During his acceptance speech for receiving this year’s Dr. Dre Global Impact Award during Sunday evenings GRAMMY Award ceremony, that somehow sounded both off the cuff, and also rehearsed, JAY-Z showed gratitude, supplied shout outs, cracked jokes, and called out the ceremony not always getting things right.
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“How far we have come with Will Smith, The Fresh Prince winning their first GRAMMY in ’89 and boycotting, because it wasn’t televised,” he said. “And then they went to a hotel to watch the GRAMMYs,” he comically added. “I don’t even understand, it wasn’t a great boycott.”
He continued, “but then in ’98, I took a page out of their book and was nominated for 'Best Rap Album,' and DMX put out two, they were both number one, and he wasn’t nominated at all. So I boycotted,” he said, pausing for effect, before adding, “and I watched the GRAMMYs.”
“I’m just… we want you all to get it right. We love y’all, we love y’all. We want you to get it right, or at least get it close to right.”
JAY went on to make additional valid points, first noting that while he knows, “it’s subjective, because it’s music and its opinion-based,” his wife and superstar icon, Beyoncé, aka the most awarded artist of all time in GRAMMY history, has yet to win one for Album of the Year.
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady,” he said, looking at Bey, “but she has more GRAMMYs than anyone, and never won 'Album of the Year.' So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most GRAMMYs, never won 'Album of the Year.' That doesn’t work.”
JAY went on to say a few more things about the night's nominees, making sure to add in some humor. "Some of you might go home tonight and feel like you've been robbed. Some of you may get robbed," he said, adding that "some of you don't belong in the category." After an astounded gasp from the crowd, saying, “Nah when I get nervous, I tell the truth,” which led the crowd to lighten up.
Listen to everything JAY-Z had to say during his acceptance speech, below.