The
major fallout from the 2014 Grammys, televised early Monday morning at
2am, concerns the victory of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in the Rap
categories. The duo won Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Rap
Album in categories with true hip-hop heavyweights like Jay Z and Kanye
West, and also newbie Kendrick Lamar whom many felt deserved at least
one of those awards.
Although
Macklemore was the only white rapper in that category, that is not
exactly the reason for the trouble. The problem is the duo has a reach
not many rappers have; they have many pop fans, which also probably mean
they have many white fans. The Rap Committee for the Grammys were so
conflicted they decided to not nominate Macklemore in the Rap
categories, but they were vetoed in by the general Grammy committee.
So
even before the awards, the band had caused controversy. And by the end
of the Grammy season, starting with the announcement of nominees and
ending at the conclusion of the televised show, the pattern would have
repeated itself over and again.
The
Grammys consists of an early untelevised show that has the National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences handing out a majority of the
awards; 82 this year. Only 10 awards were handed out during the
televised show this year.
This
means if you are in Nigeria and cared enough to stay up late to see the
show, possibly to see our country’s only nominee Femi Kuti, by the
show’s end your chagrin would be two-fold. Femi didn’t win, and if he
did you wouldn’t have had the pleasure of seeing him receive the gilded
gramophone. In spite of the Grammy publicity people’s claim of 1 billion
viewers around the world, the televised show skewers in favour of the
categories Americans may readily identify.
This
brings up a question: considering how much hip-hop has taken over pop
music, why were its categories relegated to the pre-televised show?
Short
answer: too many performances— this year had about a dozen more
performances than awards. The not-so-short answer: hip-hop has a
tortuous relationship with the Grammys.
In
1989, when the first Rap Grammy (for Best Rap Performance) was handed
to Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, it was not televised. A decade later,
Jay-Z boycotted the show, his reason being they didn’t give enough
respect to the genre; in 2011, music executive Steve Stoute wrote an
open letter decrying the treatment of rap artists at the Grammys. In
between, Kanye West has whined, threatened, screamed and given
interviews lamenting his inability to be honoured beyond the Rap
categories.
These days the man just avoids the show.
Last
year, Mr West, in an interview with the New York Times, noted that he
had never won against a white artist. “I don’t know if this is
statistically right,” he said, “but I’m assuming I have the most Grammys
of anyone my age, but I haven’t won one against a white person.”
Typical
Kanye, combining hubris with truth. Or mostly truth: in 2006, his “Late
Registration” won against Eminem’s ‘Encore’ in the Best Rap Album
category, but maybe Eminem is no longer considered white. And it isn’t
just white persons, as he lost to Jazz musician Herbie Hancock in the
Best Album category in 2008. But he has a general point, a point
illustrated by Macklemore’s victory at this year’s ceremony.
Macklemore’s
three rap awards have its antecedents in Eminem’s, the main difference
being the latter is far and away a better rapper. Also Dr Dre, Eminem’s
mentor, provided his protégée with an unassailable credibility while
Macklemore might never get acceptance into the predominantly black
culture that supports rap. Only the general fact of whiteness hitches
them together.
Eminem
has seven studio albums but his last wasn’t eligible for this year’s
awards, and five Best Rap Album awards. In other words, the rapper has
five Best Album awards for six eligible albums, beating off Jay-Z, Busta
Rhymes, Nas, Mos Def and others in the process. Put another way, in a
period that saw Nas’s ‘Stillmatic,’ Jay-Z’s ‘The Blueprint’ and Busta
Rhymes’s ‘Extinction Level Events’ without Grammy validation, Eminem has
had almost half a dozen gilded gramophones for albums not named
‘Marshall Mathers LP’ or ‘The Eminem Show’.
Now,
Eminem is a great rapper, easily Top 10, dead or alive, in any rap
fan’s list, and mainstream black publications rank him highly. Yet his
race has bolstered his success. And he knows.
“Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like yourself
If they were brown Shady’d lose, Shady sits on the shelf…
Let’s do the math: if I was black, I woulda sold half
I ain’t have to graduate from Lincoln High School to know that…
I’m like my skin is just starting to work to my benefit now?”
Like
Macklemore’s now public apology to Kendrick Lamar after the award show,
Eminem’s song ‘White America’ (quoted above) from 2002’s ‘The Eminem
Show,’ shows the conflict white rappers face. They know these are stolen
goods— Macklemore said “I robbed you” to Lamar— but the real owners are
so vast and of uneven rapping prowess, it is impossible to return the
loot. Besides, anymore public displays of contrition and their own
authenticity stands to be questioned. And as every fan knows,
authenticity is the lifeblood of rap.
The
Grammys wouldn’t matter so much if rappers didn’t covet it so much. But
they do. And it has become a status symbol, a little like what those
white (or light skinned) girls are in the videos by Nigerian pop stars.
On ‘Paris Morton Music,’ after Drake received a nomination but didn’t win, he rapped:
“I never threw away that paper with my Grammy speech
Because I haven’t hit the pinnacles I plan to reach.”
On ‘Versace remix,’ after he won:
“The pillows’ Versace, the sheets are Versace, I just won a Grammy.”
Lil Wayne responds to been ignored with sadness: “Last year they had the Grammys and left me in Miami”
; Jay-Z named a song ‘Grammy Family’ in which he raps about success;
Will Smith has bragged about being first to receive a Grammy for Rap.
By contrast, Eminem’s memorable Grammy line in ‘The Real Slim Shady’ are not rendered in reverence, but with a raised eyebrow:
“You think I give a damn about Grammy…
But slim, what if you win, wouldn’t it be weird
Why, so you guys could just lie to get me here?”
At the time, he hadn’t even won.
Macklemore’s
“I robbed you” message is another white rapper treating a Grammy Award
not with reverence but like just one more plaque in a room full of them.
In America, the flamboyant rejection of awards is restricted to white
artists. Marlon Brando, in 1973, rejected the Oscar for Best Actor for
his performance in The Godfather, and before him, George C. Scott. The
former was in protest of the treatment of Native Americans, the latter
declined on philosophical grounds.
Knowing
how difficult it is to be validated in America, the African American
performer can hardly show anything but elation; only the Caucasian can
be ambivalent. To be specific, black hip-hop musicians seek acceptance;
white ones seek acknowledgement.
Perhaps this is the price hip-hop has to pay for its own success, for leaving pop music’s margins for pop central.
Over
here in Nigeria, our dream of a Grammy win was rekindled when Femi Kuti
was nominated in the Best World Music Album category. It was his fourth
nomination. After his third nomination, he said he was never going to
attend the show.
“If I win it, let them bring it here,” he said.
They wouldn’t be doing that.
Despite
the happiness the man must have felt at the nomination— after all there
are many musicians in the world— this year’s loss may be the hardest to
take because it was a tie. This means there were two winners in a
category consisting of four nominees: the South African group Ladysmith
Black Mambazo— whom Nigerians may recall for their hit song ‘Homeless’—
and Gipsy Kings; the other winless nominee was the late sitar player
Ravi Shankar.
It must rankle to have two winners out of four — including one dead for more than a year— and still fall short.
Nigeria,
perhaps more than Femi, is eager for that validation. We famously love
foreign praise. Those Laurels from Los Angeles have been sung about,
most notably by 9ice on ‘Street Credibility’:
“Categorically, I’m the best, mentally…
Don’t doubt me, I go bring home Grammy”
In
recent songs, 9ice has not informed his listeners on the state of his
Grammy acquisition program. But that doesn’t mean the country has
stopped hoping.
On Wednesday 29th January, the Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria (KCCN) put together an event to mark theKorean Real Lunar New Year(Seollal).
