Iggy Somehow Beat Drake and Eminem Twice

It's official, Iggy Azalea took home two major awards on Sunday night at the American Music Awards, winning Best Rap/ Hip Hop Artist and Best Rap/ Hip Hop album for The New Classic. In each of these categories, she was up against Drake and Eminem (and for their albums Nothing Was the Same and The Marshall Mathers LP2. I, for one, am not impressed with Iggy's wins.

Do I think it's remarkable that a woman won in categories normally dominated by dudes? Yeah, that's a step, and can be owed, of course, to the fans, as the AMAs are based on the voting public. It could just be a case of The People Have Spoken, but that doesn't mean it's not harmful.

Two of the three nominees in both of these categories were white: Azalea and Eminem. I have an inkling that Eminem was nominated before he made these disgraceful comments about Azalea herself (which, even though I'm not a fan of hers, at least Azalea won over a man that writes lyrics about raping her).

Aside from the fact that Drake and his Nothing Was the Same were the OBVIOUS best artist and album by leaps and bounds, Azalea winning is an echo of Macklemore winning a Grammy over Kendrick Lamar. Azalea is not only white, she's got a problematic history of appropriation of black culture and posting more than just a handful of racist tweets. So it's frustrating to see her beat out a black artist who deserves due credit, while she is a white singer profiting from a culture she isn't a part of.

Yes, "Fancy" was a game-changer, like Questlove once said. And Eminem definitely does NOT deserve any awards tonight. But when you look at Drake vs Iggy Azalea for Best Rap/ Hip-Hop, it should be NO question that Drizzy would win. It's hard to see white artists always winning these hip hop categories.