{"id":803862,"date":"2020-02-05T19:44:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=948480"},"modified":"2020-02-05T19:44:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T02:44:11","slug":"nicki-minaj-on-deborah-dugan-we-need-strong-women-that-are-willing-to-say-what-they-have-to-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/nicki-minaj-on-deborah-dugan-we-need-strong-women-that-are-willing-to-say-what-they-have-to-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicki Minaj on Deborah Dugan: \u2018We Need Strong Women That are Willing to Say What They Have to Say\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nicki Minaj<\/a> defended former Grammy<\/a> chief Deborah Dugan<\/a> during a speech at the Pollstar Live 2020 event on Wednesday at the Beverly Hilton. \u201cShout out to Deb. We need strong women that are willing to say what they have to say, even when they\u2019re getting backlash for it,\u201d Minaj said. \u201cAnd every strong woman in here knows what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Recording Academy<\/a>, who hosts the Grammys<\/a>, and their former leader Dugan have been in a contentious legal back-and-forth battle since the organization placed Dugan on administrative leave<\/a> in January following an accusation of misconduct. Dugan fired back with a lawsuit<\/a>, which claimed she was sexually harassed by the Academy\u2019s General Counsel and that former CEO Neil Portnow had been accused of raping a foreign recording artist and Academy member. Both men have denied these allegations<\/a>. She also questioned the voting integrity of the organization and mentioned diversity issues, among other accusations.<\/p>\n

The brewing internal issue was not addressed during the Grammy ceremony on January 26th, save for when host Alicia Keys alluded to some strife. \u201cLet me be honest with y\u2019all,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a hell of a week.\u201d Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs also addressed the \u201celephant in the room<\/a>\u201d while accepting the Grammys\u2019 industry icon award during Clive Davis\u2019 pre-Grammy Gala in Beverly Hills the night before the Grammys.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe need the artists to take back control. This is the room that has the power to make that change. They are a nonprofit that is supposed to protect the welfare of the music community. They work for us \u2014 we have the power, we decide what\u2019s hot. If we don\u2019t go, nobody goes. We control what\u2019s hot. We control everything. My goal used to be making hit records, and now it\u2019s about ensuring the culture moves forward,\u201d he said at the end of his speech. \u201cOur culture. And for me to be worthy of receiving an icon award I have to be making a change. So, y\u2019all got 365 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of February, the Recording Academy responded to Dugan\u2019s request for her arbitration clause to be waived<\/a> to ensure the investigation \u201ccall[s] for transparency and accountability.\u201d The Academy responded, proposing instead to keep arbitration but waive the confidentiality provision that could potentially bring more public transparency to the arbitration itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Recording Academy has absolutely nothing to hide and, in fact, welcomes the opportunity to tell its story so that the entire music community and the world can hear the truth \u2014 and nothing but the truth \u2014 about what you did to this proud institution during your brief tenure as President\/CEO,\u201d Interim CEO and board chair Harvey Mason Jr. said in response<\/a>. \u201cIn short, we welcome a full public airing of your allegations against the Academy as well as the Academy\u2019s many claims and defenses against you.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday during the Pollstar event, Minaj called for fellow Grammy winners to enjoy the accolade, but also ponder the costs going forward. \u201cEverybody that has won a Grammy, I feel you oughta be proud of that, that\u2019s a great achievement,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think the way we judge talent has changed, and that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Samantha Hissong<\/em><\/p>\n

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via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicki Minaj defended former Grammy chief Deborah Dugan during a speech at the Pollstar Live 2020 event on Wednesday at the Beverly Hilton. \u201cShout out to Deb. We need strong women that are willing to say what they have to say, even when they\u2019re getting backlash for it,\u201d Minaj said. \u201cAnd every strong woman in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 14:53:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}