlook young, progressive black artists is back on the table, and it’s understandable to a point — given that the last black woman to win album of the year was Lauryn Hill in 1999.
As msn.com notes, the Recording Academy continue to face backlash for preferring to honor those with that complexion protection, and the fact that Adele won in the major categories this year has certainly left folks feeling frustrated.
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“More and more artists are going to boycott and step away,” Laura Stylez, a co-host of “Ebro in the Morning” on the New York hip-hop and R&B station Hot 97, said in an interview, citing the absence of Drake, Frank Ocean, Justin Bieber and Kanye West from this year’s show. “You don’t want to lose today’s generation. They feel like they’re not represented.”
Charlamagne Tha God, from “The Breakfast Club” on Power 105.1, named Grammy voters his “Donkey of the Day” for their album of the year selection. “I tell artists all the time: Go where you’re celebrated, not where you’re tolerated,” he said, adding that Beyoncé had been “robbed.”
“They absolutely, positively got it wrong,” he said. “The Grammy committee should all feel foolish this morning, because even Adele acknowledged that she should not have won album of the year.”
Bey’s sister Solange, herself a Grammy winner this year for best R&B performance, tweeted her dismay over Bey’s snub. She also linked to an earlier statement by singer Frank Ocean, who declined to submit his music for consideration at this year’s Grammys, calling the boycott his “Colin Kaepernick moment.”
After clueless Grammy producers insinuated that his absence was because of a disappointing performance at the 2013 show, Ocean called out the Recording Academy in a blog post for what he said was a “cultural bias,” referring specifically to last year’s show when Taylor Swift’s “1989” won album of the year over Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly.”
After Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” lost to Adele’s “25” on Sunday, Terrence Henderson, an executive at Kendrick’s label, Top Dawg Entertainment, co-signed Ocean’s previous statements, “Maybe Frank had a point,” he wrote on Twitter.
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