he 2023 Grammy Awards have happened and fans of various artists, bloggers and influencers are now reflecting on who was snubbed and who wasn’t.

Let us be thrilled that Arooj Aftab was nominated and not on the fact that she lost at the recently held 65th edition of the annual Grammy Awards.

Her performance was worth watching. We are still enchanted.

Beyond the performance, this year’s Grammys were just handing out trophies to everyone but not in the manner they should have.

Beyonce Knowles deserved to win in every category for her 2016 visual album, Lemonade. But the years went by and every year Beyonce was shut out from winning Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Song of the Year. In fact, of the 32 Grammys that Beyonce has collected over the years, she has won in the big four category just once for co-writing one of her biggest hits, ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’. They have handed out so many Grammys to Beyonce that she has made history as a winner, surpassing previous greats.

In other words, the Recording Academy probably doesn’t like Beyonce so they nominate her but never vote for her. Renaissance, her 2022 album, as Jay-Z rightly said in an interview, did deserve to win.

Remove the petulant disdain for Beyonce, this year Adele was also nominated in the big four but since 30 is her weakest album compared to 19, 21 and 25, it isn’t surprising that she didn’t win Album of the Year. But Adele still made it to the big four categories and won Song of the Year for ‘Easy on Me’. And she has won plenty of times in the big four categories.

After snubbing Beyonce countless times in the big 4 categories, choosing Harry’s House by Harry Styles as Album of The Year over Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is another sign that the Grammys are no barometer for what qualifies as the best.

After snubbing Beyonce countless times in the big 4 categories, choosing Harry’s House by Harry Styles as Album of The Year over Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is another sign that the Grammys are no barometer for what qualifies as the best.

This brings us to Kendrick Lamar, who like Beyonce, is a master in giving a speech upon victory.

When he won Best Rap Album for Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers at the Grammys, a humble Kendrick said onstage: “First and foremost I want to thank my family for giving me the courage and vulnerability to share these stories and share my truth with this album.

“I want to thank my fans for trusting me with these words. As artists… we say things to provoke thoughts and feelings and emotions. Making this record was one of my toughest albums to make.” He added that he’s thankful for “the culture” for allowing him to “evolve” and make songs like ‘Mother I Sober’”.

But for a ceremony celebrating 50 years of hip hop as well, it would’ve been great to see Kendrick Lamar onstage given the fact that he is a GOAT.

His 2022 album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers was the opposite of his last few albums. Kendrick went through a tough period in his life including admittedly cheating on his spouse. The album is challenging because it has two sides to it. One, a man who owns the culture and second, a man who is not satisfied in being seen as the saviour of the culture and has his own inner demons to deal with and is tired under the weight of being seen as pop culture’s musical hero with every word he says being seen as gospel.

Is this Kendrick’s best album? Maybe. But it is certainly the most complex where the two identities clash.

To not reward this intelligent brand of rap as album of the year over Harry Styles’ Harry’s House is another sign that the Grammys are no barometer for what qualifies as the best.