Megan Thee Stallion — who came away with a Best New Artist win at last night’s Grammys ceremony — doesn’t believe that the awards show is inherently rigged. While some stars, like The Weeknd and Lil Wayne, spent the last several weeks railing against the Recording Academy’s “unfair” selection practices, Megan had a far more philosophical outlook on the results of the voting. Stopped by TMZ at some point over the course of the evening, Megan gave a straightforward response to their question about whether she had advanced awareness of the results.
“I didn’t know sh*t,” she replied. “Hell no, the Grammys ain’t rigged. Bitch, you win some, you lose some.” Asked about the importance of the wins for women, she just threw out her standard response: “Real Hot Girl Sh*t!”
The Grammys’ “snub” of artists like The Weeknd in multiple categories — and the singer’s reactive boycott of last night’s ceremony — have only contributed to the feeling that the Grammys have become more of a “popularity contest” in recent years, despite efforts to become more inclusive. However, as Cardi B pointed out, plenty of artists were nominated despite lack of mainstream recognition.
While it’s easy for artists who miss out to chalk their losses up to conspiracies and agendas, the truth is, a voting body comprised of such a broad variety of music industry professionals can hardly be expected to agree on anything, even if more efforts are made to include atypical entries on ballots and shortlists — and artists, who by nature are “sensitive about our sh*t,” to paraphrase Erykah Badu, are exactly the type of folks to take their ommissions personally and resort so using social media to publicize their sour grapes.
You can watch the video of Megan responding to the question of whether the Grammys are rigged here.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.