The Grammy’s is one of the most talked about award shows of the year. Usually the winners of the evening have the limelight, but last week Kanye West stole the show (once again) when he got on stage to seemingly interrupt Album of the Year winner, Beck. Beyoncé was also nominated for Album of the Year and many people, including myself, were expecting her to take home the award.

When Kanye got out of his seat to respond to Beck winning over Beyoncé, many of us were hoping that he would express the frustrations of Beyoncé supporters around the world like myself. Unfortunately Kanye quickly sat back down before saying anything. Although Kanye didn’t say anything, we knew exactly what he meant by getting on stage.

Now as you may remember at the 2009 VMA’s, as Taylor Swift stepped on stage to accept the award for Best Female Video, Kanye notoriously stepped onto the stage to interrupt, claiming that Beyoncé had the superior video. The internet blew up, some coming to the defense of Kanye and others disagreeing with his actions.

At this year’s Grammy Awards some people thought that by getting up to interrupt Beck, Kanye was jokingly referencing his incident with Swift back at the 2009 VMA’s.

Personally I feel that Kanye got up to make a statement- an obvious statement at that. Beyoncé should have won Album of the Year. Beyoncé’s album sold thousands of copies its first week and quickly became one of the most influential albums of the year.

Despite how you feel about Beyoncé losing to Beck, it’s obvious that Kanye West has a point. At first glance it may seem that Kanye is just defending his friend because they are just that: friends. Looking deeper into this, Kanye was making a statement at the Grammy’s. Kanye was defending true artistry. 

Beck, as Kanye said himself, is an amazing artist and deserves some notoriety, but did not deserve to win Album of the Year. In fact, Beck himself even said that Beyoncé should’ve won the award.

Kanye was defending the creativity and talent of his colleague.

The Grammy’s has a history of snubbing more deserving artists of awards. The judges for the Grammy’s often aren’t even seasoned enough in a certain genre to have their vote mean anything. And yet we make awards shows like the Grammy’s seem so prestigious and hold them to such high standards, when in reality the winners of the awards are picked by bias judges.

We say that the Grammy’s is “music’s biggest night”. Artists work hard and aspire for these awards, only to be snubbed by an artist who is less deserving. This is draining and disappointing for artists who work hard throughout the year for recognition.

Kanye himself said during an interview with E!, “At this point, we’re tired of it. What happens is, when you keep on diminishing art, and not respecting the craft, and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration.”

Basically, the Grammy Award judges need to start respecting creativity and giving credit where credit is due. Continuously cheating these artists out of awards they deserve will only hinder the future growth of the music industry.