Grammys Removes Term “Urban” from Most Awards Categories, Changes Best New Artist Qualifications

The Grammy Awards have announced a number of changes for next year, the most prominent change includes dropping the term “urban” from some award categories such as Best Urban Contemporary Album to Best Progressive R&B Album and changes made to the Best New Artist category.

The term “urban” has been catching a lot of controversy recently, with some record labels such as Republic banning the term altogether within its business dealings. Many believe that the phrase is used as blanket term for Black artists, whose music does not fit any typical categorization, however this new change also has its detractors. WAMU, the radio station for the Washington D.C. based American University have stated that the new phrase “sounds like something of a return to a category called Best Urban/Alternative Performance, which was introduced in 2003 and hastily retired in 2011.”

Tyler, The Creator also highlighted the issue of using “urban” as an umbrella term back in January, following his Grammy win for Best Rap Album and called the phrase a “politically-correct n-word.”

The “urban” name is just moving for the Latin categories however, as Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative album moves over to Best Latin Pop or Urban Album. The other categories will be moved to Best Latin Rock or Alternative album.

The changes for Best New Artist included dropping a rule which prevented artists with more than 30 songs from applying for the category. Each artist will now be looked at on a case-by-case basis. This rule change will likely benefit many up-and-coming hip hop artists, who typically release mixtapes before going into the mainstream.

Best Rap/Sung Performance will become Best Melodic Rap performance, while the number of “principal vocalists” has been capped to four for Best Musical Theater Album nominees.

The Grammy has also announced some sweeping institutional changes. The academy will now require members to reveal conflicts of interest and prevent said members from serving in nomination committees. Committee members will now only serve three years instead of five before taking off a year from serving in the committee. Members are also only allowed to serve a total of five consecutive years on a committee. The Grammy Awards Rulebook has also been made available to the public on the Grammy website for the first time ever.