US rapper Nicki Minaj has criticised the Grammys for placing her charting track Super Freaky Girl in a category where it has “less of a chance to win.”
She said the song was reclassified as pop, so “newer artists might be given things that they really don’t deserve” in the rap genre.
Super Freaky Girl is now number one on the US pop and rap charts, and the Grammy organisers have been silent.
In an Instagram post, Minaj said that the music business was working to undermine her career and that “newer artists” were being favoured over “those who have been worthy for many years” in terms of opportunities and recognition.
She said that she was suffering so that “these corporate giants may make the money from” artists whom the gatekeepers “want to shine.”
“The people who control a lot of things behind the scenes, they have to elevate someone that they profit off. So they must move the goalposts for me all the time.”
“Why is the goalpost only ever moved when it’s Nicki? Well, I’ll tell you why. They don’t want the people who they have in the industry to have to go up against me,” Minaj said, explaining why the goalpost was shifted exclusively in cases involving herself. “But why? If you’re great, if a song is great, you should be able to be put together in the same category.”
“Now, what do you think is going to happen when they start voting on these pop categories? And it’s a bunch of, you know, people, white or wherever they’re from, or older or whatever, and they have to decide between Nicki Minaj and Harry Styles, or Nicki Minaj and Adele?”
“That’s purposely designed so that Nicki is not in the category that you don’t want any competition in. Put her in there so she has more competition and less of a chance to win.”
This triggered a Twitter battle between Minaj and fellow rapper-in-the-making Latto.
She specifically mentioned 23-year-old Latto and her rap song Big Energy, which she said had been misclassified. Big Energy peaked at #3 on the US pop list and #1 on the rap rundown.
“If Super Freaky Girl is pop,” Minaj said, “then so is Big Energy. If you take Super Freaky Girl out of rap and put it in pop, do the same with Big Energy. Same producers on both songs, by the way. So let’s keep [it] fair.”
Category Ambiguity
The X-rated Super Freaky Girl, which prominently samples funk singer Rick James’ 1981 track Super Freak, features Minaj, who has been nominated for a total of 10 Grammys (seven of which were for rap categories).
The fact that James’s original was up for a Grammy for best male rock vocal performance just adds to the confusion.
The Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” is sampled in Latto’s equally obscene Big Energy from 1981.
Kacey Musgraves took issue with a song being reclassified last year from country to pop, while Justin Bieber has already expressed displeasure with being categorized as a pop artist rather than an R&B artist for 2020.
Both Drake and The Weeknd have been vocal critics of the Grammys in recent years, and both have pulled songs from streaming services.
Soul pair Silk Sonic, aka Grammy winners Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, have decided not to compete in the next year.
Mars sent a statement to Rolling Stone in which he thanked the Grammys for the opportunity to play twice on their stage and for the trophy they gave him at last year’s show, but he did not provide an explanation for the decision. To expect more would be completely unreasonable.
“We appreciate their decision not to submit this year but look forward to celebrating an amazing year in music together,” said Harvey Mason Jr., chief executive of the Recording Academy, which organizes the awards.
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