In case you missed it, the BIGGEST night in music was last night (2/10), and boy was everyone excited to attend and talk bout it! If I could put an ironic sarcastic face emoji in an article, best believe that I would have inserted it at the end of that last sentence. Hip hop has displayed an aversion of the Grammy's since 1989, and with this year being 30 years since that famous photo with Will Smith, Flavor Flav, Salt N Pepa and crew, it seems unfortunate, yet more imminent than ever that the Grammy's will never accept hip hop for what it is, and Drake seemed to have refreshed that feeling with his speech last night.
While it should be noted that some stars like Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and Drake himself actually turned down performance opportunities at the Grammy's this year, there were even some pop stars that had no desire in simply attending the ceremony (Ariana Grande). The awards saw a bevy of new winners, some deserved and others not so much deserved, Cardi B took home the award for "Best Rap Album" with Invasion Of Privacy, while Childish Gambino took home 3 of the other rap categories' awards ("Song Of The Year", "Record Of The Year", and "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" with "This Is America"), but the highlight of the night came later. During a rare and unexpected appearance, Drake stopped by the ceremony unannounced last night to accept his award for "Best Rap Song", the first time Drake had been seen at the Grammy's in years, if at all.
During this quick stop, Drake accepted his award personally and gave a speech that The Grammy Committee didn't seem to appreciate too much.
(*I do not own this video, or the rights to it*)
Oh, oh are you finished? I guess they decided for you anyways Drake, sorry buddy! It's difficult to tell if Drake was actually cut off because of the words in his speech or if the Committee actually thought he was finished, but it doesn't take a Grammy Committee member to see that Drake's words weren't exactly flattering towards The Grammy's and the awards show as a whole. So my question to you is... should we care?
Hip hop as a whole has been built around the idea of free speech, being able to say what we want, when we want, unapologetically, with no remorse or "yes man" mentality, so it's expected to piss some people off, especially higher ups, committeemen, and endorsements who don't take too kindly to "the bag" being screwed up. Was that a cool way to say that? Probably not... anyways, as "not hip hop" as Drake seemingly is to the core hip hop community nowadays, it would be pretty tough to admit that this speech was not a hip hop move. A lack of Grammy's doesn't mean that you don't make a difference, an award doesn't mean that you're a voice for the people, and even as much closer and closer and closer as it seems we're getting... real hip hop will never win a Grammy.
