Jay-Z Calls Out Grammys For Beyoncé Album Of The Year Snubs: “We Just Want You To Get It Right”
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Jay-Z was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the Grammy Awards and took shots at the organization for snubbing Beyoncé and keeping her from taking the Album of the Year award.
The multi-hyphenate media mogul had Beyoncé cheering him on, and he brought his daughter, Grammy Award winner Blue Ivy Carter, to the stage to accept the trophy.
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As Jay-Z took the stage, he started off by saying he used the gramophone as a sippy cup for Blue Ivy and reminded everyone she is grown up now and has her own trophies now.
“Thank you, sir. All the doors that you opened, you showed us that we can be rock stars,” the artist said, spotting Dr. Dre in the audience.
Jay-Z recalled that in 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince Will Smith won their first Grammy and boycotted the show because it wasn’t televised. “And then they went to a hotel and watched the Grammys,” he added.
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“But then, in 1998, I took a page out of their book,” he continued. “I was nominated for Best Rap Album and DMX had dropped two albums that year, they both were number one and he wasn’t nominated at all. So, I boycotted, and I watched the Grammys.”
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“I’m just saying we just want you to get it right,” Jay-Z said about the Grammys. “We love y’all. We want y’all to get it right — at least get it close to right.”
Jay-Z was defending his wife, Beyoncé, who has a total of 32 Grammys but has never taken the Album of the Year award.
Jay-Z acknowledged that music is subjective and added, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys… Never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work.”
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He then threw a little shade at the many artists who would go home empty-handed, saying, “Some of you gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in a category.”
After the audience’s reaction, Jay-Z said, “Now, when I get nervous, I tell the truth.”
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Wrapping out his acceptance speech, he said, “But outside of that, we got to keep showing up and forget the Grammys for a second, just in life, you got to keep showing up. You got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve, until they call you Chairman, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time.”
Watch Jay-Z’s complete acceptance speech in the video above.
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