Yes, our great culture of hip-hop has only taken home an unfortunately low number of Grammy awards since we got our own category in 1989. How ironic. Hit the jump.
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With Kendrick Lamar bringing home 5 Grammy’s last night, it led to us speculating on past hip-hop Grammy nominees and winners. Kendrick was nominated for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year – the 3 Main Categories. He didn’t win any of those. In fact, the only act to win in one of those categories was Outkast with their double-album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, with winning the coveted Album of the Year award in 2004.
Hip-hop has accounted for only one of 81 (1.2%) major category winners since 1989 and of 421 nominations during that timespan, only 34 (8.1%) have been hip hop artists.
You may wondering about Lauryn Hill and when her The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album won Album of the Year. It doesn’t count because in the Grammy categories, he was documented as an R&B album and not a hip-hop album.
With that being said, hip hop is still unappreciated at the Grammys in proportion to its market share. Whereas the pop genre accounts for 15% of album sales and 27% of major Grammy wins, hip-hop accounts for 10% of album sales and 1% of major Grammy wins.
