Music: Staples, We Have a [Black Music] Problem

 Before you even get to the link below, consider:

After 32 years, with a still-taked-about tribute to Bob Marley a few years back, and with reggae and dancehall all over pop music -especially in the US - over the last three years, the reggae Grammy is still presented off-screen. (of course, there's more to that, but that's another rant)

I have no problem with the "Song of the Year" or even "Record of the Year" awards going to Adele, and I've never been the biggest Beyonce fan, but apart from my reservations about "25" being deserving of Album of the Year, its clear that the Grammy Committee has a problem with Black music, or more specifically, with Black people making music.

No Black act has won AOY  since OUtkast's double project "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" in 2003; in 2015, every single nominee for "Album of the Year" and Best New Artist" was white (This year's winner, Chance the Rapper, was arguably too good, and too groundbreaking in terms of successfully hitting without a label, to ignore).


Also trifling is the organizers' decision (in effect a few years now also) to not list or show the 70+ other awards that don't take place in the performance-dominated telecast. Add to that, the nature of the performances - Lukas Graham SIMULTANEOUSLY with Kelsea Balerini, like WTF?

All of it made for a variety show that not even the affable James Corden could rescue.
Grammys Race