Roland Martin has 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.
On stage, Jay-Z mainly blasted the Recording Academy for never having awarded Beyonce Album of the Year, even though they had given her the most awards ever.
He said, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she’s never won Album of the Year, and she has more Grammys than everyone. Therefore, even by your own standards, that is ineffective. Consider that.
Most Grammy Awards, but no Album of the Year honors. That is not effective. Since it’s music, it must obviously be subjective. It is based on opinion. Tonight, a few of you will return home feeling as though you’ve been robbed. Not everyone fits the description, so some of you might be robbed.”
However, Roland Martin thinks otherwise and has stated on his Unfiltered program that the renowned rapper ought to have declined the honor until modifications were made to the event to support hip-hop musicians. Martin pointed out that there was no live TV broadcast for the rap categories.
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In response to the speech, Roland Martin said that Jay-Z ought to have used his influence to turn down the award.
He noted, “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.”
Roland Martin went on, “Jay-Z and Dr. Dre, you guys make it plain that we won’t be there unless you guys include the rap album of the year in the show, no matter who they want to present the award to next year.
I can assure you that some people will say, “We have to do this or we risk losing our star power.” When you use star power, the ratings decrease. They lose money when their ratings decline. As we all know, things change in America when people lose money”.