Even though many of us know that it does not take a Grammy award to validate how super talented rapper, writer, actress, singer, record label owner and producer Nicki Minaj is, us fans still want to see her treated fairly,. The question has been going around ever since the 2025 Grammy nominations were announced…. Why was Nicki Minaj not nominated? Not only am I a fan, I’m also a Journalist and I too wanted to know why yet again, was this multifaceted artist not nominated for a Grammy Award for the upcoming Grammy Awards 2025 and why she has never won a single Grammy throughout her entire 20 plus years career. Has Nicki Minaj really been Blackballed from the Grammys?
Being the professional I am, I refrain from coming across as angry or filled with rage. I refrain from hooping and hollering all over the internet and using curse words or making threats in order to get my point across, however, this does not stop me from sharing the same disappointment about the way the Grammys in my opinion have treated Nicki Minaj over the years.
I took the time to send an email to the CEO of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr. In the below clip, which has been viewed more than 20 thousand times on Tik Tok, @Settlefree https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTYNCfupN/
More than 47 thousand times on Twitter thanks to a share from the impeccable Pedro who runs @celebslovenicki
More than 50 thousand times on Instagram with a share from @celebslovenicki https://www.instagram.com/reel/DChFs_wRzZ0/?igsh=dG9kcm9yZGs3dXBs
Please see my email below, and you can also view the 10 minute video vlog I uploaded on my social media page about the CEO’s feedback on the Grammys voting process.
“Greetings Harvey and team,
I hope that you all are having a good week so far.
Harvey, as the CEO of the Recording Academy, you had to have quite a resume to get that role, you have to have done a lot in music and know music really well to land that title and I won’t lie, you do have quite a background, I’m impressed.
You have not only penned and produced songs for industry legends like Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Elton John, but also superstars including Justin Bieber, Beyonce, John Legend, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, and Chris Brown. In addition, you have an impressive list of film and TV music credits including writing and producing the music for Jesus Christ Superstar Live!, Sing, The Wiz Live!, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Straight Outta Compton, all three Pitch Perfect films, Dreamgirls, Get On Up, All American Basketball Player, and Shrek, to name a few.
So with all your background and knowing music well, I have a genuine question from a real fan of one of the top selling hip-hop artist in this world, Nicki Minaj.
I’m sure you know according to Billboard, PINK FRIDAY 2 is the Highest selling female RAP album of 2024 Highest selling female RAP album of 2023 as well.
Nicki Mina's "Pink Friday 2 World Tour alone had
108+ Million total gross 50+ sold out shows across the Globe 750k+ seats sold, Best Selling Female Rap Tour in History, Top 4 Most Successful Rap Tours in History.
Why was Nicki Minaj not nominated for any Grammy for the upcoming GRAMMYS 2025? And why is she not received at least one Grammy in her entire extremely successful top of the chart hip hop career?
Has she really been blackballed from ever winning a GRAMMY for the rest of her career over one performance from the past? I’m not speculating rumors, I ask this question because it has been mentioned by the artist herself. In my opinion, No way those others the Recording Academy selected for best female hip hop are more worthy than her. No way!
People/ fans really love her music and they are buying it!
Nicki Minaj has voiced concerns and frustrations about her relationship with the Grammys, particularly regarding the categorization and recognition of her music.
In recent years, Nicki Minaj has alleged that her work has been unfairly overlooked or miscategorized, which she believes has affected her chances of winning.
One controversy occurred in 2022, when her song “Super Freaky Girl” was moved from the rap category to pop, which she argued placed her at a disadvantage, claiming inconsistency in how genres are categorized for other artists.
The Grammy nomination process has been controversial for years, with numerous artists voicing concerns about fairness and transparency.
Nicki Minaj’s case highlights ongoing debates about bias, categorization, and transparency in Grammy selections.
Why do you all treat her this way? I’d love to know. I decided not to go all on social media posting subliminal messages about this, I wanted to go to you directly and ask.
What it all boils down to is, whether anyone in a position of leadership likes her as a person or not, you can not deny her talent and her catalogue of songs, hit after hit, after hit she’s had over the years and even recently. The Barbie movie song did numbers! FTCU, did numbers!
I pray you someday do the right thing for her.
That’s all I have to say, have a blessed day! “
Harvey responded,
”Dear Tinzley,
I received your note, thank you for reaching out. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and pose these questions. Let me start by saying that I’m personally a huge fan of Nicki and her music. She has created a catalogue of amazing music and she is a massive talent!
In response to your questions, I want to share some important information. First, Grammy nominations are determined by the Recording Academy’s 13,000 voting members—singers, songwriters, producers, composers, engineers and other working professionals in music. Artists and their teams submit their work for Grammy consideration and those 13,000 members cast their votes. The esteemed auditing firm Deloitte oversees the process and counts the votes. In each category, the top five finishers (or eight in our general field categories) become the nominees. That’s it, that’s the whole process.
The Recording Academy has worked hard in the last few years to re-invigorate that voting body. In fact, 66% of the voters are new since 2019. We’ve added more than 3,000 new women voting members in that same time frame. People of color now make up almost 40% of the electorate. Voters are instructed to make their choices based solely on the music. Earlier this summer, well before voting began, I sent a letter urging them to not let any other factors—race, gender, reputation, label, management team or anything else—cloud their evaluation of the music. I have never once heard a voter say a bad word about Nicki, and rest assured, if I did, I wouldn’t stand for it.
It is true that submitted music is occasionally moved from one category to another. It can sometimes be a very difficult task to classify music by genre, especially nowadays as artists bend their music around traditional genre lines. While we do our best to honor the artist’s wishes, or their creative intent, there is an established criteria for each category of music, and the Academy relies on more than 300 music experts from all genres to assist us if there are questions surrounding where to place certain Grammy submissions. It can be frustrating to an artist when their music is moved, but the Grammy process works best when music is competing against like music.
I appreciate the disappointment that comes when work you believe warrants recognition doesn’t get it. As a music creator, I’ve felt that sting of disappointment myself. Before I became CEO of the Academy, I submitted my work for Grammy consideration, and was crushed when my name wasn’t called. Music taste is subjective. And sometimes a submission garners a lot of votes, but just not enough to put it in the top five. I hope the above information helps to at least clarify the process. Nikci is an iconic artist and I’m confident there’s a lot of great music and opportunity ahead for her.”
I will say that I’m sure the answer from Harvey may not have been the one people were hoping to hear, not enough “Tea” for them, but for me….this was a question worth asking directly to the CEO. In my opinion, it shows there is work to do to make sure the Grammys has a more fair voting process that is none bias.
As a Journalist, I love a good deep dive every now and then. I ended our email with the below,
“Harvey, you mentioned you have never heard a Recording Academy voter say a bad word about Nicki Minaj, and that’s good to know however, remember, you’re the CEO, and they probably wouldn’t speak to you about their honest personal views about an artist, especially a negative view because they know it could make them appear bias and possibly stunt their ability to make sound, fair and just decisions.
I know you are far more experienced than me in the industry, and this is just a recommendation but, If I were you, I’d want to look a little deeper into the Recording Academy’s 13,000 voting members and see if maybe a large percentage of them are anti Nicki??
You gave me a great, detailed answer about the Grammys process and it all makes sense, but still for me, something just doesn’t seem right with their picks for the female hip hop selections over the years and to never, I mean never select Nicki Minaj for major categories in hip hop, does not seem right. I’d designate some folks to do a deep dive. I then asked him if he would be okay with me sharing his feedback with my followers?
Harvey responded,
“I hear you and will continue working diligently to ensure our voters are voting fairly and that our body is as representative as possible.
I am comfortable w you sharing how the system works and I hope it clears up some misinformation.
Thanks for caring about music and artists. I appreciate how you’ve handled this.”
Based on his response, he seems open to making sure he keeps his eye on the voting process and try to assure voting is done fairly. He seems to be a stand up guy, he didn’t push me off to an assistant, he didn’t copy anyone else in on the email, and he didn’t ignore my email, he responded directly to me from his email address which I found impressive.
So, how did social media react to my article and video?
Some People were happy I reached out directly to the Recording Academy and posed these concerns.
Some questioned why I did not share the screenshot of the CEOs portion of our email exchange.
Some people found it hard to believe the CEO was not aware of what goes on with the Recording Academy’s voting process that would cause Nicki to never be selected multiple times.
Some people wanted his email address which of course I wouldn’t provide that. 😊😊
Some wanted to know why the Grammys posted that Nicki Minaj won a Grammy for Barbie World for the 2023 awards, then someone immediately removed it and gave the Grammy to another artist right in front of everyone. Hmmmm, This is a definitely a question I would like an answer to as well. (See screenshot below.)
Below is feedback from Various Media platforms.
Tik Tok
Yep, some of the fans are not happy and felt the response was a PR response that lacked accountability. Some fans were content and appreciated me for posting these concerns. 😊
People Listen to these artists for years, and they become connected to their music, they feel like they somehow become connected to the artist, and they simply want to see the artist who they admire and respect and who has put out great music get the recognition they deserve.
Either way you look at it, wether Nicki Minaj, her team and her fans have decided to accept the fact that she probably will never win a Grammy as long as those Recording Academy voting members who are bias against her are on that team, we have to remember that doing the right thing and doing what’s ethical and fair is always the best route to take. I sure hope they take a deeper look into who they are allowing to determine the Grammy nominees and winners. It does appear that quite a few people have lost respect for and just no longer believe in the validity or relevance of the GRAMMY AWARDS.
But please know, this is not stopping Nicki.
Nicki Minajs Starships just reached RIAA Diamond status AND four more new certifications. Congratulations is in order for sure!
No one can deny that Nicki Minaj’s songs have already done big numbers and has been dominating the Billboards. She is consistently at the top of the charts and there is no voting committee that can ever take those numbers away from her.
Thanks for stopping by.
Make sure you follow me @SettlefreeTV
This video clip of Nicki Minaj explaining the moment she knew she’d been blackballed for the rest of her career still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
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