Grammy Awards to Drop ‘Urban’ Term

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The Recording Academy has addressed the conflicts of interest in the Grammy Awards nomination committee and made several changes to the awards categories.

The Grammy Awards have decided to drop the word “Urban” from three of its award categories.

Grammys have dropped the word ‘urban’ from their awards categories.The Black Music Coalition penned an open letter to all music industry leaders this week in a bid to tackle racism, with one section calling for bosses to replace ‘urban music’ with ‘black music’.Today (June 10) the Grammys confirmed that they will no longer be using the term, while outlining an “ongoing commitment to evolve with the musical landscape”.The Best Urban Contemporary Album category will be known going forward as the

Cuz I Love You won earlier this year—is now going to be called the Best Progressive R&B Album category in an effort to "appropriately categorize and describe this subgenre," as well as acknowledge albums that feature song and production elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, pop, euro-pop, country, rock, folk and alternative music.The Best Rap/Sung Performance category is now being changed to Best Melodic Rap Performance to "represent the inclusivity of the growing hybrid trends" within the genre.

The Recording Academy announced nine key changes to its awards and nominations process on Wednesday morning (June 10). These changes were ratified at the semiannual Trustees Meeting in May.

Republic Records announced last week that it will cease using the term “urban,” Mason noted that the Academy’s changes actually were decided last month.

Denise Petski Senior Managing EditorThe Recording Academy has announced several rule changes for the 63rd Grammy Awards, including omitting the term “urban” from its awards categories and language.The academy is changing the name of the urban contemporary album category to progressive R&B album. The word “urban” has been subject to increasing criticism, most recently by Tyler, the Creator, who called it “a politically correct way to say the N-word” at the January ceremony.

said Wednesday.

GRAMMY Awards are undergoing some changes. The Recording Academy announced on Wednesday that they've voted to rename four categories ahead of the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.The first of the categories to change is Best Urban Contemporary Album, an award that Lizzo won at this year's ceremony for her album, .

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