Black Excellence at the Grammy’s
Written by Brooke Shapiro
On May 4, 1959, Ella Fitzgerald became the first Black artist to receive a coveted Grammy award from the Recording Academy. 64 years later, Beyoncé holds the record for winning the most Grammys, half of the 2023 “Big Four” winners are Black, and Black music was celebrated in a “50 Years of Hip-Hop” tribute. As Black History Month comes to a close, let’s take a look back to the beginning of the month and the Black Excellence that the 65th Annual Grammy Awards produced.
The Big Four
The “Big Four” refers to the biggest awards at the Grammys: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist. This year, half of these were won by black artists, with Lizzo winning Record of the Year for her song, “About Damn Time” and Samara Joy winning Best New Artist.
And though, to the disappointment of many (myself included), Beyoncé did not win Album of the Year with “Renaissance,” she became the artist with the most Grammy wins ever, after picking up awards for Best R&B Song, Best Dance/Electronic Recording, and Best Traditional R&B Performance.
Dre. Dre and Queen Latifah at the 2023 Grammys. Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer.
50 Years of hip-hop celebration
The 2023 Grammys also honored Black history in the form of a 15 minute performance celebrating 50 years of hip-hop. Curated by DJ and Roots drummer Questlove, the performance opened with “Flash to the Beat” by Grandmaster Flash, often referred to as the founder of hip-hop, with guests Barshon, Melle Mel, Rahiem and Scorpio.
The audience then traveled through time with 80s hip-hop hits by Run D.M.C., LL Cool J, and Salt-N-Pepa among many other iconic hip-hop artists.
The 90s section brought legendary performances by Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, and Method Man, followed by Missy Elliott, Nelly, and Too $hort of the 2000s.
Swizz Beatz, the LOX, Lil Baby, and GloRilla represented the current state of hip-hop, and LL Cool J tied everything together with his rendition of Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock.”
Special Awards
Recognizing the 50th anniversary of hip-hop in his acceptance speech, Dr. Dre became the first ever winner of the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, presented by the Black Music Collective and the Recording Academy. “A lifeline” for him growing up as a teenager, hip-hop created a career for the now seven time Grammy winner with a new award named after him.
In his moving acceptance speech, Dr. Dre shared that what he loves about this award “is that it uses my [Dr. Dre’s] name to inspire the next generation of producers, artists, and entrepreneurs to reach for greatness, and demand that for everyone around you.”
Certainly no one “Forgot About Dre” after his impact was marked into history in the form of the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.
Viola Davis also had a special night as she became the fourth Black artist to become an EGOT (having won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). Davis won best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording at the 2023 Grammys, allowing her to achieve the EGOT status that only 18 artists currently hold.
Lizzo performing at the 2023 Grammys. Photo by Kevin Winter.
Performances
Black excellence also graced the Grammy stage with several performances by prominent Black artists.
Lizzo performed her award winning song, “About Damn Time” as well as “Special” accompanied by a full choir, and after winning both of her nominated awards, Samara Joy took the Grammy stage for the first time ever with her song “Can’t Get Out of This Mood.”
Other artists of new and old, such as Steve Lacy, Mary J. Blige, and Stevie Wonder, also performed.
@MrErnestOwens/Twitter
Grammy’s or “scammy’s”?
Despite the amazing display of Black excellence at the 2023 Grammys, the Recording Academy still has a long way to go to achieve racial equity. Out of the 65 total Album of the Year awards ever given out, only 11 recipients have been Black. This statistic is not exclusive to the Album of the Year Award, but also the other three awards of the Big Four. In 2021, Drake even withdrew several of his nominations to stand against the Grammy’s history of minority underrepresentation.
Perhaps the most talked about example at the 2023 Grammys was Beyoncé’s Album of the Year loss to Harry Styles. Audience members could be seen “leaving by the masses” as Styles accepted the award.
After breaking record after record, many people were outraged at “Renaissance’s” loss in one of the Big Four categories, citing the album as having fallen victim to the Recording Academy’s racial biases.
The Weeknd has also famously called out the Grammys for “corruption” in the nominating process, saying “I remain uninterested in being a part of the Grammys, especially with their own admission of corruption for all these decades. I will not be submitting in the future.”
So although Black artists made history at the 65th Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy still has a long way to go, especially given the fact that the ceremony usually takes place during Black History Month. ∎
