Hip-hop stars have dominated the Academy Awards
The Academy Awards for the Best Original Song have been in existence since the mid-1930s. Stars have dominated the Academy Awards, with three hip-hop stars having received Oscars for their songs’ appearances in film.
Eminem: The first winner
Marshall Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. Barbara Streisand presented the award to Eminem’s associate, who helped him compose the song, instead of the hip-hop star, who could not attend. One of the biggest songs of Eminem’s entire career, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Mathers proved he could perform the song 17 years later and still receive standing ovations.
Juicy J gaining the golden statue
Juicy J won the Oscar at the Academy Awards Show in 2006 for the song “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp” for the movie ‘Hustle and Flow.’ Juicy J’s group Three 6 Mafia wrote the song, but Terrance Howard and Taraji P. Henson performed it in the film. In 2008 it made number 80 on VH1’s list for Best Hip-Hop Songs of All Time.
H.E.R is the most recent Academy Award winner
H.E.R won the Best Original Song Award at the 2021 Oscars with “Fight For You.” H.E.R. performed the song during the pre-show ceremony from behind a drum kit. The music had a distinctly ’60s vibe to it, thanks to the jazzy vocals, strings and brass she featured, along with backup singers and guitarists. Speeches by the murdered, visionary Black Panthers’ leader Fred Hampton were intercut throughout the song and the rich, choreographed imagery of the performers onstage.
By: Samantha Evans