Jay-Z Attacks Grammys for Not Giving His Wife The Album of the Year Award
Music mogul Jay-Z was awarded the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award during the recently concluded Grammy Awards. In his acceptance speech, he condemned the award-giving body for failing to award Beyonce, his wife, the Best Album Award despite the fact that she won 32 awards in other categories.
The Brooklyn-born rapper went onstage with his 12-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, while Beyonce looked on from their table. Jay-Z spoke about the importance of dreams, ambition, and drive. He also mentioned that there are more important things in life than winning a Grammy. He added that these awards are subjective and then pointed to his wife while mentioning that she has yet to win a Best Album award.
Jay-Z said, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So, even by your metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys; never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work.”
The camera then focused on Beyonce who looked slightly uneasy as her husband delivered his speech.
Jay-Z has earned 88 Grammy Awards nominations throughout his career and has won 24 of them. Six of these nominations were for Album of the Year. Meanwhile, Beyonce has shared the same number of nominations and has won 32 trophies.
Similar to Jay-Z, Beyonce has also been nominated for Album of the Year but, so far, has yet to bring home the honor. Recall that in 2015, Beyonce didn’t win Album of the Year for Beyonce. Beck’s Morning Phase won instead. Kanye West, who has become known for his antisemitic and offensive rants, pretended to go onstage in protest.
Kanye’s behavior was almost a replay of his actions back in 2009 when he infamously interrupted Taylor Swift as she delivered her Best Female Video Award speech during the MTV Music Awards. Kanye had the audacity to tell a dumbfounded Taylor, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you. … but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”
Back then, voters chose and decided who would win Album of the Year. The vote was divided between Ed Sheeran, Pharrell, and Sam Smith. Beck’s support was solid then, leading to victory.
After the show, Beck said, “Absolutely, I thought she would win. You can’t please everybody. I still love him and think he’s a genius. I aspire to what he does. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?”
Kanye, known then as Jay-Z’s protegee, consistently claimed in his interviews that Beyoncé was robbed of the award she deserved. He said, “All I know is if the Grammys want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more. Beck needs to respect artistry, and he should have given his award to Beyoncé. At this point, we’re tired of it.”
Last Sunday, Jay-Z described the awards as subjective but said it was nice to win. He started his speech in a light mood, joking that his daughter Blue Ivy used his Grammy awards as sippy cups.
Jay-Z continued his speech, saying, “Some of you are gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in the category. When I get nervous, I tell the truth.”
Jay-Z shared The Global Impact Award with Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz this year. The award is exclusive to black artists “in recognition of their dedication to the art form that has greatly influenced the industry.”
