Grammys
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Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. ET, one tweet captured the moment perfectly: “Taylor Swift dancing while Benito sings is what you didn’t know you needed to see.”
What Latin music fans have long known the world really needed to see was Latin artists performing en español at the Grammys. Bad Bunny — real name Benito Antonio Ocasio Martínez — stepped into the moment in magnificent fashion, not simply performing a medley of songs, but opening the show with a painstakingly detailed and exhilarating homage to his native Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Tradition and culture were presented in the form of dances, dancers and imagery — including the eye-popping cabezones (or big heads) representing icons like rapper Tego Calderón and the late poet and independence advocate Julia de Burgos, not household names for American audiences, but ones worth their time to read about. Musically, Bad Bunny managed to traverse a broad gamut of genres, initially singing while accompanied by Puerto Rican pleneros — and later, by the 10-piece band of Dahian “El Apechao,” from the Dominican Republic.
It could not have been more local. And yet, it could not have been more universal, a brilliant example of how regional music can have international appeal and cross boundaries of tradition and language if executed convincingly — and, as Bad Bunny so emotionally articulated, “with love.”
The overwhelmingly positive reception to the performance (Billboard ranked it as the second best of the night), including Taylor Swift’s merengue moves in front of the camera, may end up marking a pivotal moment for the Grammy awards and their longstanding conflicted relationship with Latin music.
For years, the show has largely steered clear not only of music in Spanish, but of Latin artists overall. A full decade ago, Billboard wrote about the unintended consequences of their exclusion: At a time when Hispanics were already the biggest minority in the country, and when at the time one in 10 Grammy viewers identified as Hispanics, most Latin acts didn’t even bother to show up to the Grammys anymore. After all, they seldom were asked to perform, their awards were almost always relegated to the pre-telecast and the impact of a win was severely mitigated by the lack of exposure.
Five years later in 2018, when “Despacito” was nominated for song of the year (and lost), not that much had changed. As Billboard reported at the time, less than a dozen Latin acts had performed live at the telecast in the previous 30 years, a list of performs that including Gloria Estefan, Linda Ronstadt, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. Roughly half of those artists — including Ricky Martin, in his now-legendary performance of “The Cup of Life” in 1999 — sang in English.
But following that underwhelming “Despacito” performance, the Grammys took a major step — and something of a gamble — by opening the show in 2019 with a Latin number, featuring a slew of big-name acts: Camila Cabello, J Balvin, Ricky Martin, Arturo Sandoval and even American rapper Young Thug. Led by Cabello, by then a mainstream star in the States, they performed primarily in English, but the sentiment and vibe was undeniably Latin.
It would be a harbinger of things to come. In 2020, Rosalía performed “Malamente” in Spanish at the ceremony, backed by handclaps and dancers. In 2021, it was Bad Bunny, take one, performing his hit “Dákiti” alongside Jhayco. In 2022, it was Balvin again, this time with María Becerra, and singing in Spanish.
It culminated this year, with an opening number that, more than a performance, was a manifesto of Latin Caribbean culture — one that would have been unimaginable to conceive for mainstream television, much less as the opening of an award show, just a decade ago.
All told, in five years, the Grammys managed to showcase and highlight Latin music and artists more than they had done across the 30 years prior, normalizing its presence in the telecast until it no longer risked losing eyeballs if the show dared to begin in another language.
Late as it may be, it’s a moment to celebrate.
For years, we’ve lamented the fact that Latin music — which we define as music performed largely in Spanish — has been relegated to that no-man’s land of “otherness”: It’s in another language, therefore fans won’t listen to it, they’ll tune out, they’ll shun it. As it turns out, fans will listen to what they want, regardless of language.
Yes, Latin music is enjoying a shining moment of recognition and consumption that is higher today than at any other point in history. Then again, it’s impossible to deny the popularity of Bad Bunny, the most-streamed artist in the U.S. and the world, or of J Balvin when he performed the year before. The question is: Does the bar really need to be set that high for us to get a foot in the door?
Latin music has long been an intrinsic and essential part of the social and cultural fabric of this country, an entrenched DNA and contributions that go beyond the growing population numbers. We are part of this whole. Let’s continue recognizing it as such.
Justice for Renaissance! A skywriter appeared above the city of Los Angeles on Monday (Feb. 6) to remind Beyoncé exactly who she is after her loss at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Users across social media spotted the airplane’s message in the sky, which couldn’t be any more loud and clear: “BEYONCÉ, YOU MADE MUSIC HISTORY.”
Indeed, while the icon lost out on her fourth chance at album of the year after Harry Styles was named the winner for Harry’s House, she broke the record for the most Grammy win in history by adding four new gramophones to her collection of 32 wins out of 88 total nominations.
And while no one has yet to take credit for the BeyHive-approved message in the sky, Bey’s husband Jay-Z shrugged off the awards show jockeying entirely in an interview with TIDAL published after his wife’s loss. Calling the whole process behind the Grammys race “a marketing thing,” the rapper still lobbied that Renaissance was more than worthy of The Recording Academy’s top prize, saying, “Look what it’s done to the culture. Look how the energy of the world moved…Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world.”
Instead, Queen Bey did take home Grammys for best dance recording for Renaissance lead single “Break My Soul,” best R&B song for fan-favorite track “Cuff It,” best traditional R&B vocal performance for deep cut “Plastic Off the Sofa” and best dance/electronica album for the house-inspired studio set as a whole.
Check out the message to Beyoncé over L.A. below.
When Harry Styles was announced as the winner of this year’s Grammy album of the year award, his good friend and fellow nominee Lizzo could be seen on live TV filming him with a big smile on her face as he walked up onstage to accept. And, after teasing fans that she might, the 34-year-old songstress has posted the up-close video — and it features a hilarious cameo from Adele, who was seated right next to her.
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In the clip, posted to TikTok two days after the Sunday night (Feb. 5) awards ceremony, Lizzo captures Styles bewildered reaction to winning the coveted prize for his May 2022 record Harry’s House from just a couple feet away. The “Special” singer can be heard screaming loud and proud in support of her pal throughout the video, and at one point, her lens goes up in the air as Styles bounds over to her and gives her a big hug, a sweet moment that was also caught on camera during the ceremony’s broadcast.
As the “As It Was” singer climbs onstage, Lizzo pans her phone camera over to zoom in on Adele, who remained in her seat even as the immediate crowd around her gave Styles a standing ovation. “Why you filming me for?” the “Easy On Me” singer, who won best pop solo performance earlier that night, hilariously protests.
Twitter speculation has it that Adele, a self-proclaimed super fan of Beyoncé, was one of many Beyhive members to be disappointed that the “Break My Soul” artist had lost album of the year for a fourth time. After all, when she was the one to beat out Bey for the same award back in 2017, Adele literally apologized to her during her own acceptance speech.
Regardless, Lizzo — who earlier that night won record of the year for “About Damn Time” and gave Beyoncé a special shoutout of her own during her acceptance speech — had a great time celebrating her former boyband star friend. When a photo of her taking a video of Styles during his big win started circulating on Twitter, she retweeted it and teased, “SHOULD I POST?!”
The Yitty founder also shared a slew of selfies with Styles, Adele and Beyoncé after the ceremony, writing, “I won.”
See Lizzo’s TikTok featuring Harry Styles and Adele below.
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The Grammy Awards gave a proper tribute to Hip-Hop during the broadcast, but some noted that one of the genre’s first superstars was noticeably absent. Will Smith didn’t show up for the tribute despite his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff being present, and Questlove explained the situation during an interview.
The culture was on full display for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary and the star-studded tribute directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson was largely a crowd-pleasing moment for fans in attendance and at home. As we noted above, Jazzy Jeff was there on the 1s and 2s but there was no sighting of the former Fresh Prince. Questlove shared exclusively with Variety why Will Smith didn’t make it to the tribute.
“I’ll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was [a part] of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting ‘Bad Boys 4’ this week,” Questlove told the outlet on the red carpet. “There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
Along with Will Smith, Questlove teased that the original tribute runtime was cut down from 23 minutes to 14 minutes due to scheduling conflicts and the like.
Check out the quip from Questlove regarding Will Smith and the tribute overall below.
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The Grammys always will leave folks in their feelings. The BeyHive was tight after Beyoncé didn’t win Album of The Year, and R&B bad boy Chris Brown was BIG MAD after failing to secure a Grammy and played himself big time in the process.
Minus the bowtie this time around, Chris Brown had to say he was sorry after he hopped into his Instagram stories and took shots at highly beloved and decorated artist Robert Glasper after losing the Grammy for best R&B album to him.
For those who are like Breezy, stuck in a bubble, and have no idea who Robert Glasper is, he is a damn good pianist and producer, and his work transcends Jazz, R&B, and Hip-Hop.
In his “apology” to Glasper after the disrespect, Brown shared a screengrab of an apology he sent via direct message to Glasper.
“Congratulations my brother… I would like to apologize if you took offense to my reaction at the Grammys. You were not the intended target and I know I came off really rude and mean.”
He continued, “After doing my research I actually think you’re amazing… the organization isn’t doing us Blacks our due diligence. You and I should never be in the same category… two totally different vibes and genres. So from one Black man to another, congratulations. Hope you are able to feed your family for life. God bless my G.”
Here’s Where Chris Brown Played Himself
After Glasper secured his fifth Grammy, Brown pop and locked into his Instagram stories posting a story stating, “Y’all playing. Who da fuck is this?” He then wrote, “Ima keep kicking y’all ass! Respectfully.”
His next post was an image asking, “Who the f*ck is Robert Glasper.” Brown, who has been the recipient of 21 Grammy nominations, winning one, posted a photo of himself with a harmonica, writing, “I gotta get my skills up… ima start playing the harmonica.”
Brown ended his now-deleted tirade by sharing a TikTok showcasing all of his achievements that closes with a Google search of Glasper with a voiceover asking, “Who the fuck is this?”
Well, after Twitter users gathered him all the way up, now he knows, and he’s singing he’s sorry.
You can see more reactions to Chris Brown being BIG MAD in the gallery below.
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Photo: Scott Dudelson / Getty
2. Let It Be Known
Machine Gun Kelly may not have won an award at the Grammys Sunday (Feb. 5), but his fiancée still couldn’t be more proud of him. In a sweet Instagram post two days after the 2023 ceremony, Megan Fox praised the “Emo Girl” singer for how well he handled the loss.
“Congratulations on being in the very small percentage of artists who have received a Grammy nomination,” wrote the 36-year-old actress, who attended the awards at her fiancé’s side. “You have handled this process with a grace and maturity that I haven’t seen from you before and I’m so proud of you.”
Born Colson Baker, MGK was up for best rock album with his 2022 set Mainstream Sellout, which debuted atop the Billboard 200. Though the 32-year-old rapper-turned-punk-rocker lost out to Ozzy Osbourne, he certainly still has big cause to celebrate — the Recording Academy nod was his first ever Grammy nomination.
“Watching you walk in humility and gratitude, watching you grow into yourself and become a better man is an immeasurably more satisfying experience than watching you accept an award,” Fox continued in her post, sharing a carousel of glam photos of her and Baker on awards night. “Although those will come… and this is irrelevant I guess but I will just never ever get over how beautiful your face is.”
“I hope one day you’ll see yourself the way I see you,” she concluded. “I love you and I’ll keep this memory of you forever.”
Baker himself opened up about the bittersweet night in an interview with Laverne Cox for E! News, confessing that he always feels “pretty uncomfortable” when atttending the awards show. “Ultimately, I’m really happy to be in the company of such great musicians,” he said. “I didn’t take the category home, and I almost feel like I asked for that lesson. Like, I felt like I lacked self-love, and I was valuing myself so much on career accomplishments that I needed this. The car ride here was very cathartic for me … I need to appreciate what I already have, and once that self-love happens for me, things like the awards and all that will come.”
Ozzy Osbourne reacted to winning two Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5) in the exact way you’d expect from heavy metal’s legendarily salty king of darkness. After landing best rock album for Patient Number 9 and best metal performance for the album track “Degradation Rules,” in a statement on Monday (Feb. 6) Osbourne, 74, was perfectly candid about what it felt like to land his fourth and fifth Grammys wins.
“I’m one lucky motherf—er to have won the ‘best rock album’ Grammy,” Osbourne said. “I was blessed to work with some of the greatest musicians in the world and [producer] Andrew Watt was my producer on this album.” The rock icon added that winning best metal performance was “equally gratifying being that the song featured my longtime friend and Black Sabbath bandmate, [guitarist] Tony Iommi.”
Osbourne’s 13th solo studio album was indeed packed with some of his favorite players, from the title track (one of several that featured late guitar legend Jeff Beck), to songs featuring Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready (“Immortal”) and Ozzy’s longtime musical partner guitarist Zakk Wylde (“Parasite,” “Mr. Darkness,” “Nothing Feels Right,” “Evil Shuffle”) and Eric Clapton (“One of Those Days”). Other guest performers/songwriters included: Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and others.
Though Osbourne will make a hilarious appearance in a Super Bowl LVII commercial on Sunday (Feb. 12), he recently revealed that he will never tour again due to a spinal injury, which forced the cancelation of his scheduled European/UK tour.
Roots drummer and bandleader Questlove was given a nearly impossible assignment in pulling together Sunday night’s (Feb. 5) generation-spanning, all-star tribute to hip-hop’s 50th anniversary at the 2023 Grammy Awards. How do you represent a wholly American art form that has spread from coast-to-coast and around the globe without leaving out someone’s favorite MC?
Welll, according to a series of posts from Quest on the day after, he did his best, but there are some good reasons he couldn’t get everyone’s No. 1 in there. “general ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of “why wasn’t dada there?),” he tweeted.
The answer(s) were simple, he added, “1. already booked 2. declined our offer straight up 3. or a third option im not gonna get into.” A fourth reason, he noted, was that the team made the decision to wait for a two-hour taping of a special slated to take place in August that will give the team more space to fill in the blanks. “We decided to eschew those who passed away, & give flowers to the living — for starters I learned with VH1 Honors not all rappers are good MCs and bad karaoke is a danger slope,” he said. “And WAY too many legends passed so someone’s estate was gonna be heated.”
QuestloveThe Roots timekeeper said in an interview that his original cut for the special segment ran to nearly a half hour, something the Grammy brass said was obviously untenable. So he had to cut it down to around 12 minutes for the heart-racing final version. In the end, the impassioned, mind-bending medley roped in everyone from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Rakim and De La Soul’s Posdnous (Kelvin Mercer), to Scarface, Ice-T, Queen Latifah, Public Enemy, Outkast’s Big Boi, Method Mad, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Nelly, Too Short, Swizz Beatz and the Lox, as well as new schoolers Lil Baby and Glorilla.
“This went through a crazy evolution. all my suggestions were 20 min presentations with Breakbeats/Graf Legends/Dancers/DJ/Beatboxers,” Quest continued. “You’ll be shocked how fast 25-40 secs goes by and you don’t even get the halfway mark of 1995l remember 1973 to 2023 was the goal… we were aware of playing our biases out (if it were me alone? idda just skewered to my teenyears). at one point I said ‘we should do ALL women!!’ —that idea didn’t get too …..far (we didnt have time to do a ‘Some Kind Of Monster’/Kumbya thing to make that a reality).”
The notoriously methodical drummer said he had some criteria he wanted to follow (“alive? harmonizing? turntablism? fighting shape? NYC? LA? BAY? ATL? NAWLINS? HOUSTON? MIDWEST [checkmark emoji] born before 1960? born after 1995? Superlyrical? Stylistic? Original? generally known by at least 2 generations?”). But if your pick wasn’t there there might be a reason.
One, he revealed, was that two “crucial” acts canceled 10 minutes before air. “Cancellations that mighta made it look like we were biased in our choices. but just understand we literally tried to SQUEEEEEEEZE everyone in,” he promised.
As for why there was not much representation from the new generation of 2010’s rappers, Quest explained that as well. “Because they said ‘no’, or they walked out… I’m sure there were all types of circumstances, but Ice-T as the Only L.A. representative, in Staples Center, in Los Angeles… is WILD!! Great performance otherwise.” Questlove answered, “welp: I asked like 10 legends so….sometimes you gotta go with the one who wants you. again might not be your preference but most of hip hop has side gigs. Acting was the main issue. lotta movies being shot.”
In a pre-show interview with the New York Times, Quest further detailed the crazed rush to get the set together, revealing that the two who dropped out at the last minute (Lil Wayne, Future) and the “damn near Jerry Maguire levels” of cajoling he needed to employ to get Missy Elliot — “world famous for the word ‘no’” — to perform. Plus, he noted, there are a number of major acts (Drake, Jay-Z, Public Enemy) who have for years accused the Recording Academy of not giving hip-hop its proper due at the awards.
See Questlove’s tweets and the full performance below.
general ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of “why wasn’t dada there?)1. already booked2. declined our offer straight up3. or a third option im not gonna get into— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
—we decided to eschew those who passed away, & give flowers to the living —for starters I learned with VH1 Honors not all rappers are good MCs and bad karaoke is a danger slope. And WAY too many legends passed so someone’s estate was gonna be heated.— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
this went through a crazy evolution. all my suggestions were 20 min presentations with Breakbeats/Graf Legends/Dancers/DJ/Beatboxers—-you’ll be shocked how fast 25-40 secs goes by and you don’t even get the halfway mark of 1995l remember 1973 to 2023 was the goal— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
we were aware of playing our biases out (if it were me alone? idda just skewered to my teenyears). at one point I said “we should do ALL women!!” —that idea didn’t get too …..far (we didnt have time to do a “Some Kind Of Monster”/Kumbya thing to make that a reality)— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
& this is NOT leading to a tired narrative that women don’t get along because there MORE concerns on the men side of things too (happiest moment seeing LL & Ice T just chillin—)—but yeah the most asked question was “who all gone be there?” which is understandable.— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
we had a criteria we wanted to follow: alive? harmonizing? turntablism? fighting shape? NYC? LA? BAY? ATL? NAWLINS? HOUSTON? MIDWEST☑️ born before 1960? born after 1995? Superlyrical? Stylistic? Original? generally known by at least 2 generations?— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
now granted they might not be your favorite (and there were 2 crucial 11th hour (more like 10 mins before taping) cancellations that mighta made it look like we were biased in our choices. but just understand we literally tried to SQUEEEEEEEZE everyone in.— Dr. Love (@questlove) February 6, 2023
You know that old saying about how Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Astaire did but backwards… and in high heels? (If not, go ask your great-grandma.) Well, it sounds like Harry Styles and his dancers had to channel some serious Rogers vibes during Sunday night’s performance at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
According to posts on Monday from a pair of Styles’ dancers, the spinning turntable set they had endlessly rehearsed on for their run through the singer’s hit “As It Was,” threw them for a loop when it started spinning in the wrong direction during the performance. “What you don’t know is that the moment the curtain opened and it was time to perform, our turntable started spinning in reverse,” dancer Brandon Mathis said in an Instagram Story (per Rolling Stone).
“Backwards. Freaking all of us out on live television, and there was nothing we could do to stop it,” added Mathis. “In real time, we had to troubleshoot and try to do a complete piece in reverse. Talk about professionalism.”
At one point, viewers may have noticed Styles awkwardly hopping down off the spinning wheel and appearing to stumble a bit, expertly regaining his balance while moving from the malfunctioning set to the more stable, non-moving, front of the stage. Another one of his dancers, Dexter, revealed on TikTok that the team practiced the intricate choreography for 10 days before Sunday’s show and that the comments decrying the performance as “lethargic” were unfair given the challenges in the moment.
“We rehearsed for 10 days getting down these beautiful formations and sliding off the table in a roll-off and just making this incredible, morphing, cool artistic s–t and Harry did such a good job integrating into it,” Dexter said in the video, adding that the dancers desperately tried to get a stage tech’s attention about the miscue, but were forced to improvise in the moment and completely switch up all their choreography on the spot.
Dexter said the team had rehearsed the whole time with the turntable moving clockwise, which is why it was “difficult” and “frustrating” to try and pull off the intricate moves and retain spatial awareness while moving in reverse.
“To switch all those patterns around on the spot, having not even walked in that direction, it sounds easy,” he said. “Since it’s circular, it pulls you in different directions and is such a special type of balance. We got accustomed to one way, and it was the opposite way. So, luckily we worked together and did our best and got to one cool formation in time for the overhead shot but had to change the rest.”
Spokespeople for Styles and the Grammy Awards had not returned Billboard‘s requests for comment on the reported staging malfunction at press time.
Even though Styles had to sing and walk in the opposite direction — including during a complicated catch-and-release series of moves with a female dancer — he had plenty to celebrate on the night of, including winning album of the year for Harry’s House. Styles celebrated his big win on Instagram on Monday night (Feb. 6) in a series of pics in which he is grabbing a moment of quiet backstage and showing off his custom Adidas sneaks at a late night pizza party.
Check out the Styles’ post and the performance as it was, but not as it was supposed to be below.
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Lil’ Kim and MC Lyte spoke to the importance of “sisterhood” during the kick-off of Mastercard’s “She Run This” event over Grammy weekend in celebration of Black entrepreneurship in business and hip-hop.
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The three-day event, which was held in collaboration with Femme It Forward to spotlight entrepreneurship in business and hip-hop, launched with a three-part panel discussion featuring rap vets Kim, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa and Yo-Yo, alongside emerging artists such as Coi Leray, Baby Tate and Jozzy, and a special appearance by Mastercard ambassador Jennifer Hudson.
During the panel discussion, Lyte explained why she didn’t want to work with other women in the beginning of her career and how her mind-set changed. “All that I’d heard was that working with women wasn’t a good thing because they were so emotional. I adopted this thought, but the truth was, I had to become responsible in the way that I communicated,” she shared with an audience of mostly women at 1010 Wine and Events in Inglewood, Calif., on Thursday (Feb. 2). The Partners in Rhyme star hired a female manager 13 years ago, who has since became her business partner and COO of “everything MC Lyte.”
“There is a way that you can communicate with love and care and kindness and I had not learned that when I [first started out],” she continued. “What I can say now is this business that I’m in is the best for me because I know what sisterhood is.”
Added Kim, “I never knew what it felt like to be unprotected around my sisters. Especially in a male-dominated [industry]. It was hard, but when I was in the comfort of my sisters, I was at my peak. I felt the most powerful.”
“We did everything together,” Kim said of forging a solid sisterhood with MC Lyte, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Da Brat, Queen Latifah and stylist Misa Hilton early in their careers. Kim has collaborated with fellow female artists on “Ladies Night,” featuring Elliott, Blige, Brat, Left Eye and Angie Martinez; and Christina Aguilera’s “Lady Marmalade” remake with Kim, Pink and Mya.
And after more than 25 years in the rap game, the Queen Bee continues to show support for the new school of female rappers (she recently brought out Lola Brooke during her show at the Apollo Theater).
“Sisterhood and having your sister’s back is important, and Kim always had my back,” said Hilton. “A lot of things started to happen quickly [in her career], so all of a sudden people may try to come between us. People [would] want Kim to do a certain fashion magazine and they’d say, ‘We want to use this stylist,’ but what did she say? ‘Misa has to be there.’ Sticking together and not being afraid to stick up for yourself, not feeling like you’re going to miss out on an opportunity and realizing the power in your voice [is important]. You can demand what you want and you can bring your sisters with you.”
Coi Leray and Yo-Yo attend Mastercard She Runs This, celebrating entrepreneurship for Black Women in Business and the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop in a three-part panel discussion series in partnership with Femme It Forward during GRAMMY Week at Sip & Sonder on Feb. 4, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Mike Tran/Polk Imaging
“Everything that I do is everything that I wanted to do when I was 7 years old,” said MC Lyte, whose debut album Lyte as a Rock turns 35 this year. Throughout her career, the Brooklyn native has crossed over from rapping to acting to voice-over work. “I wanted to be on radio, I wanted to use my voice,” she said. “I saw Tootie [played by Kim Fields] on The Facts of Life and I was like, ‘I got to get to Los Angeles because I need to do some acting.’ I wanted to do all those things, but I also realized I had to prepare myself. I couldn’t just show up because [I’m ] MC Lyte; I had to know the skill set. I went to acting school, I went to voice-over coaching classes and workshops. I was just prepared for the moment so as the opportunities lined up, I was able to show up and show out.”
The “She Runs This” campaign includes an immersive “Small Business City” built in Meta Horizon Worlds, a TikTok challenge kicked off by Hudson, an ad campaign furthering Mastercard’s mission to help Black women entrepreneurs thrive, and a Fearless Fund grant contest in partnership with Fearless Fund, a Black-owned venture capital fund aimed at helping women of color. Mastercard and Fearless Fund are providing Black women small business owners with $20,000 grants, plus digital tools and mentorship to help them “build, protect and sustain their business.”
Additionally, Mastercard and Amazon have teamed up for a small business marketplace spotlighting Black women-owned small businesses. The digital marketplace allows owners to share their brand origin stories and connect directly with customers on Amazon Live. Customers can also explore the shoppable social hub of products from exclusively Black women-owned small businesses on Pinterest.
According to Mastercard, 80 percent of U.S. women entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, small business owners and content creators have endured financial challenges. In recognizing this universal financial obstacle faced by entrepreneurs along with the challenge of battling racism and racial bias, Mastercard is honoring hip-hop’s 50th anniversary by helping equip Black women entrepreneurs with the financial tools, resources and education to successfully accomplish their dreams.