Grammy Nominees in Rap Promise Boycott

At least three of the five acts nominated in the Grammy Awards’ new rap category said Thursday that they will boycott the nationally televised ceremony on Feb. 22 because the award won’t be presented during the broadcast.

Charging that rap music is being “treated like a stepchild” and “ghetto-ized,” Bill Adler, director of publicity for Rush Artists Management in New York, said Rush artists L.L. Cool J and D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince would not attend the show even though D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince had been asked to present another award during the telecast.

A representative for a third nominee, Salt-N-Pepa, said that the New York duo also would boycott the show, while a spokesman for nominee J.J. Fad said the L.A.-based female trio is considering skipping the program, which will be held at the Shrine Auditorium. The fifth nominee, Kool Moe Dee, was unavailable for comment.

“It’s not just a threat,” Adler said of the boycott. “If they’re not going to put us on, we’re not going to attend. We think rap is important to contemporary music and rock ‘n’ roll, and obviously they disagree with us.”

Pierre Cossette, producer of the Grammy telecast, and Michael Greene, president of the Grammy-sponsoring National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said that rap’s exclusion from the broadcast is not meant as a slight. The rap award will be one of 64 announced during a pre-telecast ceremony at the Shrine.

“The problem is arithmetic,” Cossette said Thursday. “When you have 76 (Grammy) categories and you only (have time) to put 12 on the air, you’ve got 64 unhappy groups of people. The way we covered rap was to invite Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince to do a performance/presentation. It’s not like we don’t want them on the show.”

Noting that a performance by rap group Run-D.M.C.--another Rush act--was featured on last year’s show, Greene said, “What we try to do is balance the show. . . . This (dissatisfaction) happens every year from all the music communities. Each one feels they should be represented on the show. If we wanted to have a 15-hour show, we could probably do it.”

The recording academy had pointed to the introduction of the rap award--along with a new hard rock/heavy metal category--as examples of the “modernization” of the Grammys. The hard rock/heavy metal award is scheduled to be announced on the telecast--along with a performance by Metallica, a nominee in that category.