Over the past few weeks we have been talking about the decision of The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) to eliminate 30 categories in the Grammy Awards. Those categories primarily affect Black Music - Latin, R&B, Hip Hop, etc. It's refreshing to see the fight continuing and you can get involved. First take a look at what is starting to happen:  Here is a formal statement of action from indie soul standard bearer Eric Roberson (pictured) who, for the last two years, has been nominated for Grammy Awards in the Urban Alternative category which has been cut by NARAS. In honor of Black Music Month, and also in honor of a TRUE Urban Alternative artist and pioneer of this genre, the late Mr. Gil Scott-Heron, we ask that every member of the urban community that agrees with the spirit of this protest join us in a POSITIVE protest against this injustice to the urban community. This document is a guideline to ensure that everyone involved is on the same page on what we are trying to achieve. You don't have to stick to this document word for word, but again, to ensure that we obtain our objectives, we ask that you stay true to what we are trying to accomplish. Guidelines For A Unified Protest of The Decision of The Recording Academy to Eliminate the Best Urban Alternative Performance Category And The Combining of The Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B Categories Phase I Objectives: The R&B Community would like to request that The Recording Academy: · Reinstate the Best Urban Alternative Performance category. · Reinstate the separation of Best R&B Album & Best Contemporary R&B Album Statement from the R&B Community: The R&B community which consists of Urban Alternative, R&B, Traditional R&B, Funk, Neo Soul, Soul, House, Jazz, Hip Hop, Gospel, Spoken Word, etc...have united to speak out against the decision by The Recording Academy to eliminate The Best Urban Alternative Performance Category and the combining of the categories Best R&B Album & Contemporary R&B Album. Before speaking publicly about this protest please take the time to educate yourself a little about the Urban Alternative genre and the different styles of R&B music. Some Key Points: Urban Alternative is a very vibrant and active genre that is the natural evolution of R&B music. Getting rid of this category stops the growth of the R&B genre.  MeShell Ndegeocello Artists Important to the Urban Alternative Genre: Meshell Ndegeocello, Jill Scott, Eric Roberson, Janelle Monáe, Cee Lo, Foreign Exchange, India.Arie, YahZarah, Maiysha, Lupe Fiasco, OutKast, Alice Smith, Bilal, Mos Def, Wayna, Erykah Badu. Past Grammy winners: India.Arie, Dobet Gnahorè, OutKast, Damian Marley, Gnarls Barkley, Chrisette Michele, Lupe Fiasco, will.i.am  Past Nominees: Floetry, Van Hunt, Musiq SoulChild, Janelle Monáe, Eric Roberson, Wayna, Sergio Mendez, Gorillaz, Prince, Maiysha, The Roots The Urban Alternative community is in agreement with a quote from Paul Simon, "I believe the Grammy's have done a disservice to many talented musicians by combining previously distinct and separate types of music into a catch-all of blurry larger categories. They deserve the separate Grammy acknowledgements that they've been afforded until this change eliminated them." The Recording Academy is showing that or is choosing not to see the many styles of music within the R&B genre. The mentality that all R&B should and can compete fairly is not realistic especially to the experts within the R&B community.  Maxwell It is not realistic to think that Urban Alternative music is the same as Alternative music. Furthermore it is not realistic to think that Urban Alternative projects will have a fair chance of winning in the Best Alternative Album category. The Recording Academy failed to include members of the Urban Alternative community when talks began to eliminate this category. It appears as though there was an agenda in place to not include anyone that would speak against eliminating the category. We would like to see The Recording Academy include the Urban Alternative community in future discussions regarding this matter. There is a distinct difference between Contemporary R&B artists (Keri Hilson, Beyoncè, Usher, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Ryan Leslie, Ciara) and R&B artists (Maxwell, Sade, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, R. Kelly,Anthony David, Kelly Price, Alicia Keys). We ask that The Recording Academy acknowledge this difference and do the fair thing; separate the categories and let like artists compete against artists that are similar in styles.  The Recording Academy has a belief that just because there are low entries in a category that the music must not be out there, when in fact the music is out there. They believe that the music is not relevant anymore when it is. They believe that because it's not covered in the press, it must not be supported. When artists like Meshell Ndegeocello always sell out concerts and continues to sell her music to her fans. We believe The Recording Academy has this perception because of the lack of communication between the urban communities, which includes R&B, Hip Hop & Gospel. There is also the perception that The Recording Academy does not want a relationship with the urban community unless they become "Pop" R&B stars. We ask that The Recording Academy do a better job of REAL outreach to the urban community. We also request a commitment from the Chair & President of The Recording Academy to meet with leaders from the urban community to have REAL discussions on the perceptions each other has from both sides and to discuss achieving real solutions towards bridging the gap between the both parties. · The urban community recognizes the great work that The Recording Academy does to help musicians and music professionals. We applaud the work of MusiCares and The Grammy Foundations. We appreciate the hard work of the employees, officers and volunteers. And in no way does this protest desire to discredit The Recording Academy. But sometimes in a house all the rooms are not in order. In this case our issue is only with the decision to eliminate the Best Urban Alternative Category and the combining of Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B Album. · If you are a member of The Recording Academy we encourage you to continue your membership and become an active member of change. Get involved and let The Recording Academy know how you feel. There is no need to fear any type of retaliation. The Recording Academy is your Academy and you have the right to protest actions by The Recording Academy that affect you. If you are not a member of The Recording Academy you still have the right to get involved with this protest. This protest is about the continued disrespect and corporate elimination of R&B music. By creating the Best Urban Alternative Performance category The Recording Academy listened to the efforts of all involved with the creation of this category and gave a voice to a very important musical movement. This category put the genre of Urban Alternative music and the artists associated with it on a grand scale. The creation of this category exposed artists who push the music forward to a wider audience. Getting rid of this category affects the artists and the whole Urban Alternative community and most importantly all the fans of this music and future fans of this music. So if you are not a member of The Recording Academy we still encourage you to join this protest. Once again, we encourage the urban community to join and become active members of The Recording Academy. If you are hesitant about joining and want to see how this protest is received by The Recording Academy, that's fine too. We still welcome your support of this protest. How You Can Help:
Comments06/13/2011 14:20
Why do we need the music industry groups to vaildate our music...really? 06/13/2011 14:27
It's just insane that the people who create the music actually need someone else to preserve promote and recognize our music! The bigger issue is that because we are too often the consumers of the sponsors products and don't own much of anything, we're disposable. We have little economic voice and therefore RLH 07/14/2011 15:15
you cannot subject R&B to the reduction in categories without yourselves saying that there are no genres within R&B music as a whole. Please reconsider and reinstate those categories and watch the continued greatness in R&B. I'm not here to try and out smart or out wit or be negative toward anyone, first of all.Now with that being said, try with all your might to try and understand,take a look at this:Preserve Leave a Reply | Welcome to the Rhythm And Soul blog. ArchivesMarch 2012 Categories |
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