Before Beyoncé missed out on Album of the Year at the Grammys, Jay-Z said his wife’s Renaissance LP “has to” win the award.
During an interview with TIDAL’s Elliott Wilson, Hov explained that Bey deserved to finally win the coveted category on her fourth nomination because of the impact of Renaissance.
“Look what it’s done to the culture,” he said, referring to Beyoncé’s latest offering. “Look how the energy of the world moved. They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world. Every remix is better than the other one.”
Jay-Z Says Renaissance “Has To Be Album Of The Year”
He continued: “It’s inspiring creativity. You know how The Black Album had The Grey Album [Danger Mouse’s 2004 mashup project]? And the one with Radiohead? It was called Jaydiohead [Minty Fresh Beats’ 2009 mashup]. When it just inspires creativity, that’s an album. That has to be Album of the Year. It has to be.”
Nonetheless, during Sunday’s show (Feb. 5), the Recording Academy crowned Harry Styles’ Harry’s House album of the Year. Some Beyoncé fans in the audience rudely heckled the British singer during his acceptance speech.
However, Jay-Z said despite growing up “idolizing” the Grammys, he won’t allow himself to become emotionally invested in winning.
“I remove myself from the process and hope they just get it right,” he explained to Wilson. “It got to the point where I was like, it’s just a marketing thing. You go, you got an album out and it could help the sales go up. It got to that point, but deep down … Again, we grew up idolizing this. It was like one of the pillars for us. It was like, “We want to go Gold.” Yeah, I’ve been in it that long. Haaaaa!”
While Beyoncé lost out on best album, she did scoop four other awards, taking her Grammy career total to 32. Her latest haul means Bey is the most decorated artist in Grammy history.