In February, Chance the Rapper delivered one of the stellar moments of hip-hop music thus far with his verse on Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam.” Within it, he pointed out that he heard “you got sell [your music] to snatch the GRAMMY.” But Chance has never been, nor will ever be, about the life of selling his music. So? It seems like Chance’s next project, Chance 3, won’t be able to catch a GRAMMY nomination, no matter the buzz surrounding it, how many people download it or, most importantly, how good it could potentially winds up being.
Sunday afternoon, Chance tweeted out a link to a petition that asks the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences — the people who decide GRAMMY nominations and winners — to recognize free music, because an artist shouldn’t be “punished” for choosing that route.
The petition, started by Mike Krasowitz, points out the NARAS rule that states music must be sold to get consideration:
“[Music must be] commercially released in general distribution in the United States, i.e. sales by label to a branch or recognized independent distributor, via the Internet, or mail order/retail sales for a nationally marketed product. Recordings must be available for sale from any date within the eligibility period through at least the date of the current year’s voting deadline (final ballot).”
But Mike, Chance the Rapper and many more are out to change that.
The petition’s goal is to get 25,000 people to sign it, but hey, it shouldn’t be an issue get plenty more than that. Naturally, there’d have to be stipulations met in order for free music to get considered (i.e., the music couldn’t use samples that aren’t cleared — so no, Dedication 3 wouldn’t have been eligible at the time, unfortunately), but this could be step in the right direction.
Head to change.org to sign the petition, if you’re in favor of the ideology, of course.
