Killer Mike has responded after Run the Jewels were omitted from the 2021 Grammy nominations.
The rap duo released their critically acclaimed fourth album RTJ4 in June and were widely expected to at least receive a nod in the Best Rap Album group.
However, they missed out in favour of nominations for Nas, Royce D 5’9”, Jay Electronica, D Smoke, and Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist.
Big Mike wrote on Twitter: “I wanna congratulate every brother that made this list with their raw rapping ass!”
“Best of luck to these brothers (Real Emcee S***),” he continued, “but fux whoever ain’t f*** with us (Lames). See ya’ll for #RTJ 5.”
NME reports that Killer Mike’s bandmate El-P wrote in a since-deleted tweet: “(insert impressively classy and gracious but still recognizing of complete snub tweet here).”
Other major artists have called out the Grammys either for being snubbed themselves or over fellow musicians being ignored.
The Weeknd, whom many critics thought was an assured nominee in several major categories – including Album of the Year for After Hours, and Song of the Year for “Blinding Lights” – was one of the most surprising omissions.
He wrote in a tweet that the Grammys “remain corrupt” and that the Recording Academy “owe me, my fans and the industry transparency”.
He was backed by Drake, who previously called out the Grammys last year while accepting the award for Best Rap Song (for “God’s Plan”) over its controversial track record with hip hop.
In a lengthy note posted to Instagram, Drake wrote: “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after.
“It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways,” he continued. “The other day I said @TheWeeknd was a lock for either Album or Song of the Year along with reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way.”
Justin Bieber, meanwhile, was displeased at being nominated in the pop categories with his latest album, Changes, claiming that it is in fact an R&B album.
“Changes was and is an R&B album,” he wrote. “It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me.”
