Jay-Z was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the Grammys Sunday night for his work on social justice, and he used his speech to lament that his wife, Beyoncé, has never won an album of the year Grammy award despite being the most honored Grammy recipient of all time.
"But, you know, some things — 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," he said.
He was alluding to Beyoncé losing album of the year to Taylor Swift, Adele, Beck, and Harry Styles in different years — leading some to complain of racism.
"Forget the Grammys you gotta keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you deserve. Until they call you chairman. Until they call you a genius. Until they call you the greatest," Jay-Z said.
In his speech, Jay-Z also referred to Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s boycott of the 1989 Grammys because the rap category was not televised at the time. Jay-Z boycotted the show when DMX released two No. 1 albums but was not nominated.
Jay-Z, tied with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), is the rapper with the most Grammy wins in history. He won his first Grammy in 1998 and has won a total of 24 out of 88 nominations.
The Brooklyn hip-hop star noted in his speech that the process of awarding Grammys is subjective.
"We want y'all to get it right. At least getting close to right. And obviously it's subjective. Y'all don't gotta clap at everything. Obviously it's subjective because, you know, it's music and it's opinion-based," the artist said.
Beyoncé has 32 Grammy wins. She is not the only famous artist never to have won album of the year. The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Prince, and Elton John are among artists that have failed to win the presitigious award.
At this year's Grammys, Jay-Z was honored for his work on racial and social justice. He convened an inaugural summit for social justice leaders to meet in New York and served as an executive producer on two docuseries about the killings of Black Americans: “Time: The Kalief Browder Story” and “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story.”
When George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police in 2020, Jay-Z, through Roc Nation, took out full-page ads in major newspapers that quoted a passage from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 speech in Selma, Ala., The New York Times pointed out.
Peter Malbin ✉
Peter Malbin, a Newsmax writer, covers news and politics. He has 30 years of news experience, including for the New York Times, New York Post and Newsweek.com.
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