Tyler, The Creator on Grammys pigeonholing
"'Urban' is just a politically correct way to say the 'n-word' to me." Tyler, The Creator said he had conflicting feelings about his Grammy win.
The Grammy’s scandal
“While the Academy is certainly behaving as if the scandal that engulfed it in the days leading up to the Awards is over, it isn’t. In fact, the Academy seems to be in worse shape than it was before it expended untold thousands of dollars and work hours trying to reform from the ‘step up’ controversy of 2018. And less than three weeks after it placed its new president/CEO, Deborah Dugan, on administrative leave, ostensibly for ‘misconduct’ toward an employee (but more likely because her agenda for change was too sweeping for the slow-moving organization), many unanswered questions remain,” Variety reports.
The urban category
Tyler, The Creator was asked on his opinion and if the recent news surrounding the voting process at the Grammys affected the way he looks at winning his Grammy this year. "I'm half and a half on it. On one side, I'm very grateful that what I made could just be, you know, acknowledged in a world like this. But also, it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that genre-bending or that's anything, they always put it in a Rap or Urban category, which is I don't like that Urban word, it's just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me. So, when I hear that, I'm just like, 'Why can't we just be in pop? Why can't it…' You know what I mean? So, I felt like half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment, like, oh, 'My little cousin wants to play the game. Let's give him the unplugged controller so he could shut up and feel good about it.' That that's what it felt like a bit. But another half of me is very grateful that the art that I made could be acknowledged on a level like this when I don't do the radio stuff. I'm not played in Target. I'm in a whole different world than what a lot of people here listen to. So, I'm grateful and like, eh,” he responded.
Brut.
The Grammy’s scandal
“While the Academy is certainly behaving as if the scandal that engulfed it in the days leading up to the Awards is over, it isn’t. In fact, the Academy seems to be in worse shape than it was before it expended untold thousands of dollars and work hours trying to reform from the ‘step up’ controversy of 2018. And less than three weeks after it placed its new president/CEO, Deborah Dugan, on administrative leave, ostensibly for ‘misconduct’ toward an employee (but more likely because her agenda for change was too sweeping for the slow-moving organization), many unanswered questions remain,” Variety reports.
The urban category
Tyler, The Creator was asked on his opinion and if the recent news surrounding the voting process at the Grammys affected the way he looks at winning his Grammy this year. "I'm half and a half on it. On one side, I'm very grateful that what I made could just be, you know, acknowledged in a world like this. But also, it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that genre-bending or that's anything, they always put it in a Rap or Urban category, which is I don't like that Urban word, it's just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me. So, when I hear that, I'm just like, 'Why can't we just be in pop? Why can't it…' You know what I mean? So, I felt like half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment, like, oh, 'My little cousin wants to play the game. Let's give him the unplugged controller so he could shut up and feel good about it.' That that's what it felt like a bit. But another half of me is very grateful that the art that I made could be acknowledged on a level like this when I don't do the radio stuff. I'm not played in Target. I'm in a whole different world than what a lot of people here listen to. So, I'm grateful and like, eh,” he responded.
Brut.