#Why the music industry is right to dump the term ‘urban’

“The world is a ghetto,” declares legendary funk band War on its 1972 classic of the same name.

And in the music world, that “ghetto” for black artists has long been “urban” music departments and genre shackles that have essentially segregated them based on the color of their skin. To make so-called “urban” music was to keep you in your place — safely apart from the more prestigious, less dangerous fields of music that were far, far away from the streets.

But therein the music industry has been a microcosm of society as a whole, where systemic racism has made it hard for black artists to cross the color lines in some long-standing institutions. Those include the Grammys — the gold-standard of artistic achievement in the music business — and major record labels that have put black artists in a minor division by relegating them to urban departments.

But as “United We Sing: A Grammy Salute to the Unsung Heroes” — a tribute to essential workers hosted by Harry Connick Jr. — gets set to air Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS, there is a shift happening in the music industry, which, like many individuals and businesses, has been pushed by the Black Lives Matter movement to take a hard look at itself.

Last week the Recording Academy announced it was changing the name of the Best Urban Contemporary Album category to Best Progressive R&B Album. Among the artists who had won the gramophone for Best Urban Contemporary Album in recent years: Rihanna (for “Unapologetic” in 2014), The Weeknd (for “Beauty Behind the Madness” and “Starboy” in 2016 and 2018, respectively), Beyoncé (for “Lemonade” in 2017) and Lizzo (for “Cuz I Love You” earlier this year).

That list includes some of the biggest pop stars of the last decade, period. Exiling them to the “urban” category — as if they don’t physically belong in the same space as the Taylor Swifts, Adeles and Billie Eilishs of the world — is outrageous.

That change came about following Black Out Tuesday on June 2, when the music industry said that #TheShowMustBePaused in the wake of George Floyd’s brutal killing by a Minneapolis police officer. It gave the business — which has certainly made tons of money off of black artists — a day for some long-overdue reflection on how it can do better to fight racial injustice.

Immediately after Black Out Tuesday, Republic Records — label home to Swift, The Weeknd, Drake, Ariana Grande and Post Malone, among other heavy hitters — announced it would be removing the term “urban” from any of its verbiage. Good move. How you could call The Weeknd “urban” when both Grande and Post Malone borrow so heavily from so-called “urban” artists while being labeled pop was straight-up racist.

Republic Records knew better — and did better.

Let’s hope other major record labels will follow suit and break down the barriers that often keep black artists on the outside looking in, even as they’re ruling the pop charts. In fact, the Top 5 of this week’s Billboard Hot 100 features almost exclusively black acts: DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé, The Weeknd, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj and Quavo. The only exception? Justin Bieber, who admittedly owes his entire career to black artists whose sound and sensibility he has appropriated.

Clearly, there is still much work to be done to escape the “urban” antiquation. Even the Grammys, while renaming the Best Urban Contemporary Album category, are still, somewhat inexplicably, using the term in the category Best Latin Pop or Urban Album. Why things should be any different for the likes of J Balvin and Bad Bunny is beyond me.

But hopefully this is the beginning of a bigger movement to a place in the music world where there is no ghetto.