Grammy nominations were released today, and as happens every year, people were quick to point out artists snubbed by the Recording Academy. One of the most glaring was the complete absence of A Tribe Called Quest‘s widely beloved 2016 comeback, We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, which, as a celebrated album from a legacy act, seemed like perfect Grammy bait. Q-Tip didn’t take the slight in stride, and broke his typically laid back persona to curse out the Grammys in a series of Instagram videos: “I’m sick of ya’ll fucking Grammy niggas”
“We were the most black-cultured group out—that’s all we stood on,” Q-Tip says. “That’s what we represented. This fucking album that we put out—this last Tribe album—it stands with everybody else’s shit that’s up there. I don’t give a fuck.” Q-Tip also took personal affront at how ATCQ wasn’t nominated after giving them a spirited performance last year. “I’m tired of fucking biting my tongue and trying to be nice and shit,” he says.
Q-Tip closes out the clips by inviting watchers to the Kennedy Center, where he’s Artistic Director for Hip Hop Culture, to celebrate LL Cool J’s honors on December 3 and sending one last dis to the Grammys: “Fuck y’all Grammy niggas. Fuck y’all.” Watch them below.
