Some music lovers didn’t even know Beck had a new album out when he won the Grammy for album of the year for “Morning Phase” on Sunday. Now it seems people can’t stop talking about him.
After rapper Kanye West looked to be about to crash the stage during Beck’s acceptance speech and then said the musician “needs to respect artistry, and he should’ve given his award to Beyonce,” there was a rush to defend Beck.
West took umbrage with Beck’s surprise win over his friend Beyonce’s self-titled album. But in an open letter to West posted on her Facebook page, Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson said it’s the rapper who needs to learn some respect.
“You disrespect your own remarkable talents and more importantly you disrespect the talent, hard work and tenacity of all artists when you go so rudely and savagely after such an accomplished and humble artist like Beck,” Manson wrote. “You make yourself look small and petty and spoilt.”
Even a dear friend of West’s has offered support for Beck.
The rapper’s wife, Kim Kardashian, Instagrammed a photo of herself with singer John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, in the Grammy audience. The photo shows the trio making faces and is captioned “This is the Beck won that award face?!?!?!”
On Monday, Legend — who is a longtime friend and collaborator of West’s — tweeted congratulations to Beck, calling him “a great artist” and explaining that the selfie was in fact taken before the artist’s win.
According to Billboard, radio is rallying around Beck. “It’s wonderful he is getting the accolades and the credit,” KROQ music director Lisa Worden told Billboard. “Morning Phase is beautiful, and at this point for radio listeners, it isn’t top-of-mind so the fact that he did win two huge awards means people will go back, listen to the album and buy it.”
The attention has brought a 388% increase in streams of his music, Spotify reported, including a 524% increase in streams of “Morning Phase.”
And what does Beck think about all of the uproar? It seems he didn’t mind West almost crashing his win, telling Us Weekly that he thinks the rapper is a “genius” and “I was just so excited he was coming up. He deserves to be on stage as much as anybody.
“I thought she was going to win,” Beck said of his competition for the award. “Come on, she’s Beyonce!”