Pitchfork’s weekly rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, dances, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches our attention in the world of hip-hop.
The Grammys’ empty gesture Black musicians have long rejected genre labels, wary of their work being segregated by the white powers that be. “To me the word ‘jazz’ means nigger, discrimination, second-class citizenship,” said bandleader and bassist Charles Mingus in 1963, while Duke Ellington preferred the term “American music” over “jazz.” This skeptical mindset has remained constant: Earlier this year, Tyler, the Creator revealed similar feelings about his Grammy win for Best Rap Album. “It sucks that whenever we—and I mean guys that look like
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