Latest / Mini Scroll / Mini Grammys 2025 Recap: Hits, Misses & WTFs

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Mini Grammys 2025 Recap: Hits, Misses & WTFs · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy, and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meissner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  You guys, this is the third time, the third time that I have
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  recorded this friggin episode. Oh my God.
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  OK. The first time I don't even
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  remember what happened anyways. And then I got into the second
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  time, finished the entire episode, like went to a meeting,
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  recorded the deep dive like I've done so much.
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  And then I went back to the episode and I realized that my
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  Rd. settings for like our microphone were wrong because we
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  took all of our equipment to the binge offices yesterday here in
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  Sydney to do an interview with some of the Real Housewives,
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  which is very exciting. But their sound person in their
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  studio space, which was really cool.
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  It was really cool to get set up there, but he changed the
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  settings on the road. And anyways, the whole episode,
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  like there was sound, but it was like in and out.
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  So it's like if I wasn't like speaking directly into
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  microphone, it would like fade out.
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  If I like went like this and it didn't sound natural at all and
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  I was like oh that's going to piss people off so much.
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  So anyways, here I am rerecording again.
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  OK, so we are doing a big Grammys recap today.
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  I was going to add other stories to this episode, but as I was
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  writing the recap, I was like, you know what?
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  Let's just do like a mini Grammys recap.
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  And then any other stories that I had, I think I only had one
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  will go Thursday. Yesterday was the 2025 Grammys.
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  Obviously, I have a lot to cover.
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  Overall, I'd say that the award show felt really culturally
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  relevant in a way that it hasn't in years.
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  I feel like they really tried to take into account like, what's
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  happening online, like discussions in fan communities,
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  what happens behind the scenes with artists, what's happening
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  around the world politically and socially.
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  And this did seem to be like the general consensus.
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  So Justin Crudo wrote for Vulture quote, who are these
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  people and what have they done with the Recording Academy?
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  It definitely wasn't a perfect show, but we'll give credit
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  where it's due. And the Academy deserves a lot
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  After tonight. I'm going to go over some of the
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  highlights before I get into more serious elements of the
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  show. So there were performances from
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  all of the main pop girlies that dominated 2024, like Chapel
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  Roan, Charli XCX, Billy Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter.
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  They all killed it as we knew they would.
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  And of course, the Taylor Swift is like dancing and partying to
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  every single performance. And many of them, she's the only
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  one. Like the audience is filled with
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  people who are just seated and watching the show.
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  And she's like standing up like champagne in her hand, like
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  going crazy, dancing, singing. And I love it.
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  Like, I love that she is showing that support.
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  I know a lot of people think it's just her trying to like be
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  the center of attention and get the cameras to film her and
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  stuff. And like, sure, it could be
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  that, I don't know. But I think it doesn't really
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  matter at the end of the day. The audience for so many of the
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  performances literally does nothing.
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  So I love to see that energy, that fangirl energy from Taylor.
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  Some of the most notable wins. OK, let's get into this.
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  Kendrick Lamar won all 5 Grammys.
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  He was nominated for for Not Like Us.
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  He won record of the year, song of the year, best rap
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  performance, best rap song and best music video.
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  You guys, this is crazy because we know that this song is a diss
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  track on Drake. That's why I'm saying it feels
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  like the Academy really just like let loose and like decided,
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  you know what we're going to like lean in to like what is
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  going on behind the scenes in fan communities online.
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  Like they considered, it feels like they considered a lot of
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  that in these awards. One of the key lyrics in this
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  song is trying to strike a chord, and it's probably A
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  minor, like A minor, if you know the Drake lore, you know, So
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  everyone's like, first of all, someone check on Drake, and
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  second of all, someone checked Drake into a psychiatric
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  hospital after this because this is so embarrassing.
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  I don't even think Drake nominated himself or whatever.
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  You have to like, submit yourself to be nominated for the
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  Grammys. And I read somewhere that he did
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  not do that. OK Chapel, my queen, she won
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  best new artist. And in her acceptance speech,
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  she spoke about fair pay for emerging artists.
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  Now, I'm not well versed in, like, the insurance and outs of
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  the music industry, but we all know that record labels are
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  notoriously pretty predatory. And I guess it's really hard for
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  up and coming artists to like, survive, you know, and they seem
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  quite trapped in a lot of these contracts and things like that.
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  Like, we know just from like, peripherally we have heard
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  things like this. So Chapel really spoke out about
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  that for everything she went through last year.
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  I really love that Chapel hasn't let like, the Internet scrutiny,
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  the media scrutiny, all of the like, fodder around her and her
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  speaking up. Like, I'm glad she hasn't let
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  any of that stop her from voicing things like this.
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  I love that she's an artist that stands for something bigger.
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  I hope that this continues. And I think even if the way
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  she's delivering the message doesn't feel super palatable to
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  you, the fact that she does have this bigger message to her
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  celebrity, I feel like it's so important and it's inspiring.
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  I just love Chapel. OK Beyoncé.
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  She became the first black woman to win a Grammy for country
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  music for Cowboy Carter since The Pointer Sisters won in 1975,
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  and Taylor Swift presented the award to her.
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  Some people said that they seemed awkward in this exchange.
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  I don't know. I didn't really notice that.
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  What I could not stop, like being obsessed with was
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  Beyoncé's reaction to winning this.
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  She seemed so genuinely shocked and excited.
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  And I feel like it was a moment that we don't get to see a lot
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  from Beyoncé because she's so polished, right?
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  She's so polished in public. So to see her have this, really,
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  I don't know, it was like really sincere.
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  It was almost like childlike in such like a cute, sincere,
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  excitable way to see that reaction.
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  I just loved that. And of course, she also won
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  album of the year, which is the first time she has ever won
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  that. So that kind of leads into the
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  more negative stuff. I wanted to start out by calling
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  out the blatant racism in some of the reactions to Beyoncé.
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  He's win, especially her win in the country category.
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  Now this is always a problem for Beyoncé.
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  Like she is always compared. Her success is always compared.
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  She's always called overrated and things in that similar vein.
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  And now with Cowboy Carter winning in the country category,
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  like the judgement, it's real. Look, there's always going to be
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  heated opinions about any. I mean, I was going to say album
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  of the year, but like any category, right, Like music is
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  subjective. It can be based on opinion.
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  However, I think while that type of like judgment or opinion
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  isn't exclusive to Beyoncé, I think the undertones of what
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  people were saying and like the blatant, like ignorance, like
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  the, it's felt like intentional ignorance that feels exclusive
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  to Beyoncé and that feels quite targeted.
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  I think a lot of people are missing context and I think
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  that's on purpose, which is why it does feel like racism to me.
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  So there's a lot of people saying that Beyoncé shouldn't
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  have won in the country category because it's her first country
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  album. A lot of the songs on the album
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  don't necessarily fit quote UN quote into that like country
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  genre. She's not immersed in that
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  genre. She hasn't been like, slogging
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  it out in that genre like whatever country music is
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  directly derived from black Southern Americans.
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  This is a quote from the Harvard Crimson quote.
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  Early country music was often rebranded or stolen from the
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  hymns and field songs of Southern enslaved people, as
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  well as from professional black musicians.
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  And while people might not have always known that part of what
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  Cowboy Carter did culturally for us was it opened up that
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  conversation about country music and its history, its origins
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  within black culture. And so that to me, is also why I
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  think Cowboy Carter was a perfect winner for Album of the
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  Year, right? Like, I think Album of the Year
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  should hold cultural significance.
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  And it obviously held significance for Beyoncé.
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  We know that it was kind of like her first entrance back into the
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  country sphere since 2016. In 2016, she performed with the
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  Dixie Chicks at the Cmas, and she received tons of racist
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  backlash for that performance. And she said Cowboy Carter was
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  kind of like her saying kind of like fuck you or to everyone who
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  said she didn't belong. So this album holds significance
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  to Beyoncé, which I think is important in album of the year
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  because if you think about. So this is just me like going on
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  a tantrum. But if you think about Beyoncé
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  as an artist, right? Like, I think anything that is
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  significant to Beyoncé, he's career, which Cowboy Carter very
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  much is, he's a contender or should be a contender.
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  Then if it's a good album, which obviously it is for something
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  like album of the year, because Beyoncé herself is one of the
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  most culturally impactful, influential artists of our time.
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  So anything that is significant to Beyoncé's career is
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  significant to music in 2025. Like full stop.
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  So I think that is just like 1 little point there.
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  But then I think the other point is that like I said before, this
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  album opened up bigger conversations around the world
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  and open people's eyes to different histories and origins
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  of music and just like things that like honestly, the Grammys
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  should be awarding. So that is why I think Cowboy
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  Carter, whether you liked the album or not, like whether it's
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  your taste in music or not, I think it stood for something
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  bigger and that is why it should have won, which it did.
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  Album of the year and also best country album.
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  OK, OK. Next, The Associated Press was
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  doing red carpet interviews at the Grammys, and interviewers
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  are now facing backlash for interrupting their own interview
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  with Babyface to call over Chapel Roan.
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  So there's two interviewers. One of them, she sees Chapel.
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  She kind of like, makes eyes with her publicist or whoever
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  is, like, on the carpet with Chapel, like, escorting her.
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  And obviously Chapel's going to wait for this interview.
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  And then it looks like they're about to walk away, I guess.
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  And so the interviewer is like, oh, wait, Chapel in the middle
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  of Babyface, like, quite literally giving his answer.
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  Like, they had asked him a question and he is in the middle
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  of answering. And she's like, yells, oh,
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  Chapel, Chapel. Which is just like,
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  unprofessional, right? So the interviewer has issued an
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  apology. She issued it on air first.
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  I wanted to say that I'm really sorry about interrupting
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  Babyface. Earlier, Chapel Roan had come up
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  and there was a lot of commotion, as there is on these
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  carpets. But I'm a big Babyface fan and
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  as are we all. And so I just wanted to say that
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  that I really apologize. But people are like, this
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  interviewer is never being asked to do a red carpet for The
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  Associated Press again. OK, The other kind of shitty
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  thing to come out of the Grammys is Chris Brown was unfortunately
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  awarded a Grammy. This is from the same Vulture
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  piece by Justin Trudeau, he said, just months after a
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  documentary explored new allegations of sexual assault
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  and abuse against the singer. He won his first award in over a
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  decade for best R&B album, and Chris Brown has never been fully
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  shunned from the industry. But this is just so
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  disappointing. This shows that, yeah, he is
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  well on his way to like a proper comeback if he is being awarded
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  a Grammy like this. And finally, I wanted to discuss
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  briefly the Kanye West Bianca Sensori red carpet.
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  Look, I'm not going to post the photos on the video, but I did
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  want to say my opinion. I don't think we should be
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  analyzing this. Look, I don't think we should be
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  making jokes, making this into memes.
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  I don't even know if we should be creating think pieces with
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  this. I know there are something
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  pieces that are trying to take more of like an ethical stance.
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  I don't, I don't know how I feel about that really.
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  Maybe if it kind of opens people's eyes to what could be
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  happening. But I think in general it is
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  very clear that something is very wrong in this relationship.
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  I know a lot of people are concerned for Bianca and I think
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  for good reason and all the fodder around it.
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  Like obviously this was for shock value but like was this
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  Bianca's decision? Like what is going on behind the
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  scenes? Is she OK?
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  That should be like the only conversation in my opinion
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  around this situation. Also I know people were like oh
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  they weren't even invited and they crashed.
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  Apparently that's also not true. So I'm going to read a blue sky
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  post from my friend Crystal who runs Z feed and this is kind of
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  like sums up how I feel about it.
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  She wrote, I have no idea what's going on in Bianca's sensory and
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  Ye's relationship, but I reckon any women's publication that a
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  published on the gendered violence epidemic should be very
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  careful about whether slash how they post about Bianca's Grammys
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  red carpet look. And I completely agree.
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  We have seen a lot of publications that publish things
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  that are very pro feminist, pro women's reproductive rights, you
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  know, all of that great stuff that are covering this in kind
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  of I think an inappropriate way and I think we need to think
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  about that. Anyways, guys, hopefully third
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  time's a charm with this. I love you guys.
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  Thank you so much for listening to Mini Scroll.
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  Please star rate US. I love you guys and Annabelle
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  will talk to you tomorrow and I will talk to you on Thursday.
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  Bye.