The Real Reason Jay-Z Has Beef With The Academy Behind The Grammys

Jay-Z's got 99 problems, and the Grammys probably account for half of them. Despite his status as one of the most decorated artists in Recording Academy history — with an impressive tally of 24 wins from 88 nominations, making him the rapper with the highest number of Grammy wins, a record shared with Kanye West — he has never bagged any of the big four awards, namely Album, Record, and Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. But being ghosted for these categories is not exactly why he's beefing with the awards show.

HOV has long harbored a gripe with the Grammys, tracing back to 1999 when he first won a golden record player trophy. At the time, he decided to skip out on the ceremony altogether in solidarity with DMX, who got snubbed for a nomination despite making a huge splash. "The first time I boycotted the Grammys was for [DMX]. We both came out that year, he didn't get nominated," he shared in a "The Shop: Uninterrupted" episode. "He dropped two albums — had two No. 1 albums in the same year — they didn't even nominate him. I won that year for Rap Album, so my first Grammy win — I wasn't there. I wasn't even in the building because I boycotted it for him. There was a competitive thing, but it was big love."

Fast forward to 2004, Jay-Z made a Grammys comeback, but only because Beyoncé was in the running. But to this day, Jay-Z still has a bone to pick with the Academy, mainly because his wife has been robbed of the Album of the Year award one too many times.

The Carter family's trophy case is practically a Grammy museum in its own right, with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and even Blue Ivy collectively racking up a total of 61 Grammys. Queen Bey herself sits atop the leaderboard with a record-breaking 32 wins, but what's especially baffling is that she's never clinched the Album of the Year, despite dropping albums that have not just topped charts but have become cultural landmarks. Can you believe "Lemonade" was snubbed? It has all of us, including Jay-Z, scratching our heads.

And so at the 2024 Grammys, the rapper took the stage to receive the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award for his legacy in the music industry, but instead of recounting his career, he called out the inconsistency in Grammys voting, with his wife bearing much of the brunt. While he acknowledged that voting is "obviously subjective," he pointed out that it doesn't make sense that Beyoncé has lost out on Album of the Year too many times. "I don't want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year," Jay-Z emphasized. "So even by your own metrics, that doesn't work. Think about that."

Jay-Z obviously wasn't campaigning for a Beyoncé awards monopoly; he was simply making a request for the Recording Academy to give artists their flowers when they deserve it. "I'm just saying — we want you all to get it right," he said. "We love y'all, we love y'all. We want you to get it right — or at least get it close to right."

Jay-Z's beef with the Grammys isn't confined to just award show speeches — he's taken the battle to songs, laying down his grievances in tracks like "Apes**t," in which he blasted the institution for snubbing his "4:44" album despite its eight nominations. In an interview with Tidal, he clarified that he wasn't actually upset, but he did lament the fact that the Grammys "missed the opportunity." He said, "I didn't feel bad for myself because I know it's the Grammys." 

It's a different story when it comes to Beyoncé, however, with the rapper telling the outlet that "Renaissance," which he believes should have won Album of the Year, blew everyone out of the water. "Look what it's done to the culture," he said. "It has inspired the world." He went on to admit that the Grammys have turned him into a skeptic, leading him to believe that some wins might just be marketing stunts. "It got to the point where I was like, it's just a marketing thing. You go, you got an album out, and it could help the sales go up."

At the end of the day, it's just an awards show. As Jay-Z said at the 2024 Grammys, his fellow artists should continue doing the work they sought to do until they make it. "We got to keep showing up and forget the Grammys for a second — just in life, you got to keep showing up," he told the crowd. "You got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve, until they call you Chairman, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time."