Words by Comfort Nnana Kalu
Saturday night, Jay-Z was invited to Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala and was honored with the Grammy Salute To Industry Icons Award. As he accepted the award, HOV revealed why he has previously not attended the Grammys towards the beginning of his career.
He explained that the reason he boycotted the Grammys stemmed from what he conceived to be a snub to DMX during the 1999 awards ceremony. Jay-Z felt that it was an exceptional year for DMX, yet he did not receive a single nomination. It was because of this, that Jay-Z decided he would not attend the Grammys that year, although he went on to receive Best Rap Album for his Vol. 2….Hard Knock Life.
“I didn’t come back until 2004 when a beautiful, young lady whom I loved dearly had a solo album. And I realized. ‘Man, art is super subjective and everyone is doing their best, and the Academy, they’re human like we are. They’re voting on things they like, and it’s subjective. “It was that year that Beyoncé took home six nominations and walked away with five wins.”
“If we believe in it – ‘cause we do, we can pretend that we don’t care, but we really care,” he went on to add. “We care ‘cause we’ve seen the most incredible artists stand on that stage and we’re inspired to be that, so I was like, I have to be here.’”
Tonight, we will know what Jay-Z will take home from his many Grammy nominations.