Everyone seems to be raving about the 67th annual Grammy Awards—if you didn’t watch the star-studded award show, you heard about it.
The award show was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, hence the large emphasis on raising money for those impacted by the LA wildfires. There were even commercial breaks solely dedicated to the wildfires.
From the performances to the acceptance speeches, to the looks served throughout the night, the Grammy’s felt like the party of the decade. And it’s like Issa Rae said, I’m rooting for everyone Black.
Doechii
Doechii took home Best Rap Album beating out major names in the industry like J.Cole, Eminem and Future. She became the third woman ever to win in this category, joining Cardi B, who took home the award in 2019 and Lauryn Hill who won in 1997.
The category was created in 1995, and her winning the award showcases her success and the arrival of a new rising star. According to Rolling Stone, her album “Alligator Bites Never Heal” was the ninth-best album of 2024.
The album spawned hits like “NISSAN ALTIMA,” “CATFISH” and “DENIAL IS A RIVER.” Doechii is bringing a transformative sound and flow to the rap genre. This win was obviously deserved and if she didn’t win, I would have snatched the award for Doechii anyway. The category as a whole was weak outside of Doechii and Future’s albums, so this shouldn’t be at all controversial.
Furthermore, none of the albums outside of Doechii and Future’s albums were even selling, streamed or talked about to the same level as theirs. She is supremely talented, has worked extremely hard at her craft since 2016 and has grown a fanbase that appreciates her ever-growing artistry.
Her performance at the Grammys was amazing and left the audience gagged, proving she deserved to win. She performed “CATFISH” and “DENIAL IS A RIVER” as part of a Best New Artist showcase. She wore two distinct outfits during her performance. She had on a gray suit with shorts for “CATFISH” and then transitioned to a white two-piece with red and black for “DENIAL IS A RIVER.” Her background dancers wore gray suits with shorts. This performance is iconic because not only did she win but she stayed true to herself.
Users on TikTok and Instagram went as far as to claim that she is an industry plant, wasn’t relevant or culturally impactful, and that her album only sold eleven thousand in the first week of album sales, so she wasn’t deserving of the award.
The amount of disrespect she received shows how Black artists, especially Black women, have to work harder to be recognized compared to their male peers. So for her to overcome the outside noise, and win this award as a first-time Grammy nominee is huge, and it gives hope for other female rappers in the industry to win the award in the future.
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar won five Grammy awards, sweeping all of the categories he was nominated for which is very impressive considering it was for one singular song – “Not Like Us.” He won Best Music Video, Rap Song and Rap Performance and took home Song and Record of the Year. He made history with his song Not Like Us becoming the first diss track to win at the Grammys.
Lamar is also the second rap artist to win Song and Record of the Year after Childish Gambino’s “This is America” in 2019. This is a huge milestone and testament to how influential “Not Like Us” is. Kendrick broke barriers and won, despite the Grammy’s history of excluding rappers from these categories.
Many are saying that the awards Song and Record of the Year should have gone to other artists or that he only won because the song is entirely about Drake. But really, the Compton-born rapper truly deserved these wins as this song single-handedly defined 2024 in music, and was truly inescapable. The streams speak for themselves.
Everyone at the award show was singing along to it, even Beyoncé, which alone shows how big the song is. This is probably the biggest diss track of all time. Kendrick winning shows that rappers have a chance to win in the big categories and that rap needs to be taken more seriously at the Grammys.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé won 3 Grammys for her newest album “Cowboy Carter,” including Best Country Duo with Miley Cyrus, Best Country Album and the most coveted award – Album of the Year. She made history as the first Black woman to win Best Country Album, and Country Duo, breaking a 26-year drought of a Black woman winning Album of the Year. Beyonce joins Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill as Album of the Year winners. This was also Beyoncé’s first Album of the Year win in her over 20-year music career.
The wins were shocking, but a well-deserved moment for Beyoncé. This is redemption for her, but not everyone is as thrilled about this as I am. The Jay-Z speech from The 66th Grammy Awards was brought up with allegations that he bought the award. Conversations about streams, sales, relevancy and the number of people credited on the album were points that people made to justify her not being worthy of the award.
I know people are saying that she robbed artists like Billie Eilish and Charli XCX of the award. To them I say: your artist did not make a body of work like “Cowboy Carter.” Album of the Year is not only dictated by sales, but by cultural impact and the album’s quailty, and “Cowboy Carter” checks every box. We know that she should have more than one Album of the Year, but this win cements her legacy as one of the best to ever do it.
Beyoncé winning Best Country Album is a huge statement to country as a genre, because all year, people kept saying that “Cowboy Carter” was not a country album. Not to mention, she did not receive a single nomination at the Country Music Awards. Even though Beyoncé did say it’s a “Beyoncé album” and not a country album, it is still very much a country album.
She even said the album was born from her controversial 2016 Country Music Awards performance with The Chicks. The album featured country legends such as Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton along with Black country artists like Shaboozey and Tanner Adell. This album was all about the reclamation of country music and paving the way for Black Country Artists. For Beyoncé to win Best Country Album and Album of the Year was historic and she deserves all the flowers.
I know that the Grammys aren’t perfect but there was a different vibe with them this year. More diversity was recognized and highlighted. The speeches were more direct to the state of the world and it just felt more grounded in reality.
When it comes to the three artists that I talked about, they are talented and they should not be torn down because they won over your favorite artists. You may not like them or their music, but being racist toward them doesn’t change that they made history.
