In a long-overdue change, the Grammy’s have officially renamed their “Urban” category to “Best Progressive R&B.” The Grammy’s recently received an open letter from the Black Music Coalition regarding their usage of the word “Urban.”
They detailed how the Urban category had been used as a musical ghetto—a place to collect and dismiss music created by black artists.
In the past, any black artist outside of rap was thrown into this category. Even if a black musician created a pop album, the album would be tossed into the “Urban” simply due to the artist’s race.
This categorization resulted in black artists being overlooked for the Grammy’s “Album of the Year”—an award no black artists has won in over 10 years. Some of the most famous black artists of all time—even Michael Jackson, Prince, and Beyonce–have never won album of the year.
Black artist and Grammy winner Tyler the Creator spoke out about this issue after his win in 2020, ” I don’t like that ‘urban’ word,” he said. “It’s just a politically correct way to say the n-word, to me. So, when I hear that, I’m just like, why can’t we just be in pop?”
Changing the category from “Urban” to “Progressive R&B” is a step in the right direction. The ultimate victory will be when everyone’s music is judged for its merits as music, not by the race of its creators.
