Jay Z called out the GRAMMYs for never awarding his wife Beyonce Album of the Year.
Jay shocked the audience while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the 2024 GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night, Feb. 4.
“We love y’all, we want y’all to get it right. At least get it close to right,” Jay Z told the members of The Recording Academy, which presents the GRAMMY Awards annually.
“And, obviously, it’s subjective,” he said, before telling the audience “Y’all don’t gotta clap at everything.”
He continued: “Obviously it’s subjective because, you know, it’s music and it’s opinion-based… 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,” he continued. “The most GRAMMYs, but never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work.
As he spoke, the camera panned to a somber Beyonce in the audience.
“Some of you don’t belong in the category,” Jay Z said.
Some audience members viewed Jay Z’s comment as a dig at Taylor Swift. The pop singer made history with her fourth Album of the Year award for Midnights.
Jay Z, 54, addressed Beyonce directly, telling her “We gotta keep showing up.”
The doting dad then held hands with his 12-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy.
“Just in life, you gotta keep showing up. Just keep showing up. Forget the GRAMMYs, you gotta 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. Feel me?”
Most people on Black Twitter/X praised the elder rapper for standing up for his wife.
But others criticized Black artists like Jay Z and Beyonce for submitting their music to white awards shows.
Black Twitter pointed out that other races don’t have expectations of Black awards shows.
They also noted that the GRAMMYs never televise the rap categories because Academy members don’t listen to today’s rap.
Superstar rapper Drake regularly boycotts the GRAMMYs for not televising the rap categories.
On Sunday night, he posted a message on his Instagram Stories that featured a video clip of his controversial 2019 Grammy acceptance speech.
In the caption, he wrote “All you incredible artists remember this show isn’t the facts, it’s just the opinion of a group of people [whose] names are kept a secret (literally you can Google it). Congrats to anybody winning anything for hip hop but this show doesn’t dictate sh*t in our world.”
Watch the video below.
