by Shaun TANDON
Agence France Presse
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The Grammy Awards opened Sunday with hip-hop being recognized like never before as rap superstar Jay-Z, who once boycotted the gala as biased, leads the nominations.
The music industry’s biggest night, taking place in New York after 15 years in Los Angeles, also looks set to rally behind the #MeToo movement to end sexual harassment, with a number of A-listers wearing white roses as symbols of solidarity.
Hip-hop has an uneven history with the Recording Academy, the body of 13,000 music professionals that determines the awards, with only two mostly rap works winning the most prestigious Grammy for Album of the Year.
But in a sign of shifting cultural trends, this year the majority of contenders for the top prize are hip-hop artists.
Jay-Z is in the running with “4:44” — an introspective album in which he admits infidelity to his wife Beyonce and explores institutional racism — as is Kendrick Lamar with “DAMN.,” a return to a classic rap sound from a voice closely identified with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Lamar picked up an early award at a pre-telecast ceremony for Best Music Video for “HUMBLE.,” a playful take on his rising fame in which he appears as Jesus in “The Last Supper.”
Reconciling with the Grammys
Jay-Z, who rose from a broken home in Brooklyn to become a multimillionaire businessman, had refused to attend the Grammys in 1999 because the Recording Academy snubbed fellow rapper DMX.
He stayed away, upset at the lack of recognition for hip-hop, until 2004, when he showed up with wife-to-be Beyonce.
The pop diva joined him on Saturday night at the traditional pre-Grammys party hosted by veteran music executive Clive Davis.
He sounded contrite when he accepted an “industry icon” award at the fete, saying: “I realize like, man, art is super subjective and everybody is doing their best and the Academy, they are human like we are.”
“We can pretend we don’t care, but we really care,” he said of Grammy recognition.
“We care because we see the most incredible artists stand on that stage and we aspire to be there.”
But Jay-Z was not being universally celebrated. On Grammy Day, he was taken to task in a tweet by President Donald Trump, who is widely despised in the US entertainment world.
Trump told Jay-Z that African American unemployment had fallen to an all-time low. In a pre-Grammy interview with CNN, Jay-Z said such data didn’t matter so long as Trump belittles people of color and refuses to “treat people like human beings.”
Tough competition
Jay-Z is already one of the most celebrated artists in Grammy history with 21 awards. But until this year, he had always been passed over in the main categories.
While Jay-Z is ahead Sunday with eight nominations, prognosticators see fewer clear-cut favorites compared with previous years.
Lamar closely trails Jay-Z with seven nods. The West Coast rapper’s previous album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” became an unofficial soundtrack for the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality — but fell short for Album of the Year two years ago.
Album of the Year contenders also include two high-selling pop albums — “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars, who has revived fun-loving retro funk, and “Melodrama” by Lorde, the 21-year-old pop prodigy from New Zealand.
A dark horse in the category is “‘Awaken, My Love!’,” the psychedelic, R&B-infused album of Childish Gambino, the rap alter ego of actor and comedian Donald Glover.
Nods to ‘Despacito’
After a year marked by Trump’s attacks on immigrants and a devastating earthquake in Puerto Rico, “Despacito,” the viral dance hit that has broken the record for views on YouTube, is in the running for both Record of the Year, which recognizes best tune, and Song of the Year, which awards songwriters.
“Despacito,” led by the Puerto Rican pop singer Luis Fonsi, would be the first non-instrumental song that is not mostly in English to win in either category since the very first Grammys in 1959.
Lorde is the only woman nominated for Album or Record of the Year — even amid the growing attention to gender discrimination in the entertainment industry following revelations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Along with the white roses, the Grammys will show support for the #MeToo movement on stage. Performers selected for the televised Grammy show include Kesha, who has taken on sexism in the industry after accusing her producer of raping her, a claim he denies.
Despite this year’s lack of representation, women — Adele and Taylor Swift — were the last two winners of Album of the Year.
© Agence France-Presse