Who was the first hip-hop artist to win a Grammy?
Considering every facet of pop music, hip-hop is still a relatively new piece of culture. Even though it started off as nothing more than an offshoot of disco when Sugarhill Gang came up with ‘Rapper’s Delight’, it had become a bonafide institution when the 1980s came to a close. All the groundwork had been laid for the Academy of Recording Arts to pay their respects, but one of their first major awards for hip-hop was far from the dangerous sounds of the street that one might expect.
Looking back on the genre’s start, though, fans needed some time to get a handle on what the genre really was. There wasn’t much difference between Sugarhill Gang and the typical dance music going on in the clubs, but by the time Grandmaster Flash started making waves with ‘The Message’, fans knew that there was something more than someone could say on wax that wasn’t rhymes to keep the beat moving.
By the time the Grammys started acknowledging hip-hop, it was already coming off of its golden age. Run-DMC had broken down the doors to turn the genre into a household name, and even though Beastie Boys presented the kind of frat-bro version of the genre, they still managed to sell enough records to get them on the road with Madonna on one of their first tours.
Then again, the Academy was not willing to dip its toes into anything that was “dangerous.” They were ready to show hip-hop some love, but in terms of the non-threatening version of hip-hop that would stand the test of time, ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince was all that they could cater to at the time.
So, who were the first hip-hop artists nominated for a Grammy?
By Grammy standards, Will Smith’s fun-loving delivery was hardly the most groundbreaking choice, but considering what it was up against, there was at least some logic behind everything. LL Cool J’s ‘Going Back to Cali’ certainly warranted a nomination, but considering that a lot of what Smith was doing on ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ was cribbing from Run-DMC, it’s a wonder why songs like ‘Mary Mary’ weren’t nominated in favour of JJ Fad’s ‘Supersonic’.
Though none of the picks in the nominations are bad and have even stood the test of time on their own, like ‘Push It’ from Salt-N-Pepa, there are also some notable omissions that should merit inclusion. Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back had come out the previous year, as well as NWA’s ‘Fuck the Police’, but considering how dangerous they seemed on record, it’s easy to think that the Grammys simply got scared off the minute that they started talking about macabre topics like how the police might not always be upstanding citizens.
That didn’t stop DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince from riding the wave of their success, though. Smith managed to still sell like gangbusters whether on his own or with his partner and considering how many people are still bumping songs like ‘Summertime’ and unironically singing along to ‘Gettin’ Jiggy With It’, he has earned a spot in hip-hop history as one of the most approachable rap stars of all time.
Granted, that hasn’t stopped the Grammys from having some insanely questionable picks later down the line, like refusing to give Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly Album of the Year or favouring a late-era Steely Dan album than give Eminem the time of day for The Marshall Mathers LP. Hip-hop is here to stay as a genre, but every year at the Grammys, it’s anyone’s guess whether the genre will be treated on equal footing with everything else or be kept at arm’s length.
