Teyana Taylor is not pleased with the Recording Academy.
The nominations for the 2021 awards were announced on Tuesday (November 24), and while there were plenty of questionable choices and omissions, the category for Best R&B Album stood out in particular. Despite multiple women dropping acclaimed bodies of work in the genre, the nominees were all male – and Taylor isn’t having it.
“Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is dick in this category,” she wrote in a retweet of the Recording Academy sharing the nominations.
Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is dick in this category. https://t.co/LlL769FbTR
— TEYANA M.J. SHUMPERT (@TEYANATAYLOR) November 24, 2020
Up in the category are John Legend’s Bigger Love, Luke James’ To Feel Love, Giveon’s Take Time, Ant Clemons’ Happy 2 Be Here and Gregory Porter’s All Rise. The Best “Progressive” R&B album category offers slightly more diversity with Chloe x Halle’s Ungodly Hour and Jhené Aiko’s Chilombo, however.
Taylor released her third studio effort The Album on Juneteenth. With 23 tracks, the project featured appearances from the legendary Lauryn Hill, Future, Missy Elliott, Quavo, Rick Ross, Erykah Badu, Big Sean and more. It debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 with 32,000 album-equivalent units, making for Taylor’s first-ever top 10 debut.
Other quality R&B projects released by women this year include Alicia Keys’ Alicia, Brandy’s B7, Kehlani’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t and Queen Najia’s Misunderstood – just to name a few.
Nicki Minaj had similar criticisms for the Academy earlier in the day, blasting them for not giving her the Best New Artist award when she was nominated in 2012 and instead “[giving] it to the white man Bon Iver.”
Revisit The Album below and check out the full list of Grammy nominations here.