Tyler, the Creator Calls His Grammy Win a “Backhanded Compliment”
It was a big night for Tyler, the Creator and his fans as the rapper won his first ever Grammy Award, picking up Best Rap Album for his 2019 opus IGOR.
Though he received the win with respect and grace and underscored its importance in his acceptance speech, Tyler was (reliably) candid in his comments to the press afterward. Responding to a Rolling Stone reporter’s question about the firestorm of controversy surrounding the Grammys and their racist-leaning voting bias, Tyler described his win as feeling like a “backhanded compliment.”
He expounded on the all too frequent occurrence of artists being relegated to rap or “urban” categories while being shut out for larger awards contention. “I don’t like that urban word,” he said, “It’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me.” See his full comments below:
IGOR beat out fellow nominees like 21 Savage’s i am > i was and YBN Cordae’s The Lost Boy for the Best Rap Album trophy. See where it stacked up in our ranking of every Grammy-winning Best Rap Album here.
