Tyler, The Creator Criticizes Grammys For Racialized Voting

Tyler, The Creator secured his first Grammy win on Sunday night by taking home the Best Rap Album award for IGOR. While this may mark a monumental moment in his career, he stills has some reservations about the Recording Academy and he aired them out during a post-show press conference. The 28-year-old multi-hyphenate was asked to share his thoughts on the Grammys’ voting practices, as this is a trending topic in the wake of accusations of bias within the Recording Academy made by its recently-ousted head, Deborah Dugan. Tyler replied:

“I’m half and half on it. On the one side I am very grateful that what I made can be acknowledged in a world like this… but it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that’s genre-bending or anything, they always put it in a rap or urban category. And 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? So I felt like — half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment.”

Many believe that IGOR not being recognized in the Album of the Year category is representative of this issue highlighted by Tyler. Diddy also called out the Grammys’ racist history when receiving his “industry icon” award at the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala on Saturday night. “Truth be told, hip-hop has never been respected by the Grammys,” he said. “Black music has never been respected by the Grammys.”