User:CrystalHartW/sandbox

The top four categories in the Grammy Awards include: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. In 2015’s Grammy Awards only two nominees were African American, Pharrell Williams and Beyoncé. In a 2015 article, a Los Angeles Times writer Lorraine Ali was critical of the 57th Grammy Awards, stating that over the last ten years only two African Americans have received Grammy’s for Record of the Year including Pharrell Williams and Ray Charles, who both shared their Grammy wins with White artists.

In 2014 Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who are white artists took home 3 Grammy awards in a majority Black categories including: Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s album “The Heist” beat out prominent Hip-Hop albums including Drake’s “Nothing Was The Same” Jay Z’s “Magna Carta and “Holy Grail” Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” and Kanye West’s album “Yeezus”.

In a 2014 Los Angeles Time’s article “Macklemore agrees Kendrick Lamar should have won” by Gerrick D. Kennedy, Macklemore himself texted Lamar stating “You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have”. He goes on to say “It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during my speech. Then the music started playing during my speech and I froze. Anyway, you know what it is. Congrats on this year and your music. Appreciate you as an artist and as a friend. Much love."