Joyner Lucas is heading to the GRAMMYs this year off the strength of his contentious music video for "I'm Not Racist." The song's music video helped put a bigger spotlight on Lucas, but more importantly, helped further the conversation about race in America to an extent. The rapper recently sat down with Billboard to discuss the video and its impact over a year later.
"We have to live in a world with people that we don’t like," Lucas said. "And we have to figure out how we’re going to continue to live together under the same roof. That’s the message I wanted to convey: “Let’s agree to disagree and move on.”
The rapper continued to explain that he's not expecting to win a GRAMMY for the video. In fact, he actually is banking on Childish Gambino's "This Is America" video to beat him for Best Music Video. However, he does feel that "I'm Not Racist" helped make Gambino comfortable enough to release the song and video.
"I feel like “I’m Not Racist” changed a lot of things, and it caused a lot of damage and opened up room for conversations," he said. "Like I pushed the envelope for people like Childish Gambino to come out and make “This Is America.” I feel like I made him comfortable enough to make a record like that. I love that video. I think he’s going to win [best music video] -- I hope he wins it."