Nicki Minaj complains about Grammy Awards category change

US rapper Nicki Minaj has hit out at the Grammy Awards for putting her hit single Super Freaky Girl in a category where it has “less of a chance to win”.

She said the song had been moved to the pop category to clear the path “to give newer artists things that they really don’t deserve” in the rap field.

That sparked a war of words on Twitter between Minaj and rising rapper Latto.

Super Freaky Girl has topped both the US pop and rap charts. Grammy organisers have not commented.

Speaking on Instagram, Minaj claimed there was “an agenda” against her in the music industry, and “a concerted effort to give newer artists things that they really don’t deserve over people who have been deserving for many years”.

She suggested she was losing out at the expense of artists who the gatekeepers “want to shine”, and who “these corporate giants can make the money off”.

“The people who control a lot of things behind the scenes, they have to elevate someone that they profit off. So they must move the goalposts for me all the time.”

Minaj added: “Why is the goalpost only ever moved when it’s Nicki? Well, I’ll tell you why. They don’t want the people who they have in the industry to have to go up against me.

“But why? If you’re great, if a song is great, you should be able to be put together in the same category.

“Now, what do you think is going to happen when they start voting on these pop categories? And it’s a bunch of, you know, people, white or wherever they’re from, or older or whatever, and they have to decide between Nicki Minaj and Harry Styles, or Nicki Minaj and Adele?

“That’s purposely designed so that Nicki is not in the category that you don’t want any competition in. Put her in there so she has more competition and less of a chance to win.”

She referenced 23-year-old Latto’s song Big Energy, which she said had been put in the rap category. Big Energy went to number three in the US pop chart and number one on the rap rundown.

“If Super Freaky Girl is pop, then so is Big Energy,” Minaj argued. “If you move Super Freaky Girl out of rap and put it in pop, do the same thing with Big Energy. Same producers on both songs, by the way. So let’s keep [it] fair.”

An exchange between Minaj and Latto on Twitter quickly descended into personal acrimony.

Minaj has been nominated for 10 Grammys in the past, seven times in rap categories. She pointed out she only raps and does not sing on the X-rated Super Freaky Girl, which heavily samples funk artist Rick James’s 1981 single Super Freak.

To confuse things further, James’s original was nominated for the Grammy for best male rock vocal performance.

Latto’s similarly raunchy Big Energy samples another 1981 classic, Tom Tom Club’s Genius of Love.

The choice of Grammy categories has often been a bone of contention, with Kacey Musgraves taking issue with a song being switched from country to pop last year, and Justin Bieber complaining about being classed as pop instead of R&B in 2020.

Drake and The Weeknd have both withdrawn their music and been critical of the Grammys in recent years.

Meanwhile, soul duo Silk Sonic – aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, who won record and song of the year at this year’s Grammys – have withdrawn from next year’s race.

They did not give a reason, with Mars saying in a statement to Rolling Stone: “We thank the Grammys for allowing us to perform on their platform – not once but twice – and awarding us at last year’s ceremony. We’d be crazy to ask for anything more.”

Harvey Mason Jr, chief executive of the Recording Academy, which organises the awards, responded by saying: “We appreciate their decision not to submit this year but look forward to celebrating an amazing year in music together.”