The Recording Academy is being criticized for calling Virgil Abloh a “hip-hop fashion designer” during Sunday’s “In Memoriam” segment at the Grammy Awards.
In November last year, Abloh, who founded Off-White and served as creative director for Louis Vuitton‘s menswear line, died after a private battle with cancer. Though he was very prominent in hip-hop, people took issue with being called just a “hip-hop fashion designer.”
In addition to his extensive list of achievements, many people pointed out that he worked for a wide range of luxury fashion brands and mainstream brands like Nike and IKEA.
Furthermore, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for his work on Jay-Z and Ye’s Watch the Throne, which was not mentioned during the ceremony.
Several people claimed the label was given to him simply because he was Black.
Calling Virgil Abloh a “Hip-Hop Fashion Designer” is insanely disrespectful and blindly ignorant… do better pic.twitter.com/zHXLhZB6vv
— Debating Hip-Hop (@DebatingHipHop_) April 4, 2022
this is EXACTLY what the Grammys just did to Virgil Abloh
it’s like a racially-charged sneak diss or something@RecordingAcad get your shit together pic.twitter.com/IbahF0sNmE
— daniel h 🏔️ (@daniels_visions) April 4, 2022
Virgil Abloh was the CEO of his own high-end fashion company & head artistic directer of LOUIS VUITTON.
The Grammy’s calling him just a “hip hop fashion designer” is disrespectful as fuck.
— k e v (@KevKellum) April 4, 2022
very disrespectful for the grammys to call virgil abloh a “hip hop fashion designer”… the micro aggressive racism we see in fashion and entertainment today still baffles me
— 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞 (@arxhiiie) April 4, 2022
The way that everyone is collectively so angry about “Virgil Abloh, hip hop fashion designer” like HOW did that even get approved by multiple people????
— LOUIS PISANO (@LouisPisano) April 4, 2022
