Chance The Rapper Now Eligible To Win A Grammy Award

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 16, 2016 5:23PM

The Grammy Awards just changed the eligibility requirements for this year, and the big news is that streaming-only music can now be nominated. This mean that Chance The Rapper's latest release Coloring Book is now eligible. Chance has long bucked industry expectations by offering all of his releases for free, which has kept him from being able to win a Grammy.

Previously, in order to be eligible for a Grammy, musicians had to fit this criteria:

Recordings must be commercially released in general distribution in the United States, i.e. sales by label to a branch or recognized independent distributor, via the Internet, or mail order/retail sales for a nationally marketed product. Recordings must be available for sale from any date within the eligibility period through at least the date of the current year’s voting deadline (final ballot).

We know, what a mouthful. In short, if listeners couldn't buy the music—or more importantly an artists wasn't signed to a label selling their music—it also wasn't eligible for a Grammy.

It's been no secret that Chance has been looking to shake up the system from the start. During an appearance last fall on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert he said he didn't want to align with the major label system, and that wanted to find a new business model when it came to releasing music. And in May, Chance threw his support behind a petition to make free music eligible as well. So this is quite the victory.

So how did Chance respond to the good news? As usual, he took the high road and kept it classy.

The victory this morning isn't about me, it's about all the Soundcloud albums that may now be recognized for excellence.

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) June 16, 2016

We think odds look good Chance will one of the first, if not the first, streaming-only artists to win a Grammy.