how do you look at that being a white rapper in hip-hop that's a predominantly black genre and often times people say you're a guest mhm how do you take that statement I think it's true it is true and I agree you if you look at the origin of where hip hop came from and and what was happening in New York City and what was happening in the Bronx and the way that black people and people of color have been treated historically in America from the junk um this was a music that was birthed out of
Oppression um a lot of people made a big deal about the fact that after the Grammys M lore posted your text message to him mhm did you ever feel any way about him posting the text message or anything like that yeah I think it was uncarded for to be 100 with you when he sent it to me I was like okay I can see him feeling that type of way because he a good dude I think for for confirmation from the world you know he probably felt like he had put it out there what you
didn't need to do maybe this world's not for me cuz I don't know what I'm doing here anymore I feel nothing I think that that's the hardest part I haven't really spoke about this there was once a time about a decade ago when you literally couldn't walk 3 feet without bumping into something memore related the Seattle rappers catchy tune Thrift Shop was everywhere dominating the charts like a viral sensation you couldn't escape and just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger mmore dropped Can't Hold Us followed by same love which became an Anthem for
lgbtq plus rights and cemented McLemore's place as a cultural icon he was everywhere on magazine covers TV shows and his tracks were all over movie soundtracks his album The Heist went multiplatinum and alongside Ryan Lewis he was hailed as one of the best new Independent Artists but then everything came crashing down the industry seemed to turn its back on him and guess who was right in the middle of the drama Kendrick Lamar now don't get it twisted Kendrick wasn't the villain in the story it was the Grammy's fault and Hip-Hop fans over-the-top outrage didn't help
either but fast forward to today and mamore has made a surprising comeback while he's no longer chasing the spotlight he's definitely earned back respect for staying humble and addressing important issues that most of y'all's faves are too scared to touch but there's innocent humans out in Gaza getting our dollars and those precious human lives are an extension of us I can't get up here in a fur coat Jump Around to pretend while in my gut my gut saying you know better B the ancestors yelling you better step up for us so what exactly happened to
McLemore were the industry and fans unfair to him and what's the up to these days let's dive in and find out the pop is inclusive so there's always been an open door to a certain extent in certain moments it was a little bit harder to push it open yeah back in the 90s but I'm a guest yeah M's a guest doesn't matter how good we get doesn't matter how great Eminem is we're guests in the culture 100% McLemore whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Hagerty grew up on Capital Hill in Seattle and get this he
took ballet as a kid just to stand up for another kid getting bullied thanks to his social worker mom's advice he went to Garfield High School and while he started rapping he also got into drinking for a while those two went Hand in Hand by the time he had College he was experimenting with mushrooms and in 2005 he dropped his first album the language of my world which gave him a little street cred and helped him build his local fan base around this time he met producer Ryan Lewis and they decided to DIY their music
career they were all in t-shirts posters Word of Mouth eventually major labels took notice as McLemore's popularity soar and he started selling out shows Nationwide but instead of signing with a big label they struck a distribution deal with alternative distribution Alliance a branch of Warner music group that move got their music into stores and onto Warner Brothers radio and just like that their career took off can hus and Thrift sha both hit number one in the Billboard Hot 100 and their album debuted at number two it was 9 years of hustling but they made it
fast forward to January 26 2014 and mmore and Ryan Lewis won not one but four Grammy Awards including that for best rap album in the category that included Kendrick Lamar's good kid Mad City Kanye's yeus Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail and Drake's Nothing Was the Same and the Grammy goes too M LaMore and Ryan [Applause] Lewis while we're here on this stage right now uh first and formost for most I want to thank our fans the people that got us on this stage before there was any media before there was any Buzz about us before
there was a story there was our fans and it spread organically through them so without them there would be no us shout out to everybody repping worldwide I want to say thank you to my beautiful fiance my parents my manager and our team that puts together this music that sacrifices everything for this art countless hours in the studio on stage and everyone that made this album what it is I love you guys and I want to say we made this album without a record label we made it independently and we appreciate all the support out
of those five albums that were nominated that year the heist was the underdog no one saw coming and as you could imagine the hip-hop world totally lost its mind with everyone claiming Kendrick was robbed now granted mmore winning best rap album over Kendrick's good kid Mad City was indeed cray cray and even mmore himself thought Kendrick should have won in fact a couple of weeks before the Grammys mclamore was interviewed by Source magazine and when they asked him what if he wins and Kanye spazzes out and says it should have gone to someone else mmore
responded then he's got a point we're up against Kendrick who made a phenomenal album if we win a gr for best rap album hip-hop is going to be heated I think it should go to Kendrick he's family TDE is family and I understand why hip-hop would feel like Kendrick got robbed M LaMore went on to say that he's a huge supporter of what Kendrick does and because of that he would prefer it if he won in a different category he also added we obviously had massive success on Commercial radio and I think that in ways
the heist was a bigger album but Kendrick has a better rap album and then following his controversial win M lore talked to Hot 97 Morning Show and he acknowledged that kendri was R so listen I'm I've been ranting and raving all morning about how the Grammys um snubbed Kendrick Lamar and as a white guy it's one of those moments that feels a little embarrassing where you feel like white people were given something yet again that we shouldn't have been given so I thought who better to ask about this than the grand himself mmore try being
the guy that won that award so what did that feel like dude I know how strongly you felt about Kendrick's album uh it it's it's the blessing and the curse a little bit more of the curse um you know when we when we got like the first when we were at the nominations and and the nominations come out um you know first and foremost Kendrick is a friend of mine he's somebody that I love his music and in my opinion had the best rap album of the year um and knowing how the Grammys usually go
I knew that there would be a great chance that we could win that award and and and Essence Rob Kendrick so um that's what happened tonight it's uh it it kind of sucks I mean I think that there I think we made a great album I think that Kendrick made a better rap album and and that's what it is M lore also explained how the Grammys voting process is completely skewed and people who don't know anything about hip-hop are voting for best rap album so mmore this is ebo how you doing man congratulations bro thank
you bro I appreciate it hey man so is you winning that category do you believe that it's racial if you believe that Kendrick should have gotten it does that is that what makes it awkward for you is that the curse you talk about um you know what makes it awkward for me is the fact that you you never want to be the person that is robbing somebody else and I think that if you look at what the gramys are I mean I think what people don't understand is is what the Grammys are is a bunch
of people that are on the Grammy committee or in the industry um they a ballot and I got a ballot this year now as I'm filling out the ballot I'm realizing I don't know much outside of the genre of hip hop in terms of should get what award so I'm like oh like you know I don't really know about like you know singer songwriter or you know country music or whatever but people are filling out bubbles of genres that they don't know about ah and and that's the process of it um so it makes sense
because your name and your record the three huge records that everyone knew had to play a factor exactly right that's that's the fact right there we were our name was was big this year as was Kendrick but in terms of the people that are voting on those ballots that are filling out those bubbles we have an unfair Advantage due to race due to the fact that we had huge radio success due to the fact that our n was circulating more in in a pocket of the industry um of people filling out that ballot right this
is not like a rap radar poll this is not like a two do poll this is not a HOT97 po the Grammys this many different types of people all different age groups filling out a a ballot where they might not necessarily know the J now mmore spoke straight facts on how biased the Grammys are we've seen it time and time again with different artists back in 2006 the emancipation of Mimi lost album of the year to YouTube and Bono even apologized to Mariah in his his acceptance speech Mariah you sing like an angel really something
else and what about Gwen this is the heart of Hollywood she's like Carol Lombard like she's this is an extraordinary girl I don't know what to say this is really a big big or how about how the fact that Kanye's 2010 certified classic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy didn't even get a nomination for album of the year instead Adele won the award beating Rihanna Bruno Mars f Fighters and Lady Gaga and then more recently the weekend publicly slammed Grammys when his critically acclaimed album after hours didn't receive a single nomination in an interview with billboard
AB Bel said I use a sucker punch as an analogy because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere I definitely felt things I don't know if it was sadness or anger I think it was just confusion I just wanted answers like what happened we did everything right I think the weekend went on to explain that it wasn't about him being cocky or arrogant and he hinted that there's a much bigger issue going on behind the scenes he said look I personally don't care anymore I have three Grammys which mean nothing to me now
obviously it's not like oh I want the Grammy it's just that this happened and I'm down to get in front of the fire as long as it never happened again in the last 61 years of the Grammys only 10 black artists have won album of the year I don't want to make this about me that's just a fact so it's totally understandable that hip-hop fans were upset over mammore winning over Kendrick because this is something that's been going on since the Grammy started way back in 1958 and what made made the whole situation worse was
McLemore's decision to post a screenshot of his apology to Kendrick on social media after his Grammy win mmore took to his Instagram to share a screenshot of a text message he sent to Kendrick apologizing and saying Kendrick had been robbed the text read you got robbed I wanted you to win you should have it's weird and sucks that I robbed you I was going to say that during the speech then the music started playing during my speech and I froze anyway you know what it is congrats on this year and your music appreciate you as
an artist and as a friend much love and in the caption of his post mmore wrote my text to Kendrick after the show he deserved best rap album I'm honored and completely blown away to win anything much less four Grammys but in that category we shouldn't have won in my opinion and that's taking nothing away from the heist just giving good kid Mad City its proper respect some people thought this came off as cringey and kind of forced and instead of calming the storm it just made fans turn on mclamore even more I mean let's
be real anytime he posts an apology on social media people will think it looks fake even though M lore probably meant well people thought he really should have kept the message private and even Drake had to insert himself in the situation and he said McLemore's apology was whack as [ __ ] that is was whack as [ __ ] Drake told Rolling Stone I was like you want why are you posting your text message just chill take your W and if you feel you don't deserve it go get better make better music it felt cheap
it didn't feel genuine but in hindsight how hilarious is it that Drake of all people was out there criticizing someone for not being genuine and yes mclamore sharing that message was a bad move but can you really blame the guy for trying to diffuse the craziness surrounding his Grammy win people were acting like he slapped Kendrick in the face and snatched the award right out of his hands mmore probably thought that by sharing the apology folks would just chill out and realize that it was the Grammy committee's vote not his own doing but instead it
just added fuel to the fire making the whole situation even Messier as for Kendrick he mentioned that mclamore should have just kept the message to himself but he also said that there no hard feelings and he made it clear that he knew mmore was a genuine dude um a lot of people made a big deal about the fact that after the Grammys M lore posted your text message to him M and we talked to M lmore the next day and we knew his heart was sincere did you ever feel any way about him posting the
text message or anything like that yeah I think it was uncalled for to be 100 with you um when he sent it to me I was like okay you know I can see him feeling that type of way because he a good dude but um I think for for confirmation from the world you know he probably felt like he had to put it out there what he didn't need to do he didn't need to do but they don't take nothing away from him anyway because I know where as hard as at he cool he a
cool dude but you know sometimes the car folds like that when you well I think he felt bad man he and honestly I don't know if a lot of people know he came on uh Hot 97 before he won MH and said that he thought that you know he was going to end up getting the award because of things that he didn't believe he deserved and then he came back on afterwards and said the same thing again like he really felt like you had the best album and I think he I think everybody knows the
politics of it where it was just kind of like here's this white kid who had top 40 success so he was kind of on the on the radar of all the old people that vote in the Grammy Academy yeah definitely definitely but you know it all boils down to how I feel and you know winning Awards and Accolade is great but it's not confirmation of success for me you know what I'm saying going out here and and looking at a kid that say uh this song changed my life I was going to do something to
myself last night you know but I popped this tape in confirmation you get what I'm saying so the fact that he just said tape is why I love this guy ain't no kids popping in your tape that didn't impress up yeah yeah but yeah so I I look at it like that man and you know got to move on for from it and continue to make music now fast forward to now and McLemore is in a totally different space both he and Kendrick have moved on from that Grammy controversy a long time ago and these
days McLemore is more focused on his activism than trying to be the best rapper mmore recently made his stance clear in his new song hin Hall where he voices his support for the pro Palestinian protests happening across us campuses the track is named after hind rajab a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip on January 29th 2024 hind Hall calls for divestment from Israel and advocates for a ceasefire and M lore also takes shots at the music industry for staying quiet on the issue and calls out President Biden for his support
of the Israeli government and Military this is why fans are starting to see McLemore in a whole whole new light and they're saying he definitely deserves some major respect because unlike most mainstream artists he's not afraid to speak up on big issues one fan said I feel bad for mmore because the full wrath should have been solely on the Grammys one win would have raised an eyebrow that much of a sweep those boys were bugging and another person added Mac is doing all right probably where he wants to be so I wouldn't be surprised if
the very powerful people against that would also be suppressing his career but what's your take on all the drama with mammore and the Grammys where hip-hop fans way too hard on him or was the backlash deserved drop your comments below and make sure you stick around for this next video
