With the recent slate of Grammy Award Nominations announced, there was some discussion surrounding the recent rule change that allowed all contributors on an album to receive a Grammy, when before only contributors who worked on 33% or more of the album’s playtime were eligible. Under this new rule change, the artists Dababy and Marilyn Manson would be eligible to receive their first Grammy, despite their past alleged misconduct. Both of the artists worked on Kanye West’s album Donda, which is up for both Rap album of the Year and Album of the Year. Dababy was criticized recently for homophobic remarks he made during a festival performance. Marilyn Manson was under investigation recently for allegedly keeping women in solitary confinement to “psychologically torture” them.

The Recording Academy’s CEO Harvey Mason Jr, the person in charge of handling the Grammy’s and its voting process, responded to the criticisms over the inclusions of Dababy and Marilyn Manson. In a statement, Mason said “What we will control is our stages, our shows, our events, our red carpets.” While Dababy and Manson are still eligible for receiving a grammy, the Grammy committee is still in charge of the event itself and can choose who they invite to perform or be in attendance. Mason went on to say “But we’re not going to be in the business of restricting people from submitting their work for our voters to decide on.” This is the first year the rule is in place, as the decision was only made in May 2021. Mason doesn’t want the Grammy committee to effect what kind of music is submitted for consideration. He further expanded on this saying “We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria.”

Photo Credit: Owen Ela