Last week, Jonathan Kuminga, the consensus No. 1 recruit in the class of 2021, appeared as one of the graduates during The Patrick School’s digital graduation ceremony. As such, Kuminga, a 6’8 forward who hails from the Democratic Republic of the Congo but has lived in the U.S. since 2016, reclassified as a member of the class of 2020. The youngster previously put out a top-5, one which included Auburn, Duke, Kentucky, Texas Tech, and the NBA G League select team.

The real question here is what kind of player will one of those programs — or, possibly, the already stacked G League select team — get this fall? Putting it simply, they’re getting one of the best athletes in the recent history of American high school basketball and someone who oozes superstar potential. Kuminga is listed at 6’8 and 210 pounds with a 6’11 wingspan, but he plays bigger and stronger in every way. He’s the architect of some of the most brutal dunks of anyone on the high school or AAU circuit, and he did all of them before turning 18 (which he does in early October).

His defensive potential is obvious as a freight train shot blocker who plays well above the rim on the glass. As a shooter, Kuminga has good balance but questionable touch (he once shot in the 40s from the line for an entire AAU session), but his overall skill is solid enough to overcome some questionable shot selection. As a ball handler, Kuminga is very raw, often not having anything to go to if he’s unable to beat his opponent with sheer speed and strength. Like all 17 year olds, he has trouble switching hands, but like everyone his age, he’s likely to get better at it given time.

The real question with Kuminga as he goes forward is how his in-between game can develop. It’s hard to really evaluate him properly as a high school talent, because he either gets to the rim and scores or he doesn’t and shoots a questionable pull-up. Off ball, he’s a fairly capable shooter, but the difference between stars and role players in the NBA is often self-creation (i.e., the difference between Kawhi Leonard in 2012 and Kawhi Leonard in 2019). He’s not challenged enough by any single defender — unsurprising given he is bigger, stronger, and more athletic than everyone in his age group — to get a real feel for how skilled of an isolation player he is or could be.

The success of a player like O.G. Anunoby in Toronto, who developed as a dribbler and decision maker over his collegiate and NBA career, bodes very well for Kuminga, a player who is certainly farther along than Anunoby was at the same stage. Jimmy Butler is another, more high-end potential comp, another player who got by on overwhelming strength for a wing while slowly growing into a lead role. Whether or not Kuminga is the level of decision maker that has made Butler one of the most efficient players in NBA history is another question.

Kuminga could end up being the kind of player whose overwhelming physicality wins at the lower levels but fails to win out in the NBA — think Harrison Barnes or Michael Beasley — but it’s hard to imagine him not getting bigger, stronger, and smarter regardless of where he spends his last season before going off the to pros. Auburn would be a good stylistic fit for him, Duke and Kentucky are pro factories, Texas Tech is renowned for its physical development of its players, and it seems safe to assume that the G League select team would be given access to the best everything due to the NBA’s investment in the program.

As for where Kuminga fits into the 2020 class, that is tough to answer. He’s certainly a tier behind Cade Cunningham, but after that, things are wide open in this already great class. Players like Brandon Boston Jr., Jalen Green, and Evan Mobley are all vying for that second spot, and Kuminga is as good a bet to win out as any of them. He’s the kind of prospect NBA teams go absolutely crazy for: a young and athletic player with a sky-high trajectory who could find himself as one of those faces of a franchise-type dudes within three years of breaking into the league. His physical profile is something that cannot be taught, and with the refinement that should come with his next step, Kuminga should draw plenty of attention during 2020-21 en route to hearing his name called early in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s HitRecord has been around for more than a decade, prompting collaborative creativity while fostering a community. The endeavor has been a successful one by measures creative (books, music, short films) and financial (for both the company and its community), but now, in the midst of a global pandemic with a side of isolation, HitRecord may be at the height of its usefulness, giving people an outlet to not only develop ideas but to connect. And it’s something Gordon-Levitt is leaning into, teaming with YouTube Originals to produce and host Create Together, a six-part mini-series (the 4th episode just dropped Monday) and feel-good embodiment of the HitRecord platform where members of the community work with Gordon-Levitt to tell their story and create the poetry, art, music, and content that fills the show.

It’s hard to not buy in after listening to Gordon-Levitt talk about the message and the mission at the heart of what feels, at once, like a company and a cause. This despite my own cynicism about… oh, everything? But especially a digital pathway to a kind of fulfillment. To his credit, however, Gordon-Levitt is eyes wide open when it comes to the not always positive power of the internet and how it can misuse the allure of being seen and heard, contorting goals and priorities. HitRecord isn’t trying to be an influencer factory that serves as a gateway to individual notoriety and fat stacks. Instead, it seems more focussed on self-expression and the tangible feeling of accomplishing something for the sake of accomplishing it. Taking the ride, in other words. And, after speaking with Gordon-Levitt about Create Together and his return to acting with the tense 7500 (which is available to stream via Amazon Prime on June 19), it’s pretty clear that that’s his primary creative priority too.

I struggle to create without there being a [sellable] product at the end of it. Obviously, everyone here [on Create Together] is trying to collaborate and create something. Can you talk a little bit about the power of creating and creating as a part of a collaborative effort?

Having the show is, I think, a real incentive to have something that we are all making together, and that’s also a lot of what HitRecord does. It allows people to start a project and find collaborators and finish that project, as opposed to what can sometimes feel like kind of an endless stream of chatter on social media. I would hope that the internet can be a place where people are not just saying “here’s what I’ve made,” but let’s make something together. And that’s what we’ve been doing on HitRecord for years. And so it ended up when this pandemic hit and so many of us were facing this kind of isolation of staying home… not everybody is facing that. A lot of people aren’t able to stay home, but I think with so many people staying home, people wanted to feel a kind of human connection that was a little more substantial than what you can often find online. Online interaction can, not always, but it can often be kind of scatterbrained and disposable. And that is because a lot of it has to do with what you just said. There’s no end goal to a lot of the activity online. And whereas on HitRecord, when people are collaborating and making something together, that’s really intimate and there is a many-layered human connection when you have a common goal… working on something.

You work with directors, other actors. I’m sure you’ve experienced that thing of being star-struck. Yet the interactions here feel pretty effortless and no one seems star-struck working with you. How do you bridge that divide?

That’s an interesting question. I think that a lot of that has to do with the fact that this has been going for years. And there’s a culture that preexists. I think when people arrive in an environment, whether they’re online or in real life, you’re impacted by the culture that precedes you. This culture has evolved over all this time. There’s a real kind of history and a really strong sense of community. I don’t behave like, “hey, I’m a star, and blah, blah, blah.” And people don’t treat me that way. We’ve all made so many things together, and sometimes I can be at the center of a project, but oftentimes, I’m a marginal contributor. I just like being a part of this community. It’s been a rewarding and positive thing for me over the years. That’s why I keep doing it. I feel very fortunate to get to work within the conventional entertainment industry, but Hollywood can be… Hollywood can eat its own tail a little bit sometimes. And HitRecord has always been a way for me get outside of that a bit and collaborate with people I wouldn’t be able to within the context of conventional show business.

How has the collaborative process changed on that side of things over the years?

It’s just different. I mean, being on set is very collaborative, but it’s exclusive. And a very, very, very, very slim fraction of people in the world get to work on a Hollywood movie set.

I would imagine also, it’s going back to what I said before about being sort of product-driven. Obviously, when you’re making a movie, commerce holds kind of a higher place.

Yeah. I mean, that’s definitely true. Certainly. And that can be kind of contaminating to any creative process if you’re too overly concerned with end results. But I actually think that… That’s just as prevalent in online culture as it is Hollywood.

That’s true.

The way that a lot of online platforms work is very results-driven. It’s very gamified. I think this is actually something I’m very concerned about with creative culture in our world, especially amongst younger people. Which is to see the creative process through the lens of how many followers am I going to get? How many likes am I going to get? I think that’s kind of poisonous to the inherent warmth creativity has to offer. And I think, yes, you see it in Hollywood, and now you see it all over. It’s easy to miss what’s so, I think, fruitful and sort of joy-giving about art or creativity, which is the process itself, making the thing. When I think back on the very lucky creative life I’ve been able to live so far, the moments that make me smile the most are not about the end result.

Or the weekend box office.

Yeah, it’s not about box office, the premiere. It’s not about the awards. It’s not even necessarily about the finished thing. It’s about when you’re doing it. Those are the moments that I really, really love. This is why I’m so grateful that I get to be an actor or any of the other things that I get to do. It’s being on a set and doing this with other people. And so that’s what we’re always trying to sort of emphasize on HitRecord. And that’s what we emphasize on our show. It’s not a contest. A lot of shows about art and creativity, they’re like, okay, there’s this many contestants, and they’re going to do whatever creative thing they’re doing. And then there’ll be a winner. There are some judges. And look, it’s not to say those shows can’t be entertaining. They are. I’d be entertained watching those shows, for sure. But I think, ultimately, those shows can be discouraging. They’re discouraging for me. And I’m in an incredibly privileged position as far as the ability to express myself. I think a lot of people feel kind of like, “oh, well, those judges would tear me apart, or I wouldn’t win, so it’s not worth me doing.” The truth is this: the reason to sing or to act or to write or to do any of those things, it’s not so that some judge will call you a winner, or that your record will go platinum. So many artists say this over and over and over again. That’s not the reason to do it. That’s not what’s going to ultimately make you happy.

When I have conversations with people, specifically comedians or actors, so many times, you can see the light that shines in people’s eyes when they talk about performing in front of theaters with nobody in the audience and just finding their way and working through the craft of it. So, I think obviously what you guys are doing is a tremendous way to kind of provide that.

Yeah. And again, to do it together with other people. It’s not obvious that a lot of these creative processes, it helps so much to have some other people. And it doesn’t have to be tons of other people. It could be one or two or three other people that you’re making a thing with. That makes all the difference in the world. I’ve found that over and over again, whether it’s the process on HitRecord, or it’s some big TV show I’m working on or whatever. Having other people is really so fundamental. A lot of online creativity, I feel like, it doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on making stuff together with other people.

I think this is a perfect segue to talk about 7500. I do want to talk specifically about Omid Memar, who was fantastic in this, but so much of the movie is you kind of working in a solitary, claustrophobic environment. I’m curious about the challenge of doing that.

I really loved the choice of setting the whole story just in a cockpit, and you used the word claustrophobic, and I think that’s right. To me, this is a big connection to the central metaphor of this movie. The world is feeling claustrophobic. And I’m not talking about the pandemic. I just think our world is getting smaller and smaller. We’re all closer and closer to each other. We’re all more and more in touch and more connected to each other. And there are so many differences between people coming from different cultures, different perspectives, etc. How are we going to live with each other being on top of each other? There’s no escaping. We can’t all up and leave. We have to figure out how to live together, even though we’re different from each other. And we have to find those commonalities between each other.

To me, that’s a lot of what this movie is about. There’s this tiny little cockpit, and the people involved in the story are coming from very different perspectives. But as the story unfolds, you see they maybe have more in common than you originally thought. And there are prejudices in place on all sides. And those prejudices get undermined and complicated as the story unfolds. And to me, that’s what’s so fascinating about this movie. I mean, yes, it’s a movie about a plane getting hijacked, but it’s not about an action hero beating a bad guy. It’s the farthest thing from it. There aren’t really such simple heroes and villains. People are human. And that’s not to say that the hijackers aren’t doing something terrible. They are, but the movie also asks why are they doing that? Who are they? And when you start looking at people as human, you start asking how did they get themselves to this place where they’re doing this horrible thing?

Obviously, there are films that portray terrorists… Memar is so powerful and human, and yeah, he’s a kid and you see that. I don’t want to spoil it, but he just really comes through. You two played off each other so well.

I’m so glad you brought up Omid. I couldn’t agree with you more. I think for any fans of great acting out there, this is a young actor who is a legitimate artist. He’s incredibly dedicated, so honest and vivid in his performance. I just loved working with him. And I loved being challenged by that. By that kind of… there’s no cynicism. He was just so committed to making it real.
To go back to what you were saying about analogies, the idea of your character basically seeing a lot of these horrors on a screen and having the power to turn away at certain points — I thought that was really powerful. I’m curious when you’re performing in those moments, are you seeing the action on the screen?

Yeah, the whole production of this movie was geared towards the actors being able to immerse themselves in a realistic experience. And this is a big part of why I wanted to do the movie as well. Patrick Vollrath, the director, his approach is very different than traditional Hollywood filmmaking. Usually, you do a scene from the script. You do those lines from one angle. You change angles, you change the lights, you do the same thing. You do it over and over again. And there are all these technical things you have to hit in addition to trying to be genuine and in your character. His whole approach is about trying to strip away all of those technical things. And so on this film, he would just leave the cameras on for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes at a time. And most of the dialogue is improvised. There was a script, but he encouraged us to just… The script wouldn’t provide words for us to say for all that time. We were supposed to use the script as a springboard and just really try to get into the reality of it. And even if that meant just sitting there for long periods of time, he wasn’t trying to make each scene snappy. You know, you can figure that out in the edit. What he really cared about was making sure that the actors could fully immerse themselves in the characters and the story, and it was very, very challenging. I actually don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this is probably the most challenging acting I’ve ever done.

I actually took a couple of years off from acting, because I had kids. And I knew that when I came back, I wanted to do something that was really going to inspire and challenge me as an actor. That was really what I was focused on — learning things. I didn’t want to pay attention to those voices that were saying like, well, okay, you took a few years off, there’s a career to think about, blah, blah, blah. I really just wanted to focus on my own love for the art of it. And so when this opportunity presented itself, and I watched Patrick’s short film, and he told me about how he made it, he talked about this process that’s so geared towards immersion. I was like, this is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do. This is going to be hard, but this is the challenge that I’m looking for.

‘Create Together’ is available to stream via YouTube and ‘7500’ will be available to stream via Amazon Prime on June 19.

Every so often, social media produces a moment of genuine inspiration and human connection amid all the #artistisoverparty hashtags and Donald Trump tweets. Yesterday, hip-hop hit maker Kenny Beats, who has worked with stars within the genre like 03 Greedo, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty, and more, provided one of those heartwarming social media moments when he gifted a creative young wannabe producer with a brand new home studio, courtesy of some generous donors.

It all started when a photo meme went viral on Twitter, as one user posted the photo of the pre-teen producer recording himself on a jerry-rigged setup consisting of a smartphone dangling on its cord from the upper railing of his bunk bed. “He supposed to be cleaning his room, not in the damn studio,” read the caption, although the poster was simply sharing the photo, not the person who took it. Within hours, though, the young man had been identified by social sleuths, who shared his YouTube page and his self-shot video, “Black Lives Matter,” which sees him discussing current events through his own inexperienced lens.

That’s when Kenny got involved. “We gotta find him and get him some equipment!” he tweeted. Once the link was shared with him, it wasn’t long before Kenny had gotten in contact with the youngster — and presumably his parents — and arranged to send him equipment, including a computer, microphones, and more. Among the supporters who chipped in to help were Bay Area rapper Guapdad4000, Billie Eilish’s producer/brother Finneas, Dom McLennon of Brockhampton, and popular music vlogger Anthony Fantano.

The best part? Kenny wondered in the tweet announcing the donation whether it could become a monthly tradition. Let’s hope it does and more young aspiring artists can be supported in pursuing their dreams early in life.

Check out Kenny and Ray chopping it up above.

If you log onto Netflix today, you won’t be greeted with the usual home page. Instead, the streaming service is promoting its curated selection of “films, series, and documentaries” about “racial injustice and the Black experience in America.” The Black Lives Matter collection features over 45 titles from Black storytellers, including 13th and When They See Us, both from Ava DuVernay; Best Picture winner Moonlight; and series Orange Is the New Black and Dear White People, as well as Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, which is out Friday.

“When we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ we also mean ‘Black storytelling matters.’ With an understanding that our commitment to true, systemic change will take time – we’re starting by highlighting powerful and complex narratives about the Black experience,” Netflix wrote in a statement. “When you log onto Netflix today, you will see a carefully curated list of titles that only begin to tell the complex and layered stories about racial injustice and Blackness in America.” Other titles include Malcolm X, Mudbound (be sure to check out Pariah, too), and Best Documentary Feature nominee Strong Island.

Last week, Netflix tweeted, “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up,” although to this date, as NBC News points out, they “have not indicated any changes they will make internally, nor any specific donations. The “Black Lives Matter” collection is a good step, as was pulling four of Chris Lilley’s shows due to “questionable depictions of characters” — but let’s hold a bigger wave of applause for when we see real change.

(Via Variety)

Travis Scott’s “Highest In The Room” was one of 2019’s biggest songs, but now it has gotten the rapper into a bit of trouble: Scott is being sued over the single due to alleged copyright infringement.

Billboard reports that a trio of songwriters — Olivier Bassil, Benjamin Lasnier, and Lukas Benjamin Leth — filed the lawsuit in federal court in California against Scott (real name Jacques Webster), as well as other people and entities involved with the song’s creation and release: Oz (Ozan Yildirim), Nik D (Nik Dejan Frascona), Mike Dean, Cash Passion (Jamie Lepr), Sean Solymar, Cactus Jack Records, Grand Hustle LLC, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Papa George Music, and These Are Songs of Pulse.

In the 37-page complaint, the plaintiffs accuse Scott and his collaborators of “pretending to be interested in a collaboration” before “intentionally [breaking] the rules by exploiting plaintiffs work without consent or a license, masquerading as if plaintiff’s music is their own.”

The songwriters say they created a song called “Cartier,” which features a distinct guitar melody that “Highest In The Room” allegedly ripped off, in 2019. Lasier then posted a link to the song online and sent the track to over 100 producers and artists, including Lepr. The complaint states, “There is no doubt that Defendants’ ‘Highest in the Room’ was modeled after and copied original, prominent and qualitatively and quantitatively important parts of Plaintiff’s ‘Cartier.’”

Richard Busch, the attorney for the songwriters, said, “Everything we basically have to say is set forth in the Complaint. I will just add that our clients are very successful songwriters/producers who, as set forth in the Complaint, and is common practice, corresponded with the defendant writers with an eye toward licensing their work through a collaboration. They never expected that this would end up in a lawsuit but felt they had no choice but to take this action under these circumstances.”

The songwriters are asking a judge to declare copyright infringement, and for damages and a share of the song’s royalties.

Over the weekend, Sesame Street star Elmo appeared with his father (Louie) on CNN to discuss the power of protest. Specifically, this involved Elmo learning about why Black Lives Matter has taken to the streets against racism and police brutality, and why “not all streets are like Sesame Street… because across the country, people of color, especially in the Black community, are being treated unfairly because of how they look, their culture, their race, and who they are.” Louie further explained that people have “every right to be” upset “because racism is a huge problem in our country,” and the segment was warmly regarded by many, but that does not include (surprise!) Tucker Carlson.

The Fox News host is absolutely furious at Sesame Street and CNN and even at Elmo. Carlson, as ludicrous as it sounds, lashed out on Tuesday night over a pair of puppets, who were ultimately urging support for Black Lives Matter:

“It’s a children’s show. Got that, Bobby? America is a very bad place and it’s your fault, so no matter what happens, no matter what they do to you when you grow up, you have no right to complain. That’s the message and it starts very young.”

Not incidentally, Elmo will soon host his own late-night talk show on HBO Max (which announced this week that it’s temporarily pulling Gone With The Wind over “racist depictions”). Tucker will probably also be angry about both this movie being shelved and Elmo scoring a late-night gig, and while we shouldn’t expect Elmo to indulge Tucker with any airtime on his show, it’s at least fun to imagine them going toe-to-toe.

Lizzo has often discussed issues related to body positivity, both in her music and outside of it. Now she has again addressed the subject, this time taking to TikTok to call out those who are critical of her body.

The minute-long video is a compilation of clips of Lizzo engaging in various types of physical activity and posing in revealing outfits. She says in a voiceover:

“Hey. So I’ve been working out consistently for the last five years, and it may come as a surprise to some of y’all that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type. I’m working out to have my ideal body type. And you know what type that is? None of your f*cking business. Because I am beautiful, I am strong, I do my job, and I stay on my job. So next time you want to come to somebody and judge them, whether they drink kale smoothies or eat McDonalds or work out or not work out, how about you look at your own f*cking self and worry about your own g*ddamn body, because health is not just determined on what you look like on the outside. Health is also what happens on the inside, and a lot of y’all need to do a f*cking cleanse for your insides. Namaste, have a great day.”

Watch the video above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Gone with the Wind, the 10-time Academy Award winner and highest-grossing movie of all-time (when adjusted for inflation), was one of the landmarks films available on HBO Max at launch. But the streaming service has since removed the Civil War-set epic, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel (who, as “Mammy,” became the first African-American to win an Oscar), due to “racist depictions.”

HBO Max pulled the 1939 film a day after John Ridley, the screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times calling for its removal. “At a moment when we are all considering what more we can do to fight bigotry and intolerance, I would ask that all content providers look at their libraries and make a good-faith effort to separate programming that might be lacking in its representation from that which is blatant in its demonization,” he wrote. HBO responded with the following statement:

“Gone with the Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible. These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia’s values, so when we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history.”

So, Gone with the Wind is, ahem, gone for for now, but will be coming back with “a discussion of its historical context” (hopefully without all those war scenes). Unlike Song of the South, which Disney continues to refuse to add to Disney+. As you might imagine, there are a lot of Hot Takes about Gone with the Wind being removed, most of which, frankly, my dear, you shouldn’t give a damn about. But some are good. “My only opinion on Gone with the Wind right now is I find it hilarious so many racists are pretending they want it on HBO Max because it made Hattie McDaniel the first black person to win an Oscar,” Keep It podcast host Ira Madison III wrote on Twitter, later adding, “The people mad about this were never going to watch Gone with the Wind in the first damn place.”

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

The music industry is an amorphous organism that is subject to frequent change. One of the latest is the phasing out of the word “urban” as a descriptor of a musical style; Republic Records has banned the word internally. Now, the Recording Academy is following suit.

Today, the Academy announced nine major changes to the Grammy nomination and awards process, changes that were ratified at the semiannual Trustees Meeting in May and are effective immediately, as of the upcoming 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. One of the changes is the renaming of the Best Urban Contemporary Album category, which is now known as Best Progressive R&B Album.

Harvey Mason, Jr., Chair and Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy, spoke about this change (and the others) with Billboard, saying, “There were some uncomfortable feelings around [the term urban]. I think it’s been a gradual shift within in the R&B community. It’s been discussed [within the Academy]. It’s been a little contentious at times.”

The Academy defines the Best Progressive R&B Album category, “This category is intended to highlight albums that include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music. It may also incorporate production elements found in pop, euro-pop, country, rock, folk, and alternative.”

That said, the word “urban” actually hasn’t been completely scrubbed from the Grammys: The Best Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative Album category has been renamed to Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album, and the “Urban” is now part of the newly renamed Best Latin Pop Or Urban Album (formerly Best Latin Pop Album).

Noting that “urban” doesn’t have the same sensitivity in the Latin music community, Mason said this change “came directly from the community. The urban community, the reggaeton community tend to feel they’re closer in sound to the pop music. This is coming from them. They asked for this change.”

Other categorical changes include the renaming of Best Rap/Sung Performance to Best Melodic Rap Performance, which Mason says “puts an emphasis on the melodic nature of the performance. It opens the door to more forward-thinking and more different genre blends. It makes it a little bit more inclusive to have records that have rap but also melody and lyrics.”

The Best New Artist category has also been impacted, as the rule that prohibited eligible artists from having released more than 30 tracks prior to the start of the current eligibility year has been dropped. Mason explained, “In [some] genres, specifically hip-hop and rap, their mode of development is record and release. We felt it was unfairly punishing artists who are prolifically releasing material early in their careers. We do not want to exclude any artist based on a rule that was specifically affecting one genre more than the other.”

Also, for the first time, the Academy has made their 66-page Grammy rule book, which was previously only available to voting members and other insiders, available online for all to read. So, check that out here, and read more from Mason about the rule changes here.

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