Kanye’s Wrong, He’s Won Grammys Against White Artists Posted by Nathan S. on 12/12/13 | Filed under Opinion, Kanye West, Grammys

Yes, I'm very aware that I already officially declared we wouldn't be covering any more Kanye interviews/speeches/rants/words that come out of his mouth that aren't in song form this year. But this isn't about Kanye's latest controversial statement; or at least it's not just about Kanye's controversial statement. This is about something a little deeper - the completely objective truth.

In the midst of arguing his case for why "Yeezus" deserved a Grammy nomination this year during a recent show, Kanye brought in race to the discussion: 

"Now I’m 36-years-old and I have 21 Grammys. That’s the most Grammys of any 36-year-old. Out of all those 21 Grammys, I’ve never won a Grammy against a white artist.” 

Of course every site on the planet, from HipHopDX to Entertainment Weekly, took that quote and ran with it because come on, it's one of the most controversial people in America talking about race and the Grammys. That's a good story, and that was my initial reaction too: HOLY SHIT, THAT'S CRAZY. HE'S NEVER BEATEN A WHITE ARTIST?!?! But in all of the coverage I saw of that quote, I never saw anyone actually bother to figure out if Kanye's claim was, you know, actually true. 

Well, turns out no, not it's not. Yes, Kanye West has won 21 Grammys, but in that very impressive winning spree, he's actually beaten white artists several times:  

2005 Best Rap Album: "College Dropout" beat the Beastie Boys “To the 5 Boroughs”.
2006 Best Rap Album: "Late Registration" beat Eminem's “Encore”.
2006 Best Rap Solo Performance: “Gold Digger” beat out Eminem's "Mockingbird".
2010 Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “Run This Town” beat Lonely Island “I’m On a Boat”
2012 Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “All Of The Lights” beat Eminem's “I Need a Doctor”

And depending on how much you want to factor in the race of guest artists, Kanye on "Run This Town" also beat out T.I. and Justin Timberlake's "Dead and Gone" in 2010, while "No Church in the Wild" beat out Nas and Amy Winehouse's "Cherry Wine" last year. 

Of course that means that for his 16 other Grammys he beat out other black artists, but that's just half of the equation. In addition to looking at times when Kanye beat a white artist for a Grammy, we should probably also look at times when he got beaten. After all, he's won 21 Grammys, but so far he's been nominated over 50 times. Here's what that list looks like: 

2005: Beaten for Best Album by Ray Charles 
2005: Beaten for Best Song by John Mayer   
2005: Beaten for Best New Artist by Maroon 5
2005: Beaten for Best Rap Solo Performance by Jay Z 
2005: Beaten for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration by Usher 
2006: Beaten for Best R&B Song by Mariah Carey/Jermain Dupri (for producing Alicia Keys' "Unbreakable")
2006: Beaten for Record of the Year by Green Day
2006: Beaten for Album of the Year by U2
2008: Beaten for Rap Song by Kanye West ("Can't Tell Me Nothing" lost to "Good Life") 
2008: Beaten for Best Rap Peformance by Duo/Group by Kanye West (his work on "Classic" lost to his work on Common's "Southside")
2008: Beaten for Album of the Year by Herbie Hancock
2009: Beaten for Song of the Year by Coldplay
2009: Beaten for Best Rap Performance by Duo/Group by Kanye West (his work on "Swagga Like Us" beat his work on "Put On", "Amazing" and "Make Her Say")
2010: Beaten for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration by Kanye West (his work on "Run This Town" beat his work on "Ego" and "Knock You Down").
2011: Beaten for Best Rap Solo Performance by Jay Z
2012: Beaten for Song of the Year by Adele
2012: Beaten for Best Rap Album by Kanye West ("Watch the Throne" beat "MBDTF")
2013: Beaten for Best Rap Performance & Best Rap Song by Kanye West ("Niggas in Paris" beat "Mercy" for both)
2013: Beaten for Best Short Form Music Video by Rihanna

So to recap, he's won 21 Grammys and beaten five white artists and 16 black artists for those awards. In the Grammys he's lost, he's lost to a white artist six times and a black artist 11 times. Out of those 11 times, he's lost to himself (a black artist, duh) five times. 

What does this all mean? Probably not a whole lot. Like America in general, it'd be naive to think that racism isn't a factor in the Grammy Awards, but the raw numbers don't show any obviously racist pattern, and the Grammy winners don't tend to make much sense in general, regardless of race. You might also be able to point out that when it comes to the big ticket awards - Song of the Year, Album of the Year, etc. - the winner is more likely to be white, and it's there that Kanye's faced the most discrimination. Frankly, I don't have it in me right now to do that next layer of research; I've hit my actual journalism quota for the day. 

Regardless, this isn't really supposed to be an opinion piece. I'll let others draw their own conclusions. I just wanted someone to actually break down the numbers and lay out the actual facts behind Kanye's quote, and I guess if I want someone to do it, it might as well be me. I'm out.