Tyler, the Creator on Grammys' Urban Categories: 'It's Just the Politically Correct Way to Say the N-Word to Me'

The fight to have black music properly recognized by the Grammys is an ongoing tug-of-war between its artists and the Recording Academy. But there were signs of progress when Tyler, The Creator walked away with this year's Best Rap Album award.

Tyler's IGOR undoubtedly deserved to be awarded a Grammy with the amount of praise it received upon its release. Yet, Tyler feels like describing the genre-blending project as a Rap/Urban album is merely the Recording Academy's way of pigeon-holing black artists.

"I'm half-and-half on it," Tyler said when asked about winning the award. "On one side I'm just grateful that what I made could be acknowledged in a world like this. But also it sucks that whenever we—and I mean guys that look like me—do anything that's genre-bending or anything they always put it in a Rap or Urban category."

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