“I was trying to find the sweet spot between having my own accomplishments and being my own person, but also acknowledging my dad,” he continued. “I wanted to make my own lane and I wanted to have my own space, but I also wanted to honor my father,” said Mason, whose father has been nominated 10 times. So, Mason decided to lowercase “jr.” in his name. When Mason was in high school, he wanted to create his own identity while paying homage to his famed father Harvey Mason Sr., the Grammy-nominated jazz drummer of the group Fourplay.
“But conversely, I’m not a fan of casting somebody out on a rumor or on somebody’s word without a real investigation or without real information. “Cancel culture has a purpose in the sense that there is a need for change and accountability, and I respect that,” he said. But he doesn’t want to overreact before knowing the facts in any situation. Mason understands the cancel culture’s “outcry for change,” which he fully supports. “Those are the things that we’ll be looking at as it relates to artists and their behavior, their speech, the things they say, the way they act and making evaluations based on the things that we can control.” “The thing we can control is our Grammy stage, our red carpet, our events - not just Grammy season, but all season,” he said. 31.īesides, Mason doesn’t want to penalize those who worked on Wallen’s album because of his missteps. But the organization can dictate whether he can attend or participate in any Grammy activities - including the 64th annual awards show on Jan. With the peer-driven voting system, Mason says Wallen being nominated or not is out of the Recording Academy’s control. But there’s a chance Wallen - who apologized for his actions - could receive nominations in major categories next month with the success of “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which is one of the most popular albums released this year across all genres. Wallen garnered several nominations at the upcoming Country Music Association Awards - where he was nominated for the prestigious album of the year - and Billboard Music Awards, but he was not invited to either show.
But despite his racial remark, the “Whiskey Glasses” singer saw his album sales soar. The disgraced singer was dropped by his music label, disqualified from the Academy of Country Music Awards, and his music was temporarily pulled by radio stations and streaming stations. “I was upset for the music community in general because I don’t like to see any of our music family either acting like that or feeling uncomfortable because of someone’s actions.” “I obviously was very offended,” said Mason, who is Black. The award to pop duo Milli Vanilli was stripped in 1990 after the group admitted to lip-synching the “Girl You Know It’s True” album.Ĭountry star Morgan Wallen was rebuked by the music industry after a video earlier this year showed him blurting out a racial slur - which Mason says was “disturbing” to hear. Only one trophy has been revoked in the 62-year history of the Grammys, according to the Recording Academy. But we’ll take a good look at it and see.” "My initial feeling is we're probably not a business that we want to be in of taking people’s awards back after they’ve been given. “But right now, I think it’s something that is going to take a little bit more consideration before we can really dictate or decide," he continued. In 1997, Kelly won Grammys in three different categories for “I Believe I Can Fly” from the “Space Jam” soundtrack. “I think it’s something that we’re going to need to take a good hard look at, have a lot of conversations about, work through and make a decision,” Mason said.