Jay-Z unleashes a scathing critique of the Grammys for never awarding his wife Beyoncé Album of the Year, despite her record-breaking 32 wins. He declares, “Some nominees will be robbed tonight – and some should never have been nominated.”
Jay-Z used his acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards to condemn the academy for failing to give his wife Beyonce the best album award, despite her 32 wins in other categories.
The Brooklyn-born rapper was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award for his contribution to the music industry.
With his 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy standing on stage beside him, and wife Beyonce looking on from their table in the audience, dressed in just-off-the-catwalk Louis Vuitton by Pharrell Williams, Jay-Z spoke about the importance of dreams, drive and ambition.
He said that there were more important things in life than winning Grammys, noting they were subjective – and pointing out his superstar wife had never won best album.
‘I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year,’ Jay-Z said. ‘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.’
Jay-Z is seen delivering a passionate rebuke of the Grammys for failing to give his wife Beyonce a best album award
Jay-Z, 54, is seen with his 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy on stage at the Grammy Awards
Beyonce looked rather apprehensive as her husband spoke
Jay-Z is seen delivering his acceptance speech as Blue Ivy looks on
The music mogul celebrated his win by pouring his own-brand D’ussé cognac into his Grammy
Jay-Z raised a Grammy to his own success, sipping from the award as he joked his daughter did
Jay-Z takes a swig of cognac from his Grammy
The camera cut to Beyonce, looking slightly apprehensive in the audience.
Jay-Z has been nominated for 88 competitive Grammy Awards, winning 24 of them. Six of his nominations have been for Album of the Year.
Beyonce has also been nominated for 88 competitive Grammy Awards, winning 32 of them.
Like her husband, Beyonce has been nominated six times for Album of the Year, but never won.
In 2015, when Beyonce lost out on Album of the Year to Beck, Kanye West pretended to storm the stage in protest.
The moment drew parallels to West’s actions in 2009, when he famously interrupted Swift as she accepted the Best Female Video award at the MTV Video Music Awards, telling her: ‘Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you. … but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.’
Kanye West is seen in 2009 storming the stage to protest at Taylor Swift winning the Best Video award at the MTV Video Music Awards. West said Beyonce should have won
West is seen in 2015 with Beck, pretending to protest Beck winning Album of the Year instead of Beyonce
West left the stage as Beck said to him: ‘Come back!’ After, Beck said: ‘Absolutely I thought she was going to win. You can’t please everybody. I still love him and think he’s genius. I aspire to what he does. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?’
West in 2015 mimed storming the stage again, protesting that her album ‘Beyonce’ lost out to Beck’s ‘Morning Phase.’
Recording Academy voters choose who wins Album of the Year, and in 2015 the voter base was split between Pharrell, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. Beck’s support was united, leading to Beck’s win.
Beck said after the show: ‘Absolutely I thought she was going to win. You can’t please everybody.
‘I still love him and think he’s genius. I aspire to what he does. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?’
West, a protégée of Jay-Z’s, insisted in interviews in 2015 that Beyonce had been robbed.
‘All I know is if the Grammys want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more,’ he said.
‘Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé, and at this point, we tired of it.’
Jay-Z on Sunday said the awards were subjective – but nice to win.
At the start of his speech, he joked that his Grammy Awards used to be used as sippy cups for Blue Ivy – but now ‘she has her own Grammys,’ he said.
Jay-Z and Beyonce celebrate his accolade, as Blue Ivy looks on
Beyonce listens as her husband delivers his acceptance speech
She won her first Grammy aged 9, with a writing credit for Brown Skin Girl, which won in 2021 for her mother.
Jay-Z continued: ‘How far we’ve come from Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff winning their first Grammy in ’89 and boycotting because it wasn’t televised.
‘And then they went to the hotel and watched the Grammys. I didn’t even understand. It wasn’t a great boycott.’
He said that he then did a similar thing.
‘But then ’98, I took a page out of their book. I was nominated for Best Rap Album, and DMX had dropped two albums that year. They both were number one — shout out to DMX — and he wasn’t nominated at all.
‘So I boycotted and I watched the Grammys.
‘I’m just saying, we want y’all to get it right. We love y’all. We love y’all. We love y’all. We want y’all to get it right. At least get it close to right.’
The 54-year-old is seen delivering his acceptance speech
He then launched into his critique of the awards, and his condemnation of the failure to recognize his wife.
‘Obviously it’s subjective because it’s music and it’s opinion-based,’ he said.
Last year, she became the most awarded artist in Grammy Awards history – but with only one win in a Big Four category.
‘So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,’ Jay-Z said.
‘Some of you are gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in the category. When I get nervous, I tell the truth.’
He added: ‘But outside of that, we got to keep showing up — and forget the greatness for a second, just in life.
‘As my daughter sits and stares at me nervous as I am, you got to keep showing up. Just keep showing up to get the Grammys.
‘You got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve. Until they call you champion, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time.’
Some people on social media applauded Jay-Z’s speech, while others laughed at the expected reaction of the Grammys organizers.
One shared a meme of people pulling a TV off the wall; another showed a person grabbing a gun pointed at them, then turning it around.
Another showed a meme of Oprah Winfrey rolling her eyes, commenting: ‘So is Jay Z saying that Beyoncé’s awards were all consolation prizes ? And that the Grammy are a joke?!’
The Global Impact Award is presented to black artists in recognition of their ‘dedication to the art form that has greatly influenced the industry,’ according to the official Grammy Awards website.
This year’s honor was shared by Jay-Z, Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey.
The award, created in 2022, has previously been presented to John Legend, Dr. Dre, Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, and music executive Sylvia Rhone.
50 Cent claims Jay-Z tried to exclude him from Super Bowl halftime show and takes swipe at Beyoncé and her dozens of ‘zero value’ Grammy Awards
50 Cent claimed that Jay-Z tried to exclude him from the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show and also took a swipe at Beyoncé and her dozens of Grammy Awards in a cover interview published on Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter.
The 49-year-old rapper in a wide-ranging interview was asked about not being part of the lineup when the list of 2022 Super Bowl halftime show performers was first released.
‘They wanted to leave me out of it. They didn’t want me there,’ he said of the star-studded show that featured performances by hip hop stars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z.
‘Roc Nation. Yeah, they didn’t want me there,’ 50 Cent said, referencing Jay-Z’s entertainment company.
‘Eminem wouldn’t do it without me. That’s how I ended up on the show because he was not coming if I didn’t do it. When that happens, you go, ‘Damn, so you just lost Eminem because you didn’t bring 50? Damn. All right. Bring 50 then.’ But if it was up to them, they would not have me there. I’m the surprise. I’m not on the bill at all. But they couldn’t get Em to do it without me,’ he added.
50 Cent claimed that Jay-Z tried to exclude him from the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show and also took a swipe at Beyoncé and her dozens of Grammy Awards in a cover interview published on Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter
50 Cent also was asked for his thoughts on the Grammy Awards.
‘I don’t care about them. They don’t mean anything. It’s an acknowledgment of the success of the project, and the excitement is to be in the room with your peers. Other than that, what is the acknowledgment? It doesn’t mean anything. I haven’t even seen anyone in a bad financial space where they would sell their Grammys. Then it would mean something that you received this award. It has zero value,’ he said.
The 2010 Grammy winner for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group for Crack A Bottle with Eminem and Dr Dre shared that he does not vote for the Grammys while also taking a shot at Beyoncé.
‘I don’t know who’s voting in that s***. It’s crazy. Whoever they are, they’re off at Beyoncé’s house because she has 30 of them,’ he said.
Beyoncé actually has a record 32 Grammys.
50 Cent, who shocked as he brought $3.5million of his money in cash to his THR cover photoshoot, also opened up about his feud with ‘liar’ Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in the article.
The In Da Club hitmaker, who has regularly trolled Diddy, 54, since multiple sexual assault lawsuits were launched against him, said he was inspired by Muhammad Ali‘s iconic 1964 Sports Illustrated cover when he withdrew stacks of cash for the THR cover.
The SI shoot saw then 22-year-old boxer Ali pose with $1million in winnings with 50’s own take on the snap showing him clad in all green as he sits on a stack of cash with bags of money surrounding him.
The 49-year-old rapper made comments about Jay-Z and Beyoncé, shown in February 2017 in Los Angeles, during his wide-ranging interview
50 Cent, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg are shown performing in February 2022 at the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California
