Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter has garnered criticism and praise alike for his speech accepting the inaugural Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the 2024 Grammys.
Featuring entertaining quips, powerful punchlines, justice and equity advocacy, and a promotion of resilience and hope, Jay-Z’s speech is more than a memorable moment. The celebrated hip-hop mogul’s words reveal a longtime history of Black artists navigating a world of artistry, innovation, entertainment and using their platforms to advocate for their people.
The more than three-minute acceptance speech consistently showcases Hov-humor — elevated and witty, with a dose of honesty — and also reveals African American artists’ longtime talent of addressing injustices and entertaining at once.
For instance, with his daughter Blue Ivy Carter by his side, Jay-Z joked that he normally calls the prestigious award from the Recording Academy her sippy cups. However, he quickly noted the 12-year-old is grown up now and has her own Grammys.
After a quick jab and flex at once, Jay-Z hits a lot of major topics.
He expressed gratitude for the award, acknowledging Dr. Dre, for whom the honor is named, as well as groundbreaking hip-hop artists. He shouted out the Black Music Collective for their dedication to supporting African American artists through scholarships and services.
He mentioned the dynamic duo of Will Smith also known as “The Fresh Prince” and DJ Jazzy Jeff, and said he took a page from the Philadelphia hip-hoppers, when, like them, he decided not to attend the Grammys a particular year he was nominated, because he felt the late rapper DMX was snubbed.
Then the artist and entrepreneur really got on the topic of snubbing, with a subtext that alleged discrimination toward Black artists like his wife, Beyoncé Knowles Carter.
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than anyone, and never won album of the year,” he said about his wife, the most-nominated woman in Recording Academy history. “Even by your own metric that does not work. Think about that, most Grammys, never won album of the year.”
To be clear, Beyonce has 32 Grammys and Jay-Z has 24. With 56 Grammys between them, the two are hardly lacking accolades, but the Brooklyn-born rapper isn’t just speaking for himself or his family. He’s sharing his understanding of injustices in the recording industry, from the largest platform in music.
“Some of you are going to go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in the category,” he said, garnering a roar of laughter.
“When I get nervous I tell the truth,” Jay-Z added.
In true fashion of Black artists, the entrepreneur and artivist’s speech didn’t end without lending an empowering message of hope for the more than 16 million people tuning into “music’s biggest night.”
“Just in life, you’ve got to keep showing up,” he said. “Forget the Grammys, you’ve got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel like you deserve. Until they call you chairman, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time.”