savagedreams said:

im kind of confused. i dvdr'd the show just to see the performances i wanted to, but was i mistaken or did i not see black artists accepting awards, AND black artists performing? now if shes just mad because artists of no substance are the ones on the show thats the same for black or white.

Most of the RnB awards were given out before the televised awards and this has happend a lot over the last couple of years. The only African-American artist that are allowed to perform are usually rappers and maybe someone like John Legend. A Stevie Wonder might make the cut and that is about it.

laurarichardson said:

jackson35 said:

WHEN BLACK ARTIST PRODUCE QUALITY WORK,THEY WILL GET THEIR PROPS.

What planet are you on. I could list about 20 RnB artist that put out go stuff but black radio will not play anything that is real RnB and thus the music does not get heard and the artist do not get nominated and allowed to perform.

We have our own shows for a reason. At the least they could have let Charlie Wilson perform or given the Isley's their award on the televised show.

the black awards shows are toast too....

cats coming on stage saggin, showing their crack.....

cussin on live tv.......kids emulate what they see......

all of it is toast..........

at some point, we have to speak out against this stuff

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

BlaqueKnight said:

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

excellent excellent analysis

the Pop Ascension movement who's origin can be traced back to 1987 has virtually destroyed authentic black musical represenation and exploited all its virtue until everything is tapped out now, leaving the reservior that took centuries to cultivate all but null and void....obliterated

I think it's really sad what has happened, all for the sake of a chosen few to be the benefactors of all the blood sweat and tear so many people gave to making real contribution to the arts

I think BlaqueKnight is absolutely right that the industry wants to have as few people as possible in the spotlight. The industry is in freefall. No one is spending money on recorded music. That means they have to try to maximize profits on the small number of people who are doing great right now. Radio is more conservative than ever, won't take chances trying to break anything new, so they leave the same songs in their playlist endlessly.

But I'm a little mystified at the charge that no black people were allowed to perform on the show when I saw Beyonce, Jay Z, John Legend, K Lamar and everybody in the Daft Punk live band. That's black representation proportional to the population of America, at least.

Scorp said:

laurarichardson said:

What planet are you on. I could list about 20 RnB artist that put out go stuff but black radio will not play anything that is real RnB and thus the music does not get heard and the artist do not get nominated and allowed to perform.

We have our own shows for a reason. At the least they could have let Charlie Wilson perform or given the Isley's their award on the televised show.

the black awards shows are toast too....

cats coming on stage saggin, showing their crack.....

cussin on live tv.......kids emulate what they see......

all of it is toast..........

at some point, we have to speak out against this stuff

--------- NAACP, Essence and the Trumpet awards are not like that. We also have loads of Neo Soul artist who are not wearing sagging pants. I still say the mainstream media wants to show the worst of our community.

bobzilla77 said:

I think BlaqueKnight is absolutely right that the industry wants to have as few people as possible in the spotlight. The industry is in freefall. No one is spending money on recorded music. That means they have to try to maximize profits on the small number of people who are doing great right now. Radio is more conservative than ever, won't take chances trying to break anything new, so they leave the same songs in their playlist endlessly.

But I'm a little mystified at the charge that no black people were allowed to perform on the show when I saw Beyonce, Jay Z, John Legend, K Lamar and everybody in the Daft Punk live band. That's black representation proportional to the population of America, at least.

Beyonce, Jay Z, John Legend, K Lamar and everybody in the Daft Punk live band.

---------

I think these people suck and are not the best that we can offer. Why are the RnB awards not given out on the televised show?

laurarichardson said:

Scorp said:

the black awards shows are toast too....

cats coming on stage saggin, showing their crack.....

cussin on live tv.......kids emulate what they see......

all of it is toast..........

at some point, we have to speak out against this stuff

--------- NAACP, Essence and the Trumpet awards are not like that. We also have loads of Neo Soul artist who are not wearing sagging pants. I still say the mainstream media wants to show the worst of our community.

this is true

First, although I agree with some of what India had to say, I’d like to point out two things: Does anyone remember Steve Stoute taking out a $40,000 ad in New York Times in 2011 to put the Grammys committee on blast? That year, although he acknowledged that hip hop music had been diminished as an art form by the organization, he criticized the Grammys for using big names to usher in the ratings, only to give the award to lesser known artists. That year, Esperanza Spalding (a lesser known black jazz artist) won over Justin Bieber, who achieved mega mainstream success. Steve asked:

Does the Grammys intentionally use artists for their celebrity, popularity and cultural appeal when they already know the winners and then program a show against this expectation?

His letter that year, contradicts what happened at the Grammys with Macklemore this year. People felt that Macklemore won over Kendrick because he was a bigger name with more commercial success.

So the question is, has the voting process changed in three years? That year, quite a few artists who were not mainstream won trophies including Arcade Fire (a group that a lot of people had never heard of), who snatched the biggest award of the night — Album Of The Year. And folks were definitely PISSED.

This year, Darius Rucker (a black artist) won “Best Country Solo Performance” but no one’s really talking about that.

Grammys aside, here’s a stat from Billboard that may blow your mind.

According to the site, not one black artist had a number #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 2013. Nope! Not one. Who remembers when Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” and “Baby Boy” spent a combined 17 weeks at #1 back in 2003? What about 50′s “In Da Club” nine-week chokehold? Yeah, those days are gone.

Per Time:

According to writer Chris Molanphy, who surveys the pop charts, in a piece for Slate, this is the first time this had happened in the Billboard chart ‘s 55 years. It represents a huge contrast to 10 years ago when a person of a color recorded every chart-topping hit. Rather, African-American artists were featured on other artists’ songs last year, such as Rihanna on Eminem’s “The Monster” and T.I. and Pharrell on Robin Thicke’s inescapable summer hit “Blurred Lines.”

In a similar role reversal, Molanphy also cited that white artists topped the No. 1 spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart in 44 out of the 52 weeks last year.

Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color…and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.

Now, what is going on there? Why aren’t black artists topping the charts anymore? Are they not being supported? Or is it the music that’s changing? The lines are getting pretty blurred.

Even the BET Awards and Soul Train Awards had to acknowledge Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake in R&B/Soul categories last year.

What are your thoughts on the Grammys and India’s letter?

Sidebar: I find it odd that Drake had a huge album last year but hasn’t made it into any of these Grammy conversations. He had five nominations and also walked home empty-handed. In knowing that this would probably happen, he also skipped the show (along with Kanye and Rihanna.) In a recent interview in Toronto (before the show), he said:

To be recognized in any capacity for the music that we make is great, (but) I don’t think the Grammys make or break any artist. I don’t think anybody should live or die by the Grammys — that’s my opinion. I think it’s a great organization and obviously (has a) deep-rooted history in music, but at the same time, if I go home with no Grammys I still feel great about what we did. “I think anybody should feel that way.

Honestly I find this complete horse crap and total utter bullshit.

Last year Miguel & Frank Ocean DOMINATED the evening, they're black, so I guess Indie Arie has to bitch about the year when non-blacks dominate? What's even up with this year? There is Daft Punk and they're FRENCH, I hate it when y'all just want BLACK people to do everything and succeed in everything, Pharrell is black, Stevie Wonder was there!! Nile Rodgers!

The only snub was Kendrick Lamar losing everything and that has to do with voting I suppose not cuz he's black, and not nominating Janelle Monae and I guess because her album wasn't a success which is a shameful thing to do as a Grammy comittee memeber. (Not nominate something just cuz It isn't successfull comercially)

All I'm saying is, look at 1999, Lauryn Hill won every award, so Kanye West, JAY Z and a lot of black musicians did over the past decade.

I think Chuck D had it right 25 years ago. We didn't expect the music we were listening to in 1989 to appeal to the people that run awards shows.... black people or white people.

The Grammys are just another authority figure. We gave them the finger.

On an unrelated note, it makes me laugh to read Trent Reznor complain that he gets no respect from the god damn Grammys. Dude, you make records about wanting to fuck us like an animal. You don't trade in the business of respect.

Laura, you're rntitled to your opinion about those artists, but to say "the wrong people were there", is a different argument from "there were no black people there".

bobzilla77 said:

I think BlaqueKnight is absolutely right that the industry wants to have as few people as possible in the spotlight. The industry is in freefall. No one is spending money on recorded music. That means they have to try to maximize profits on the small number of people who are doing great right now. Radio is more conservative than ever, won't take chances trying to break anything new, so they leave the same songs in their playlist endlessly.

But I'm a little mystified at the charge that no black people were allowed to perform on the show when I saw Beyonce, Jay Z, John Legend, K Lamar and everybody in the Daft Punk live band. That's black representation proportional to the population of America, at least.

and Dana Owens ie Queen Latifah

BlaqueKnight said:

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

Trayvon Martin (racial maybe maybe not) on both males side I just see it as a Male ego thing.

.

sometimes though the people affected, see it too much, see it where it isn't. reading some of the posts above, did she not see other black artists on the stage this year? Did she not see the previous years winners performers etc Or was she hoping for more 'quality' black artists of her choosing... Or was this the last straw for her not receiving something or not being acknowledged because she's not 'popular' as others

.

I cool member here and I a year ago where talking about UTCM and he mentioned there were no black people in UTCM except for Jerome & the 'witchy' woman Christopher runs from etc and then I took screen shots of all the black/mulatto people from the chic women at the beginning that Christopher pics out the flower for the black kid playing basketball, the waitress, the ballerina all the black people at the parties etc etc and we had a laugh,

.

Now the rest of your post I definately agree with .

Gunsnhalen said:

I was with her till she said we need the BET awards. We don't... we really don't

lol true, a lot of people are just getting acknowledged because they are black or the new chocolate of the month.

.

And Patti LaBelle sings and gets an award at every show even the one where she messed up Purple Rain. I just don't know what Patti is doing for all this recognition. She can SANG but a mediocre performer, in my opinion.

.

Even when Prince gets an award, is it because he is an ICON or is it because his album was just killer.

BlaqueKnight said:

jackson35 said:

WHEN BLACK ARTIST PRODUCE QUALITY WORK,THEY WILL GET THEIR PROPS.

You sound really ignorant with that statement.

PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR LIST OF QUALITY MUSIC THAT BLACK ARTIST PUT OUT LAST YEAR ?

laurarichardson said:

jackson35 said:

WHEN BLACK ARTIST PRODUCE QUALITY WORK,THEY WILL GET THEIR PROPS.

What planet are you on. I could list about 20 RnB artist that put out go stuff but black radio will not play anything that is real RnB and thus the music does not get heard and the artist do not get nominated and allowed to perform.

We have our own shows for a reason. At the least they could have let Charlie Wilson perform or given the Isley's their award on the televised show.

COULD U LIST THEM PLEASE.

Shawy89 said:

Honestly I find this complete horse crap and total utter bullshit.

Last year Miguel & Frank Ocean DOMINATED the evening, they're black, so I guess Indie Arie has to bitch about the year when non-blacks dominate? What's even up with this year? There is Daft Punk and they're FRENCH, I hate it when y'all just want BLACK people to do everything and succeed in everything, Pharrell is black, Stevie Wonder was there!! Nile Rodgers!

The only snub was Kendrick Lamar losing everything and that has to do with voting I suppose not cuz he's black, and not nominating Janelle Monae and I guess because her album wasn't a success which is a shameful thing to do as a Grammy comittee memeber. (Not nominate something just cuz It isn't successfull comercially)

All I'm saying is, look at 1999, Lauryn Hill won every award, so Kanye West, JAY Z and a lot of black musicians did over the past decade.

--------- Miguel did not dominate the show and Frank Ocean gave one of the worst performances in Grammy history.

1999 was a long time ago. Once again why can we not see the RnB awards presented in primetime.

laurarichardson said:

Shawy89 said:

Honestly I find this complete horse crap and total utter bullshit.

Last year Miguel & Frank Ocean DOMINATED the evening, they're black, so I guess Indie Arie has to bitch about the year when non-blacks dominate? What's even up with this year? There is Daft Punk and they're FRENCH, I hate it when y'all just want BLACK people to do everything and succeed in everything, Pharrell is black, Stevie Wonder was there!! Nile Rodgers!

The only snub was Kendrick Lamar losing everything and that has to do with voting I suppose not cuz he's black, and not nominating Janelle Monae and I guess because her album wasn't a success which is a shameful thing to do as a Grammy comittee memeber. (Not nominate something just cuz It isn't successfull comercially)

All I'm saying is, look at 1999, Lauryn Hill won every award, so Kanye West, JAY Z and a lot of black musicians did over the past decade.

--------- Miguel did not dominate the show and Frank Ocean gave one of the worst performances in Grammy history.

1999 was a long time ago. Once again why can we not see the RnB awards presented in primetime.

laurarichardson said:

Shawy89 said:

Honestly I find this complete horse crap and total utter bullshit.

Last year Miguel & Frank Ocean DOMINATED the evening, they're black, so I guess Indie Arie has to bitch about the year when non-blacks dominate? What's even up with this year? There is Daft Punk and they're FRENCH, I hate it when y'all just want BLACK people to do everything and succeed in everything, Pharrell is black, Stevie Wonder was there!! Nile Rodgers!

The only snub was Kendrick Lamar losing everything and that has to do with voting I suppose not cuz he's black, and not nominating Janelle Monae and I guess because her album wasn't a success which is a shameful thing to do as a Grammy comittee memeber. (Not nominate something just cuz It isn't successfull comercially)

All I'm saying is, look at 1999, Lauryn Hill won every award, so Kanye West, JAY Z and a lot of black musicians did over the past decade.

--------- Miguel did not dominate the show and Frank Ocean gave one of the worst performances in Grammy history.

1999 was a long time ago. Once again why can we not see the RnB awards presented in primetime.

Frank got up on stage 2 times and performed, the media was all about him the next day, and Miguel deliviered a nice performance of Adorn that many liked..

The only problem with this show is that the R&b/Hip hop categories were presented in the pre-telecast and it's NO BIG DEAL, last year they presented them live while country was in the pre-telecast and each year they pick a categorie to overshadow.. It's normal.

I stopped watching these awards shows over 15 years ago the only reason I tuned in to this year's Grammys is because a few of my favorite artists were performing

jackson35 said:

laurarichardson said:

What planet are you on. I could list about 20 RnB artist that put out go stuff but black radio will not play anything that is real RnB and thus the music does not get heard and the artist do not get nominated and allowed to perform.

We have our own shows for a reason. At the least they could have let Charlie Wilson perform or given the Isley's their award on the televised show.

COULD U LIST THEM PLEASE.

----- I only came up with 19 but these artist had singles or cd out this year. And if they did not have anything out it would not matter since we just saw a horde of artist on the Grammies who have not put out anything this year at all. We have talent the mainstream just does not want you to see it.

1.Eric Benet,

2. Anthony Hamilton,

3.Ron Isley, ,

4.Charlie Wilson,

5.India Arie,

6.Miguel,

7.Drake,

8Tamar Braxton,

9Avant,

10Keke Wyatt,

11Chrisette Michele,

12Marsha Ambrosius,

13 Daly

14. Robert Glasper

15. Jill Scott

16. Kem

17. Janelle Monáe

18. Toni Braxton

19 Babyface

Shawy89 said:

laurarichardson said:

--------- Miguel did not dominate the show and Frank Ocean gave one of the worst performances in Grammy history.

1999 was a long time ago. Once again why can we not see the RnB awards presented in primetime.

Frank got up on stage 2 times and performed, the media was all about him the next day, and Miguel deliviered a nice performance of Adorn that many liked..

The only problem with this show is that the R&b/Hip hop categories were presented in the pre-telecast and it's NO BIG DEAL, last year they presented them live while country was in the pre-telecast and each year they pick a categorie to overshadow.. It's normal.

media was all about him the next day

The media was saying how horrible he was and for once they were right. He has the stage presence of a fish.

BlaqueKnight said:

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

Mr. Scarface predict a while back that within the next 25 years that mainstream hip-hop/rap was going to suffer the same fate as rock & roll: it will be mostly white.

Some of us, including myself, may not like the way he said it. But he's definitely telling the truth.

Playing 's Advocate a little bit . . .

india.arie, no stranger to straddling the line between consciousness and pretension, is factually wrong.

She says all of black music lost at the Grammys. Here is a partial list of artists of color who won awards:

Pharrell Williams

Nile Rodgers
Jay-Z
Lalah Hathaway.
Gary Clark Jr.
Alicia Keys.
Bruno Mars
Darius Rucker.

Ziggy Marley.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Gregory Porter

Several of those winners performed on stage. Bicker about the quality of the music the winners made. That's fine and even justified in some instances. But they are spread across the age and genre spectrum.

So what she's really saying is that black artists making quality music -- the artists that she likes and respects -- did not get recognized and as a result validated by their peers. I would agree in many cases. But isn't this the same artist who's made a name and career preaching about not needing validation from society at large?

This is especially so for her complaints about the hip-hop winners. I. Mean. Really. Since when has any hip-hop head worth his or her salt believed that the Grammys are a barometer of quality hip-hop? The last hip-hop honor that truly meant anything was The Source's 5 Mic designation from the early to mid 90's. Otherwise, hip-hop fans don't worry about sales or awards.

arie really seems to be complaining about HER TASTES not being validated. which is what purists and critics complain about all the time.

Again, this does not mean that arie isn't right about the lack of support and recognition for black musicians. It just means that maybe she went about this the wrong way, because her facts are wrong. Black artists weren't excluded as a whole, but many of the ones arie deems deserving of an award or showcase were.

TonyVanDam said:

BlaqueKnight said:

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

Mr. Scarface predict a while back that within the next 25 years that mainstream hip-hop/rap was going to suffer the same fate as rock & roll: it will be mostly white.

Some of us, including myself, may not like the way he said it. But he's definitely telling the truth.

But as with jazz and blues, white audiences will also (help) play the role of curators for underground hip-hop. It's happening already.

[Edited 1/29/14 14:15pm]

TonyVanDam said:

BlaqueKnight said:

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

Mr. Scarface predict a while back that within the next 25 years that mainstream hip-hop/rap was going to suffer the same fate as rock & roll: it will be mostly white.

Some of us, including myself, may not like the way he said it. But he's definitely telling the truth.

I said the same thing on this very site, about RnB over a year ago and was crucified on here for it.

Scorp said:

the music industry will have to crash under is own demise before we can even think about turning it around

THIS


And ALL of THIS Right here:

Its become a common practice these days to point the finger at someone calling out bias and call them racist. WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you forgotten the atrocities of the past as well as the present? Trayvon anyone? Black Americans understand racism on a deeper level than anyone else in America ever could.

Everyone thinks a bully is tough until they find out that the bully who punches all of the time can't take a punch.

I digress.

The Grammy awards are basically industry folk voting on name recognition and it always has been this. You have people voting on music they don't listen to all of the time. They (the acedemy) have second-shelved R&B because their sponsors have spent billions on a campaign that has pushed hip-hop to the forefront and assigned it to be the full representation of the black music spectrum. In order to spread a misnomer like that, you have to bury any and all other "threats" to the lie you are presenting.

I predicted this years ago on this very site and since then we have seen Eminem come, be declared "the best rapper ever" by mainstream media and go and now we are seeing Macklemore pushed to the forefront and since R&B is "less important" because it makes less money, we see the continuous promotion of R&B-flavored pop being passed off as R&B and legitimized by popularity. The truth is that it is all just a big ass marketing campaign to snatch up the loin's share of profits while having as few variables (artists to push) as possible.

Arards are bought and paid for. The choices of who to vote on are bought and paid for. Essentailly, the only reason to watch award shows is for the performances.

BlaqueKnight you totally hit the nail on the head!

namepeace said:

TonyVanDam said:

Mr. Scarface predict a while back that within the next 25 years that mainstream hip-hop/rap was going to suffer the same fate as rock & roll: it will be mostly white.

Some of us, including myself, may not like the way he said it. But he's definitely telling the truth.

But as with jazz and blues, white audiences will also (help) play the role of curators for underground hip-hop. It's happening already.

[Edited 1/29/14 14:15pm]

Notice in my previous post that I said "mainstream", not underground. Underground hip-hop/rap will always exist and have a better racial/culturial balance worldwide than mainstream hip-hop/rap.

I don't think other years of the Grammys support this, but I agree there needs to be less emphasis on sales and popularity at the Grammys. Otherwise, you mightas well be watching the Billboard awards, American Music Awards, MTV Video awards, Youtube awards...

TonyVanDam said:

namepeace said:

But as with jazz and blues, white audiences will also (help) play the role of curators for underground hip-hop. It's happening already.

[Edited 1/29/14 14:15pm]

Notice in my previous post that I said "mainstream", not underground. Underground hip-hop/rap will always exist and have a better racial/culturial balance worldwide than mainstream hip-hop/rap.

I did notice that. My statement was not meant to negate yours, and you are right.