Tyler, the Creator, "Urban" Category of the Grammys - Aileen Cha

 

Tyler, the Creator is a Grammy award winning artist, rapper, and record producer. He is one of the most popular artists currently with over 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 13.3 million followers on Instagram. He has released a total of 6 studio albums in his career while his 2019 album Igor has sold over 1 million copies in the United States, making it certified platinum. Igor was met with widespread critical acclaim as his single “Earfquake” reached number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, which was his highest charting single, and the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 during its first week of release. Igor was able to achieve this critical acclaim as it is characterized by a rhythmic basis on a hip hop and neo soul sound, but also having sprinkles of R&B and funk incorporated into each of the songs. Tyler, the Creator incorporates dissonant beats in most of his songs, but in Igor, he utilizes a lot of pop synth aesthetic and a lo-fi sound with back up low melodies, funk basslines, and quiet but present distorted samples that harmonize in the background. With all of these revolving characteristics of the entire album that consists of songs that have been crafted in a sequence to tell a story with different emotions and sounds associated with each, it is very difficult to characterize the multigenre and unique nature of the album that is Igor into one specific category. However, for the 2020 Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy placed it into the category of “Best Rap Album.” Tyler, the Creator went on to win the Grammy for “Best Rap Album” in 2020, and while he thanked his mother, managers, friends and family, fans and label, and Pharell Williams in his acceptance speech, he had an honest opinion on the Recording Academy’s categorization of his album during his TV/Radio Room Interview backstage after his acceptance speech. After an interviewer asked him what he thought about the voting process at the Grammys, he responded with “whenever guys like me do anything genre-bending… they always put it in the 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.” The “urban” category at the Grammys has since been renamed to “progressive R&B” in 2020 after protests against police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, but like Tyler, the Creator expressed by saying it was a politically correct way to say the n-word, the urban category is a prime example of covert racism. Covert racism is subtle racial discrimination, it is never explicit. It could show up in the form of small passing comments or small subtle actions, and in the Grammys’ case, it is through their categorization process of albums. The “urban” category was a category that the Grammys used to throw in any albums of black origin after they failed to recognize the nuances and the more sophisticated sounds of the albums in the category. For Tyler, the Creator’s Igor, he felt as if the Grammys put his genre bending album into the urban and rap category solely due to the fact that he is Black. He later personally identified Igor to fit more into the pop category if it had to be placed into one specific category, but the Grammys discriminated against him and his album in terms of not letting the album receive recognition in a different category solely due to the fact that he was Black by failing to recognize the complexity of Igor. Additionally, Igor did not have a substantial amount of rapping compared to the other nominated albums in the category. However, because he is Black, the Grammys failed to consider the album for the “Best Pop Album” category and automatically placed him into the rap and urban categories. Terminology like “urban” diminishes the hard work and dedication Black artists put into their work that represents the multifaceted nature of Black culture. Black culture cannot be defined by one category, and yet, the “urban” category allows the Recording Academy to do so. The Grammys simplified Igor so it could fit into a category that did not challenge the institutionalized racism that exists in the music industry where Black artists are disrespected constantly and do not receive the same recognition they deserve nor be provided multiple spaces for them to thrive compared to their White artist counterparts. They are being discriminated against in this way, and are a victim of covert racism. By putting Igor into the rap and urban category, the Recording Academy is “tokenizing” Tyler, the Creator as their award winning Black artist. Those rap and urban categories are the only space the Recording Academy created for Black artists to succeed. If Macklemore came out with a new album that had substantial rapping with some upbeat pop synth to accompany, the Recording Academy would most likely consider him for both the pop and rap categories, simply because he is White. Tyler, the Creator on the other hand, does not have the same privileges and therefore is being racially discriminated against in terms of how he can receive the recognition he deserves and where he is allowed to succeed in terms of the bubbles and categories in the music industry. Black artists like Tyler, the Creator should be allowed to have the opportunity to be considered for all other genres instead of having to be confined to solely the rap and urban categories. Furthermore, Tyler, the Creator goes on to say that his rap nomination felt like a “backhanded compliment” to him. He felt gratitude that his music was being recognized on a level as the Grammys, however, he was being discriminated against by not being able to fully reach the level of recognition he would have gotten if he was not a Black man. The Grammys did not overtly racially discriminate him, but by limiting the album and downgrading it to just “rap” when it was not even considered a rap album by many listeners, fans, music journalists, and critics, Tyler, the Creator was subjected to covert racism by the Recording Academy. On the bright side, it is refreshing and encouraging to see artists like Tyler, the Creator actively call out and speak on his experience as a Black man in the industry, especially when he was on stage physically at the Grammys, so that it eventually lead to the Grammys discarding the urban category completely and changing the way they consider albums for categories. Hopefully in future Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy can allow artists of color to flourish and succeed in every space, instead of confining them to specific categories. 

Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer, “Race in the 21st Century,” in Racial Domination, Racial Progress: The Sociology of Race in America (2009), 1-6 and 15-30.