Roland Martin called out JAY-Z for his speech at the 2024 Grammy Awards, during which he railed against the Recording Academy while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. Speaking on his Unfiltered show, Martin argued that the legendary rapper should’ve refused to accept the honor until changes were made at the ceremony to assist hip-hop artists. Martin noted that the rap categories were not broadcast live on TV.
“JAY-Z, if you want the Grammys to change, you should’ve said, ‘I will not accept this award nor will I attend until y’all put one of the rap categories on the televised broadcast,” Martin said. "JAY-Z, Dr. Dre, y’all make it clear, whoever they want to give the award to next year, you make it clear we ain’t showing up unless y’all make the rap album of the year part of the broadcast. I guarantee you it’s gonna cause some folks to say, ‘We better do it or we’re gonna lose the star power… You pull the star power, ratings go down. When ratings go down, they lose money. We know in America, when they lose money, stuff changes.”
JAY-Z Speaks At 2024 Grammy Awards
On stage, JAY-Z primarily took issue with the Recording Academy never recognizing Beyonce for Album of the Year, despite giving her the most awards in history. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year,” he 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. Obviously, it's subjective because it's music. It's opinion-based. Some of you are going to 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." Check out Martin's response to the comments below.
Roland Martin Slams JAY-Z
JAY-Z also made headlines at the event for drinking out of his award. Be on the lookout for further updates on JAY-Z on HotNewHipHop.
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