Photo courtesy of: okayplayer

The album cover of “Michael” by Killer Mike.

On Feb.7, the 65th Grammy Awards was hosted by South African comedian, writer, and former “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. This year, the Grammys ceremony was one of the most controversial nights in music awards history. This is largely because, for another year, Travis Scott has been snubbed from receiving a Grammy award, this time for his 2023 album “UTOPIA,” and for no reason, according to the majority of public opinion. 

   The first time this happened with Scott, along with other artists, was at the 2019 Grammys, which showcased notable albums such as “Swimming” by Mac Miller, “Daytona” by Pusha T, “Victory Lap” by Nipsey Hussle, “Invasion of Privacy” by Cardi B, and of course “Astroworld” by Travis Scott. Considering this group of albums nominated for Rap Album of the Year, many music fans disagreed with the winner, female rapper Cardi B with “Invasion of Privacy.” The Recording Academy also encouraged and invited deceased artist Mac Miller’s parents to the ceremony on his behalf, spurring hopes of their son winning a posthumous award for his “Swimming” album. So, this is not the only album viewers were upset over not winning, as Scott was seen as the front-runner for the Rap Album of the Year award, but neither Miller nor Scott took home the award, and in fact, Scott didn’t receive a single award that night. While Cardi B’s album did receive tons of radio support and streams, many people believed that there were better choices in music quality for the award to be given. 

   As of 2024, Scott has been nominated for ten Grammy awards and received none. Scott was filmed during his recent Las Vegas show on his “Circus Maximus” tour, saying, “They slept on me ten times,” signifying how the Grammys have not given him an award after so many nominations. He is then seen in the film smashing a chair later in the concert showing his frustration against the academy.

   This year, the Rap Album of the Year award was presented to the hip-hop artist known as Killer Mike for his studio album “Michael.” Other than being a solo artist, Killer Mike is a current member of the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels with fellow artist and rapper El-P. They have been a critically celebrated part of the rap scene since the 1990s, yet, it is apparent that most music listeners under 20 have not heard of them. 

   You may ask, “Did Killer Mike deserve this award?” or “Who even is Killer Mike?” If you were to listen to his recent album and look through the most popular songs, you would find a feature from Andre 3000, a well-known artist and member of the rap duo known as Outkast, and rapper Future on the leading single titled “Scientists and Engineers.” This song has over ten million streams on all platforms and has a very captivating verse from Andre 3000, along with Killer Mike and Future. Fans of Killer Mike say that the whole of the album is great in production. According to the critics at Pitchfork Magazine, the album has “fantastic beats, fantastic features, and he [Killer Mike] always has a great delivery.” The rest of the album showcases good wordplay from Killer Mike and features artists such as rappers Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign,  JID, and also, not surprisingly, his partner El-P. 

   On the other hand, Scott’s album “UTOPIA” also received much fan praise following a long wait for this studio album after his 2018 “Astroworld” project. Critics at Rolling Stone, Medium, and Pitchfork all say that “UTOPIA” is empty and loses steam as the album goes on, yet the public disagrees, saying that Scott’s album is one of his very best and has great production and songwriting. The band known as Bon Iver helped produce some tracks, as well as producer Wheezy, and many others. This raises the question, how did this go wrong with the critics? While there is no exact answer, you can only trace this year’s backlash back to previous snubs when Scott had the most highly acclaimed album of 2018, yet still lost the Rap Album of the Year award. 

   People supporting Scott claim he was blacklisted from the Grammys after his infamous “Astroworld” concert incident in which ten fans collapsed and died either at the concert or shortly after in nearby hospitals. Scott was blamed for not taking proper precautions for the event and was called out for “ignoring” the fans screaming at the stage for Scott to stop the show, as fans were fainting or being crushed in the crowd of over fifty thousand people. An easy defense for Scott is that he couldn’t hear the panic in the crowd, as many more people didn’t know what was happening and still went on cheering and dancing to Scott’s music, giving him the impression that everything was fine in the crowd. Scott later apologized for the event in a short video on his Instagram account, stating that his “prayers go out to all of the families and all those impacted by what happened.” Fans didn’t seem to think this apology was sincere and encouraged Scott to do more to make what happened right. He then offered to pay for the funeral expenses of the people who died, yet more than half of the families of the victims declined. Talks of the incident seemed to fizzle out in the media a couple of months after it happened. Yet, the public seems to think the Recording Academy and other critics consider what happened during the chaos of the concert and what Scott didn’t do to help as they consider his newer works.

   Critics and fans continue to disagree as to whether Travis Scott unfairly lost the Rap Album of the Year award or if Killer Mike’s album was simply the more deserving. So, was Scott blacklisted once again from winning at the Grammys due to his controversies as an artist in recent years? Or were the critics right about his album not being as good as people made it out to be?