Only 11 Black People Have Won the Album of the Year Grammy..

[Space Cowboy]

I'll be honest with you, I don't really care about prestigious white artist whom have never won it. But to answer your question, Mariah definitely has great albums. Any of her 1st 3 albums were great.

Also, we know that album quality doesnt always equate to AotY win. Taylor won this year and this is her weakest album of the year win. Especially when everyone knows SZA should've won. Matter of fact, Taylor was the weakest nominee. Every other nominee had better albums. But Taylor had the bigger year all things considered. So we see that grammy voters don't just take album quality only into consideration.

If that's the case, Mariah should atleast have one.

Why don't you care about prestigious white artists that have never won it? It puts a massive crack in your argument.

People regardless of genre and race, clown the Grammys.

https://www.reddit.com/r/radiohead/s/ww8fWsz2y5

Just going "it's racism" is pretty lazy.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

Some newer artists seem to believe the Grammy's will help establish their careers (dubious). The wealthy and well-established Black artists should absolutely avoid this racist show at all costs. No performances, no endorsements, no attendance or acknowledgement. Beyonce and Jay-Z keep getting played.

They don’t have record sales to rely on anymore so they have to find something Grammys are cheap easy validation. So many artists are looked over. Like those “there’s good music you just have to find them” artists. One of my favorite bands out right now is Sault. They have way more bangers than misses. I’m never expecting to see them at the Grammys though.. I’ll throw Cleo Sol in there too since she’s in the group.

 

[KillerPups]

Stevie wonder is the goat.

At the end of the day grammies is a white award show for white people. We always had to be twice as good to get half as far why would the music industry awards be any different??

 

[tremonthustler1]

Mariah has six Grammys according to Google. Does she have any actual album of the year tier albums? Because I don't see Mariah as that kind of artist that I'd put in the same pile as Radiohead or Lauryn Hill. And by the way, you can't put this as solely as a race thing. A band as renown as Radiohead has NEVER won AOTY at the Grammys despite the fact albums like OK Computer are classics and defined an era of their genre.

Closest she came was Emancipation of Mimi and she lost to U2.

With music, for all the shyt we deem classic, only one album is gonna win AOTY, so someone's gonna feel snubbed. I only feel a way when AOTY goes to some shyt that ultimately nobody's gonna care about in time. For example, Bob Dylan won AOTY solely because he was a legend who stopped making wack music, not because it was better than OK Computer.

Steely fukkin Dan won AOTY just cuz they were a group Boomers loved but didn't get enough flowers in their mind

 

[The Realist Perspective]

Because winning the award opens up many financial doors that you otherwise wouldn't have access to in most cases. Plus, you also get your name written in the history books of music.

Who’s book.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Closest she came was Emancipation of Mimi and she lost to U2.

With music, for all the shyt we deem classic, only one album is gonna win AOTY, so someone's gonna feel snubbed. I only feel a way when AOTY goes to some shyt that ultimately nobody's gonna care about in time. For example, Bob Dylan won AOTY solely because he was a legend who stopped making wack music, not because it was better than OK Computer.

Steely fukkin Dan won AOTY just cuz they were a group Boomers loved but didn't get enough flowers in their mind

Yeah it's not about the music. No way is that Bob Dylan album better than OK Computer. They're just like,"Bob here's your flowers."

I feel people project Oscars standards on to the Grammys. With the Oscars even if what we felt was a better movie lost, often you can see why what won won. So when people watch the Grammys we go in that same standard but the Grammys is just a weird popularity contest and not about the music.

 

[Jean Jacket]

If you really look at these "academy" awards...its basically white validation.

The Grammy's is the biggest form of payola in history.

It's not even about the prestige...it's about the money.

 

[trap101-ETHout-Allegri-In]

Quincy and Whitney only getting nominated for their most mid level pieces of work is criminal, that Prince one is damn near blasphemous. Our artists really do need to boycott in droves, but there is most likely more sinister reasons in the background (distribution, promotion, visibility, access, etc) why we don't boycott in mass.

 

[King Harlem]

Album of the Year is the hardest award to judge because it literally crosses every genre of music.
Any given year you could have a pop album, rap album, jazz album, country album, r&b album, alternative album, etc. nominated for that category.
As much as I love music and I try to be open, I would still be biased towards Rap, R&B and Jazz music. More than likely if you put up a great Rap album versus a great Country album, I'm going to prefer the great Rap album. Honestly, I think everyone has these biases. For the most part, I think the academy works hard to get the individual categories correct.

 

[King Harlem]

I'm not one of those guys that puts alot of weight into grammys as it is not really meant for us but I thought this was interesting. The Grammys have been around since 1959 and the Album of the Year is considered the shows greatest and most coveted award. Here are some mindboggling stats surrounding that award:

Stevie Wonder is the first black person to win it in 1974 for his Innervisions album.

He won it again in 75 for Fulfillingness First Finale.

He won it a 3rd time in 1977 for Songs in the Key of Life.

The next black artist to win wouldn't come for another 7 years when MJ came through and crushed the buildings with Thriller in 84.

Lionel Richie won in 85 for Can't Slow Down.

Quincy Jones the GAWD took it home in 1991 with Back on the Block.

Natalie Cole becomes the 1st black woman to win the award in 1992 for her album Unforgettable with Love

Side note : it took 33 years for a black woman to win the award. That means Aretha, Diana Ross, Donna Summers, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and other God tier black women in the prime of their careers were not good enough for this award. Let's move on.

1994 saw Whitney win for the Bodyguard Soundtrack.

Lauryn Hill won in 1999 for the Miseducation and she would be the last black woman to win the award as of today.

Outkast won in 2004 for The Love Below/Speakerboxx

Ray Charles won in 2005 posthumously for Genius Loves Company

Herbie Hancock the GAWD won in 2008 for The Joni Letters.


And finally, Jon Baptiste won in 2022 for We Are.

So only 11 black people have ever won the Grammys most prestigious award and of those 11, only 3 of them were black women.

Taylor shyt Swift has more album of the year wins than all black women combined.

Essentially, according to grammy voters, black women haven't made an album worthy of the award in 25 years.

I was mindblown to learn that the 90s survived the bloodbath that was Mariah Carey without her ever winning the award. There was no bigger pop star on the planet in the mid 90s and she never won the award.

Mj only having 1 is crazy. Off the Wall and Bad were both worthy. Especially Bad.

Prince never winning the award is insanity.

No love for Boyz II Men

Beyonce, Alicia and Rihanna are arguably the trinity when it comes to the most successful black female artist from 2003 onwards and neither of them have ever won.

Just an observation.

I think the more interesting and productive way to look at this is to look at which album for Mariah Carey, Prince, Boyz II Men, Beyonce, Rihanna, etc. had that you felt was album of the year worthy and which album won that award instead.

 

[Paper Boi]

Album of the Year is the hardest award to judge because it literally crosses every genre of music.
Any given year you could have a pop album, rap album, jazz album, country album, r&b album, alternative album, etc. nominated for that category.
As much as I love music and I try to be open, I would still be biased towards Rap, R&B and Jazz music. More than likely if you put up a great Rap album versus a great Country album, I'm going to prefer the great Rap album. Honestly, I think everyone has these biases. For the most part, I think the academy works hard to get the individual categories correct.

no they don't stop copping pleas the Grammys. they have actually been known to be a bad award show that makes no sense with some of their winners even outside of black artists/black domianted genres of music

 

[Hathaway]

Why don't you care about prestigious white artists that have never won it? It puts a massive crack in your argument.

People regardless of genre and race, clown the Grammys.

https://www.reddit.com/r/radiohead/s/ww8fWsz2y5

Just going "it's racism" is pretty lazy.

I never claimed racism. In fact, I never claimed anything other than bewilderment. I don't care about white artist in this conversation because my focus is merely on the black artist who have and haven't won.

 

[King Harlem]

For those who are interested this is how Grammy's are voted:

There are over 21,000 members in the Recording Academy, but only about 12,000 of them are eligible to vote.
Recording Academy Voting Members are professionals with creative or technical credits on at least six commercially released tracks (or their equivalent). These may include vocalists, conductors, songwriters, composers, engineers, producers, instrumentalists, arrangers, art directors, album notes writers, narrators, and music video artists and technicians.
Voting members are asked to vote in only nine genre categories and the four main categories (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist) when choosing nominees. They are then asked to vote for winners in up to 20 genre categories and the four major categories, so that their expertise is best used

 

[Space Cowboy]

I never claimed racism. In fact, I never claimed anything other than bewilderment. I don't care about white artist in this conversation because my focus is merely on the black artist who have and haven't won.

Alright. I get you. I just looked at other white artist snubs. Nirvana's Nevermind wasn't even nominated for AOTY despite 1. Uplifting an entire genre of music (alt rock), 2. Changing the sound of rock overnight, 3. Killing the 80's sound of rock in the mainstream, 4. Inserting 90's rage into the picture. An album so influential hip hop artists saw the music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit and said "yo, we need similar energy to this" and was inspired by it.

An album that today is hailed as a universal classic.

Not even nominated for AOTY. Which is absolutely BANANAS.

I know metal heads. I'm a metal head. We HATE the Grammys because metal is never recognized. Rock and metal heads hate the Grammys. Fiercely.

 

[Hoodoo Child]

Because unfortunately, we do not control our own art.

And who fault is that? Can't blame the thief, if you sat there and watched him steal your shyt.