The 2021 Grammy nominations were announced on Tuesday, Nov. 24, and there are a lot of celebrities that are not happy with the list. One celebrity that was vocal about her disappointment with the Best R&B Album nominees list is Teyana Taylor.
After the Twitter account @chartdata tweeted the nominees for best R&B album, Taylor retweeted the post with a viral GIF of Viola Davis as Annalise Keating on the former ABC-TV show “How To Get Away With Murder.” The GIF shows Keating getting annoyed and picking up her bag to leave. Taylor, 29, followed up by retweeting several tweets from fans expressing that Taylor and her 2020 album titled “The Album” was robbed of a spot on the nominee list.
Taylor later retweeted and responded to the Grammys Twitter account after it uploaded a tweet congratulating the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards Best R&B Album nominees.
She said, “Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is d–k in this category.”
Hours later, white Boston radio host Karson Tager responded to Teyana writing, “…meanwhile every singer nominated in the Best Rock Performance doesn’t have a 🍆, what’s your point?”
Taylor clapped back, saying, “My point is MY POINT. I said what da f–k I said. It shoulda been some WAP’s in tha R&B category. Instead it was filled with a bunch of 🍆, Now stay outta black women business.”
Although there weren’t any women listed in that specific category, the other four remaining R&B categories did have some women nominated. Jhene Aiko, Beyoncé, Chloe and Halle and H.E.R received multiple nominations in the other R&B categories: Best R&B Performance, Best Traditional R&B Performance, Best R&B Song and Best Progressive R&B Album.
The Recording Academy, the organization that awards the Grammys, announced in June that it would be changing the name of the Best Urban Contemporary Album Category to Best Progressive R&B Album due to controversial discussions surrounding the word “urban.” Many people felt that the word is insensitive and is used to racially stereotype black people.
After changing the title, interim Recording Academy president and Grammys chief Harvey Mason Jr. said the new “category is intended to highlight albums that include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music. It may also incorporate production elements found in pop, euro-pop, country, rock, folk, and alternative.”
