Black Creatives: Stripped of Authorial Intent

Having a sense of authorship and control over one's work is an integral part of being a creative in any field, whether it be the music industry, visual art, or the film industry. As an artist, you have the right to claim the genre of your work, the title of your work, and how much of yourself you want to reflect in your work. Unfortunately, many Black creatives are robbed of agency over their work, and the genre of their work is often tweaked and altered to fit society's expectations. Tyler, the Creator is a Californian rapper, musician, songwriter, producer, actor, and visual artist —yes, many titles, but they are all well-deserved. He released his album, IGOR, and asserted that it was not a rap album, nor was it to be taken like his previous projects upon its release. His release statement reads, "IGOR. THIS IS NOT BASTARD. THIS IS NOT GOBLIN. THIS IS NOT WOLF. THIS IS NOT CHERRY BOMB. THIS IS NOT FLOWER BOY. THIS IS IGOR. PRONOUNCED EEE-GORE. DON'T GO INTO THIS EXPECTING A RAP ALBUM" (@tylerthecreator). Despite Tyler's obvious intent to distinguish this album from the genre of rap, the Grammys categorized IGOR as a rap album. Similarly, Jordan Peele, an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer, released Get Out as a horror film, yet there is constant genre confusion with people referring to the film as a comedy. The work of creatives like Tyler and Peele is more than just content to be consumed by their audience; their work makes a statement that Black creatives can exceed the boundaries of art in comedy, hip-hop, and rap. To take their work and change the authorial intent to appeal to a white audience and restrict Black creatives to stereotypically Black categories is an insult to their work. The authorial intent of artists like Tyler and Peele is often altered to avoid showing the work of Black creatives in a different light than the genres typically overrepresented by Black artists, i.e. comedy in film and hip-hop/rap in music. Members of the music, film, and other creative industries have historically stripped Black creatives of their authorial agency, restricting the potential to expand Black talents in different genres. 

Why Does Genre Matter?

The major change made to both Tyler and Peele's work is a change in authorial intent. Genre was used to change the intent of their work. Genre is important because humans often feel "the urge to classify" things, and "classification is necessary to language and learning" (Miller 151). When a creative puts out their work under a genre, they assert how their work should be classified. Since the formation of genre, there have been cycles of repetition and variations that classify genres. Film and songs are under the same genre if they "tell familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations" (Neale 7). In this way, genre has become very influential on the audience's perception. When a film or song comes out under a particular genre, people already have preconceived notions before watching or listening based on previous works under that same genre. They expect the film or song to have the same theme, represent similar plots, and evoke similar feelings. However, this categorization is restricting because when a creative releases a film or song under a specific genre, and it differs from previous work, viewers readily remove the movie or song from that genre and place it in one they are more familiar with.

Genre is also restrictive as it shares many parallels with race. Both genre and race were created to distinguish differences and categorize on the basis of traits. According to "Genre as Social Action" by Carolyn R. Miller, a scholar from North Carolina State University, "genre refers to a conventional category of discourse based in large-scale typification of rhetorical action; as action, it acquires meaning from situation and from the social context in which that situation arose" (163). By this definition, genre is a reflection of actions and the meaning evoked from such actions. It also has to do with the social context of the actions. Many Black creatives select the genre for their work with a purpose of making a social statement. When Tyler and Peele have their work re-classified, the film and music industries are confining their work under the genres that supposedly best fit their ideas of Blackness—ideas which are, in fact, restrictive and racist. With both music and film, some styles and symbols compose the ideologies of Blackness (Santos 161). For Black music artists, specifically men, the cornerstones of their music are assumed to be "hypermasculinity, misogyny, and homophobia" as an "embodiment or performance of supposed black manhood" (Oware 22-23). Therefore, Blackness becomes a genre in itself, clouded by these negative connotations of Black manhood. In the film industry, there is often a "stereotypical and retrogressive interpretation of blacks" (Mack 743). Black men are given roles as antagonists and aggressors, while Black women are shown with bad attitudes, sexualized, and objectified. According to historians, this depiction of Blackness in films is "emblematic of white America's general discomfort with the more 'authentic' images of black life that had played on screens in the previous decade" (Mack 746). Black artists and film directors have to battle with these restrictive ideals that come with the socially constructed genre of Blackness. Blackness as a genre refers to those categories that seem to be exclusively reserved for Black creatives. Rather than being categorized for the authorial intent or the response from their audience, their work is categorized by stereotypes associated with previously released music and movies under the genre of Blackness. On the other hand, other categories are so rooted in whiteness that they exclude Black creatives and make it seem unattainable for Black creatives and their work to be imagined under that category.

Jordan Peele’s Switch Up

 Jordan Peele entered the film industry as a comedy producer and transitioned his work to the genre of horror and thrillers. Before his horror films Get Out, US, and the upcoming Candyman, he was the director, writer, and co-star of Comedy Central's Key & Peele. Comedy is a genre we frequently see Black actors, film directors, and writers working in. Some of the familiar actors and directors that may come to mind are Eddie Murphy, Tyler Perry, Kevin Hart, and Tiffany Haddish. Peele was taken into the comedy industry with open arms because Black people are often viewed as natural jokers. The history of Black people being seen as innate jokesters dates back to slavery. Slaves would use "humor as a survival tool" to take their minds away from the brutal treatment they received (Brewer 86). In the nineteenth-century, minstrel shows came about where people would enact racial stereotypes in a theatrical show. There were even venues known as "the Chitlin' Circuit" where "African American talent could perform during the days of segregation" (Brewer 86). Now, Black people are involved in stand-up comedy and comedy films. Truth be told, Black people have learned to push through trials and tribulations using laughter, so being funny is not difficult for them. However, the film industry uses our comedic ability to keep Black creatives dominant in the comedy genre and the minority in genres such as horror. Horror does not have an extensive history or roster of Black representation. When we do see Black representation in horror, it is usually in a negative light. The black characters die first in the plot, Black women face misogynoir and objectification, and Black characters with predominant roles are often positioned as the antagonists. The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the earliest films of the horror genre with Black actors. This film depicts "Black people as the dangerous black menace, and heralding the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes who will protect the American way of life, especially as it has to do with white womanhood" (León). There is a history of horror movies villainizing and relegating Black people while gratifying and protecting whiteness. When Jordan Peele transitioned from producing and acting in comedy to directing horror, he shook up the table and challenged the negative tropes given to Black people in horror movies.

Peele released Get Out in 2017, and while his authorial intent behind this film was to create a horror film about the Black experience, the film industry prioritized protecting their white consumers over respecting Peele's authorial intent and choice to make a statement through his art. They labeled his film a comedy rather than a horror. The film, however, has clear signifiers of horror. One of the first signifiers is the setting of the movie. The movie takes place in the suburbs. The suburbia is a space of danger for the protagonist, Chris, a Black man because it "is a zone of and for whiteness" by definition of popular culture (Poll 73). Due to the pressures of race and racism in the United States, being in predominantly white spaces usually results in uncomfortable interactions, racist encounters, or even death for Black people. While white lives flourish in the suburbs, the same space is:

“a space of horror for Black and Brown bodies who enter without conforming to a particular racialized and classed script. If people of color are to enter this White zone, they must enter as domestic helpers, maintenance workers, lawn-care workers— working-class subjects who perform services and deliver goods that allow this zone to thrive. Moreover, people of color should enter during ‘working hours.’” (Poll 74) 

If the Black body is in the suburbs for another reason, it is usually targeted and removed for not belonging. Another signifier of horror was an encounter with the police. In the film, Chris and Rose (Chris's white girlfriend) were stopped by the police while driving. Although it was just a movie, that scene triggered an intense feeling of worry because police brutality is a burning issue plaguing the Black community. Police officers shoot and kill Black people at a disproportionate rate. According to the Washington Post, "the rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans" ("Fatal Force: Police Shootings Database"). The very presence of police is a threat to Black lives. Peele uses suburbia, policing, and other signifiers to exhibit danger in his horror film. This danger is particular to the Black community and creates a horror that light is rarely shed on.

Peele was providing the industry with a horror that had not been seen in the mainstream. Unfortunately, as Ed Guerrero explains, "in spite of some narrative innovation, dissenting artistic exploration, and political countercurrents, the industry has been formula bound and conservative in its vision in order to deliver commodified visual entertainments to the broadest possible consumer market" (2). Get Out was created, putting Black people on the forefront and as the stars in a genre typically led by a white cast and maybe one Black character that dies at least midway through the movie. Theaters were sold out with people coming to see the film, Black people everywhere were talking about this film and the ways they relate to the film, but Black people were not the consumer that the industry was most concerned with; the industry was more interested in the way white consumers experienced the film. Because Get Out was focused on the Black experience, making references exclusive to the Black community and focusing on the dangers Black people face daily, the film created a problem for the industry. For once, white viewers felt what Black viewers felt all the time; they were made the outsiders. So to protect the white consumer market, something had to be done. That is where the alteration of the film genre came in.

Creating a horror film with a Black character as the lead and with experiences exclusive to the Black community were not the only things that affected the white consumer market. In many horror films, the villain is a monster like Freddy Krueger, a ghost, an inanimate object that becomes possessed like Chucky, or even a Black person like Candy Man. All of these characters, nonetheless, are made-up and supernatural. Horror filmmakers and directors tend to create monsters that will instill fear in their audience when there is real horror in life that can be used in these movies. They avoid using the real horrors, such as the treatment of Blackness in America, however, to depict our society as a utopia. This discussion of Blackness in America is not only uncomfortable but it "is a constant source of discomfort" (Taylor 66). Not wanting to deal with that discomfort, "white people are incapable of recognizing that horror can be enfolded into their everyday lives, that horror can be constitutive of the everyday" (Poll 69). Instead, their horror only lasts as long as the movie does, and once it is over, that is it, and everything is back to normal. On the other hand, Black people "are keenly aware that the world is pervaded with horror and are constantly vigilant for signifiers of such" (Poll 69). Many times, Black people watch horror movies and are not phased because they can read the signifier of dangers before danger occurs in the film; they have lived through experiences more traumatic than those in the movie, and they understand that the made-up monsters, creatures, and spirits they view on the screen will not affect them in real life. Before Get Out, the horror genre was nothing "but a structuring paradigm" for African Americans because it was always the same story of a white female protagonist that struggles to defeat some sort of supernatural or killer being (Poll 70). These make-belief horrors mean nothing to Black viewers because they are battling bigger atrocities such as police brutality, white supremacy, generational trauma, racism, classism, and other issues formulated by whiteness. The Black audience does not have the luxury of enduring a playful scare from a supernatural or killer being.

Peele understands the differences between horror for a white audience and horror for a Black audience, so he shakes things up by making the villains in Get Out a white family and a community of white people. The white family lures Black victims using their daughter, then uses the Black bodies as vessels for white people to remain immortal. With a plot like this under the horror genre, viewers will start to evaluate the trueness of the film and even internalize this fear of white people. Hollywood was not ready for that. "Hollywood for the most part, has tended to focus narrowly its increasingly shallow product on escapism, sentiment, glamour, romance, and more recently, spectacular orgies of violence and sexploitation, all in service of feeding the dull cravings and fantasies of the dominant social order" (Guerrero 2). With Get Out, Peele was able to challenge the fantasies of the dominant social order and reveal society's true ugliness. He touched on racism and elitism, two very current problems faced in the 21st century. 

Peele also turns the table by reversing racial profiling. In the film industry and real-life, Black men are often villainized based merely on their looks. The Black man is used as a signal of danger and evil. In Get Out, however, the protagonist, as well as the savior at the end of the movie, are both Black men. The antagonists are all white. It is an anomaly to see a horror film where the white woman character, who society has trained us to view as inherently "innocent", is cast as the villain. Peele reveals that looks are not related to the evil that rests inside a person. He also challenges the typical associations between race, gender, and one's ability to evoke fear. He felt no need to cover up the truth of the Black experience. However, to maintain the purity and innocence of whiteness for the white audience, the film industry categorized the film as a comedy. 

Comedy for Black people has been historically used as a tool to "revolt against the oppressive and hegemonic nature of western society" and as "a coping mechanism for African Americans," so using it does not take away from the horror or social critique in Get Out for many Black viewers (Martin). However, for the white viewers, who are not as pressured to cope with racism through laughter, humor can retract the horrors of racism and whiteness in Get Out. 

What’s the Joke?

Even with Jordan Peele intending for his film to be in horror, humor is a part of his horror. The two opposing tones of fear and laughter "are a refusal to retreat behind a utopian narrative but also represent a willingness to spin out the consequences of historical and contemporary racism… to their logical: the possibility of further repression and conflict" (Gomez 952). The humor reveals that being able to laugh sometimes does not mean there are not still things going wrong in life or that daily horror is not being faced in the Black community. As Afropessimists have asserted, whiteness posits and perpetuates "the ideological narrative of social progress, to believe that we are post-racialized slavery" that is not the truth (Poll 71). Laughter does not denounce the horrors of our racist society. The humor in "Get Out is not comedic, as Jordan Peele has pointed out in an interview in which he noted that there aren't any jokes in Get Out, but that the humor functions as a form of tension relief" (Harrison). The scenes of laughter follow the intense scenes of horror so that the scare is not overwhelming for his audience. Many scenes hit home for Black viewers and could cause them emotional trauma because when they finish watching the movie, the horrors still exist in real life. Get Out sheds light on the Black experience and the horrors that Black people face daily. The breaks of laughter throughout the movie balance the pain caused by the horrific yet realistic scenes. There is an intense need to use laughter to cope both within the film and within real life. Additionally, the scenes of humor gave Black viewers a chance to bond in the movie theater and while watching the movie at home because of familiar phenomena that elicited laughter for Black viewers due to the shared insider knowledge that could be compared to the experience of sharing inside jokes. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Get Out provided Black viewers with a horror movie they could relate to and connect with, even in moments of shared humor. Thus, Get Out "was a comedy", but it was also "a documentary. It was a social thriller; it was elevated horror. It was beyond genre" (Collins). All the emotions felt when watching this film were under a larger umbrella of the Black experience in a white-dominated society—the bigger horror. While the horror in most horror movies is usually a creature, ghost, or evil spirit, the horror in Get Out was racism and whiteness. Peele's authorial intent was dispelled by film industries such as the Golden Globes, who categorized the film solely as a comedy to mask the horrors of racism. According to scholar Robin R. Means Coleman, "Hollywood was notably prolific in presenting comedy-horror offerings," once Black horror became more popular. "The humor that Blacks affected, a 'hybrid minstrelsy,' was White-oriented, with Blacks employed to validate and veil the racism" (Coleman 27). Covering up the monstrosity known as racism has been a tactic employed in film by whites to restrict Black film directors, producers, and actors from exposing the evils of whiteness.

Tyler’s Battle with Genre

Similar to Peele entering the film industry in the genre of comedy, Tyler entered the music industry in the genre of rap. For years the music industry has focused on representing Black men as hard, tough gangsters. When asked to picture a typical Black musician, the stereotypical images of a man dressed in a "wife-beater," sagging pants, promoting drugs, sex, violence, and money may come to mind. This image has been formulated and ingrained in our minds by the music industry to keep Black artists under one realm of music. This is restrictive because there are different types of Black people, who have different talents, and express themselves differently through music. There is not just one type of Black artist; there are a plethora of different Black artists. Additionally, keeping Black artists under one specific realm of music limits the number of Black artists that can become mainstream or thrive because the pool is limited to one category rather than open to all categories of music. Entering the music industry, Tyler started out as a rap artist, and while he did not fit the stereotypes of rap when it came to his appearance and the way he dressed, he did produce songs full of homophobia and misogyny. He used the words "fag," "faggot," and other derogatory anti-gay terms a total of 253 times on his album Goblin (Rivas 2). For instance, in his song "Yonkers," he says, "I'll crash that fucking airplane that that faggot nigga B.o.B is in." Tyler uses homophobia to assert a sense of domination and power in the music industry through heterosexuality because, in the dominant culture, a man's sexuality represents his masculinity. Unfortunately, "homophobia in hip-hop has been a pervasive trend," and "homophobic lyrics are most often found in the subgenre of 'gangsta rap' (Binder 6). Tyler was playing into the narrative; to gain easy recognition and establish himself in the music industry, Tyler used explicitly homophobic and misogynistic lyrics. Black men are already subordinate to white men in society, and it is no different in the music industry. While the number of Black male artists is continually increasing in the music industry, many of these artists still have "to report to a white executive about" their music because white men are the heads of record label companies, they are managers, and they work in institutions like the Grammys and MTV Awards, so Black artists are still in the position of subordinate (Randolph 203). "Subordinate men do not have access to institutional power, such as influence over work," which is why Tyler had to play into the stereotype of a typical Black rapper to establish himself in the music industry (Randolph 203). 

As years passed and Tyler became a well-known artist, he began moving his music to the genre of pop. Pop is different from rap because of rap's stylistic traits, which include "a danceable rhythm or beat, simple melodies and a repeating structure… Pop song lyrics are often emotional, relating to love or dancing" (Mission). For his most recent album IGOR, Tyler made a Twitter post asserting "DONT GO INTO THIS EXPECTING A RAP ALBUM" and tells his listeners not to compare this album to any of his past albums. Unlike Tyler's previous albums, IGOR did not include any explicitly homophobic, misogynistic, sexist, or violent lyrics. Tyler expanded beyond the genre of rap, singing about heartbreak in his song "EARFQUAKE," chasing love in "RUNNING OUT OF TIME," and having his lover to himself in "NEW MAGIC WAND." IGOR was focused on love, queerness, and passion. Disregarding Tyler's authorial intent, the Grammys put IGOR up for nomination in the best rap album category rather than best pop album. Classifying a song under the pop genre means it reached a broad audience because it is another way to say popular music, and it also refers to the style of the music. According to Forbes, IGOR had over 122 million streams, becoming the number one album on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, so it has the interactions to be deemed a pop album (McIntyre 2). IGOR also has the style to fit under the pop genre because the instruments incorporated "form an important role in emulating a band-like ensemble," "multitrack recording" was a crucial part "in documenting and developing a melody" using N.E.R.D. and Skateboard P as inspirations, and the recorded vocals used reverb (O'Grady 516). Differently, music in the rap genre "is composed of programmed rhythm and syncopated chant-i.e., drum and voice-beats and rhymes. There is a de-emphasis, often to the point of exclusion, of harmony and melody" while harmony and melody are emphasized in the pop genre to make the songs catchy (Salaam 306). Tyler's songs on his album fit all the requirements of being a Pop song. Therefore there is no reasonable excuse for removing his work from the Pop genre and into the Rap genre. Tyler is singing on most of these songs; the tempo of his songs was more upbeat with a standard boom bam feel, and while rap songs in many cases do not use a hook, pop songs do, and we see that in the songs on IGOR. It was disrespectful to Tyler's authorial intent and his hard work put into the album for the Grammys to categorize IGOR as a rap album.

There need to be some changes made to the Grammys nomination process. The nomination process for the Grammys currently starts with the rules being reviewed and updated, then entries are submitted across 84 categories, and the screening committee organizes entries into appropriate fields. The question from there becomes how were the appropriate fields chosen by the screening committee. Was the albums' description read thoroughly? Because if it were, the committee members would see Tyler clearly write that his album was not a rap album before putting it into the Best Rap Album field. Is the genre chosen by the artist taken into consideration when selecting the appropriate field, or is full discretion at the hands of the screening committee? The answer to this question would allow us to tell if Tyler's authorial intent matters in an award show like the Grammys or the post of view that matters is solely that of the committee members. One must also question the racial diversity of the screening committee. According to the Grammys Diversity and Inclusion FAQS, the committee members are 61% white, 58% male, and 93% 40 years old and over ("Diversity & Inclusion at the Recording Academy"). Diversity is essential, especially in a category like pop, because it should be an album favored by people of different races, genders, ages, and identities. However, with the majority of the committee being white, there is more room for racial bias against the artists and with only 7% of the committee being 39 years old and under, the categorization may not be reflective of what is hip for the younger listeners now. After the screening committee categorizes the entries into the right field, the nomination process continues. For Best Pop Vocal Album, the members vote on the first-round ballot to determine the final five nominees, whereas, for Best Rap Album, members vote on the first-round ballot, then the craft committees determine the final five nominees ("GRAMMY Awards Voting Process").

Analyzing the history of the winners for Best Pop Vocal Album, there is also a clear dominance of white artists being nominated and selected as winners. After 63 years of the Grammys, a Black artist has only won Best Pop Vocal Album five times, that being: Sade (2001), Justin Timberlake (2003), Ray Charles (2004), The Black Eyed Peas (2009), and Bruno Mars (2013) ("Winners & Nominees"). In 2019, Beyoncé was the only Black artist nominated for the Best Pop Vocal Album with her album The Lion King: The Gift, and the winner of the award was a white artist named Billie Eilish. The category of pop has historically been and currently remains predominantly white. By the screening committee placing Tyler in the Best Rap Album category because Black artists always dominated it, the white artists were able to secure the Best Pop Vocal Album for yet another year. If Tyler was to win Best Pop Vocal Album, he could have brought new recognition to Black artists in the Pop Genre and the Grammys as there's been no Black winner since 2013.

Tyler did not just accept the award for Best Rap Album and remain quiet, however. In his TV/Radio Room interview, after receiving a 2020 Grammy for best rap album with IGOR, Tyler says, "On one side I'm very grateful that what I make can be acknowledged in a world like this but also it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that's genre bending they always put it in a rap or urban category… Half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment" (Recording Academy / GRAMMYs, 0:18-1:01). Tyler's use of the phrase "genre bending" was significant because it emphasizes the confinement Black expression is caged in. He chose to expand his music to a genre that Black men are not often represented in, and his authorial intent was disregarded and that disregard was covered up by the fact that he still won an award. It is frustrating when Black artists are put in these predicaments because while Tyler was not getting the award he wanted and deserved, he still was given a lot of recognition and the award was very high in standing, so in a way, he had to accept it. Black artists are often put in situations where they have to weigh out the pros and cons; in this case, the pro was recognition, and the con was the wrong kind of recognition. Thankfully, Tyler does not simply accept the award and sweep the refusal to acknowledge his album as a Pop album under the rug. He addresses the issue publicly to reveal the way Black creatives face microaggressions in the industry. 

The stark difference in race when it comes to Grammy nominations can also be seen when it comes to white artists entering predominantly Black genres versus Black artists entering predominantly white genres. By contrast, when white artists such as Eminem, Mac Miller, Machine Gun Kelly, G-Eazy, Macklemore, Iggy Azalea, and others pursue a career in rap, they are often embraced by the industry. People applaud them and respect them in the genre because it is seen as cool and rare to be a white person who can rap. Many of these white artists, such as Iggy Azalea, have even been called out as cultural appropriators of Blackness in their music career yet still receive praise in genres dominated by Black artists (Aishitemasu 00:03:30 - 00:03:40). In 2014, for instance, Iggy Azalea was nominated for Best Rap Album and as a new artist at that ("Iggy Azalea"). Yet Black artists are not encouraged in pop, country, rock and roll, and techno in the same way white artists are in rap. Often we see Black people called out for "trying to be white" or told that they are doing "some white people s—t" when they explore genres outside of Rap, R&B, and Hip-Hop. In "So, About Last Night's Grammy Awards…," Avant boycotter of the Grammys, Sensei Aishitemasu explains that reviewers and critics from music industries like the Grammys make it clear that "Black art is not viable, is not commercial, doesn't sell, and at the end of the day is not important" (00:04:23 - 00:04:40). Genre fluidity is more acceptable for white artists than it is for Black artists, and that's something that needs to change. Genre should not be racialized. It should simply highlight different art forms regardless of the identity of the artist.

Speak Up

On the bright side of both the film and music industry, there have been a lot more Black creatives coming to the forefront to represent Black culture and demand a change in the mis- and underrepresentation of the Black experience. In the 1970s, there was an attempt to increase the representation of Blackness in predominantly white genres and provide Black people more agency over their authorial intent by introducing Blaxploitation. Blaxploitation "unites the words "black" and "exploitation." It was coined by the Hollywood trade magazine Variety to describe" films that were remakes of old films using a Black cast or new films that focused on the Black experience. "As the term implies something negative" with the word exploitation, "it is not surprising that middle-class blacks and groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized protests to criticize these movies for their representations of African Americans. They pointed to the consistent one-sidedness of the films' African American characters: clowns and criminals who were violent and immoral" (Henry 28). While Blaxploitation started as something positive, it soon became a method to affirm the stereotypes and negative perceptions attributed to Black people because "Hollywood developed more subtle and masked forms of devaluing African Americans on screen" (Guerrero 70). Since that period, and especially now with the blatant inattention to authorial intent, there is more work to be done to call out the masked forms of devaluing Black creatives and their work. 

Tyler has already begun this work by speaking out and expressing that his Grammy award felt like a backhanded compliment. Likewise, Jordan Peele fearlessly addresses the lack of proper Black representation in the genre of horror in an interview with BlackTree TV. In this interview, the host asks him: "How important do you think it is for art and film to reflect what is going on in society?" He responds: 

It’s always going to in some way… This movie is very much about the issue of race and it’s possible to deal with social issues without going on at them head on. I really felt like this particular mixture of topic and genre was a missing piece of the conversation… I feel like the way we talk about race is broken right now… It’s very difficult for Americans to have a positive and constructive conversation and so you know what I hope this movie does is start a conversation that starts from a point of hey we were all entertained watching this movie now let’s talk about why, what resonated, what didn’t. (BlackTree TV, 2:50 - 3:53) 

Peele's horror film was produced to address real issues of race. The inclusion of comedic scenes did not switch the focus away from the issues; instead, it helped to discuss race issues in the movie. The dilemmas faced in the film are real issues Black people face in a racist society. Peele also says, "I really felt like this particular mixture of topic and genre was a missing piece of the conversation," subtly pointing out that there has been a lack of representation of Black horror in the horror/thriller genre. Peele needs to continue bringing up the topic of genre in his interviews and asserting the genre of his work.

In addition, there are Black artists, such as Drake, who when giving a speech at the 61st Grammy called out the Recording Academy, saying, "we play in an opinion based sport not a factual based sport so it's not the end of the year where at the end of the day you're holding a trophy because you made the decisions or won the games" in 2019 (Swift 00:02:23 - 00:02:34). Not to mention many artists, including Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Childish Gambino, have turned down performing at the Grammy's due to lack of respect for the work and authorial intent of Black artists. There are also YouTubers and influencers like Sensei Aishitemasu who have made countless videos calling out the Grammys for stealing awards away from Black artists, restricting Black artists' creativity, and ignoring their authorial intent. For example, in "So, About Those 2015 Grammy Nominations…," Aishitemasu speaks about how sub-genres have been used to prevent Black artists from crossing over into mainstream success with sub-genres. Instead of putting a Black artist under the overarching category of R&B, they are moved to a category like "Urban R&B" to denote Blackness while white artists remain in the R&B category to white-wash the category (Aishitemasu 00:01:20 - 00:02:21). This confinement by sub-genre directly reflects Tyler's album IGOR being nominated for Best Rap Album but not Best Album of the year. Addressing the restriction of Black creatives by major industries sheds light on the mistreatment of Black creatives and pressures the company to make changes to better support and represent Black creatives so that they do not risk losing their Black audience and supporters.

What Can Be Changed?

Moving forward, artists should have the ability to approve or deny the category their work is nominated for. Artists reserve the right to claim how their work goes out in the public image, and even though the audience does not need to listen to them, the way their work is put out in public should not be interfered with by industries changing the genre their work. A creative is born simultaneously with their work; they are "in no way supplied with a being which precedes or transcends" their writing; however, the alteration of genres by institutions that are influential in the music and film industry can blur the creative's authorial intent and change the viewers' and listeners' original point of view (Barthes 4). If artists and film directors are given the ability to deny or accept the category they are put in when it comes to nominating processes, the audience's response will be solely based on how they interpreted the author's work without a second party manipulating the audience's thoughts. Black creatives will not have to feel robbed or disrespected the way Tyler, Peele, and many others have felt.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Tyler and Peele are only two out of many Black creatives who have fallen victim to having their authorial intent altered as a tactic to limit the exposure of Black talent in different genres and under various lights. The music industry and film are both industries established in spaces of whiteness. Black creatives have been fighting for years to merely be represented and given a chance in these industries. When they finally began receiving acknowledgment in these fields, it was usually under a negative light, very minimal, and confined to one stereotypical image of Blackness. While there is an increased representation now, Black people remain the minority in the film and music industry. According to Data USA, in 2017, there were 100,892 white musicians, singers, and music-related workers compared to only 17,791 Black musicians, singers, and music-related workers (“Musicians, Singers, & Related Workers | Data USA”). In the film industry, "people of color [also] remained underrepresented on every industry employment front," making up only 19.8% of film leads, 12.6% of film directors, and 7.8% of film writers (Ramón et al. 3). As minorities, it is a constant struggle to assert authorial authority because Black creatives often produce work that challenges stereotypical ideas of Black people and the Black experience and create work that is more relatable to the Black audience than the white audience. In response, these predominantly white industries manipulate black creatives' authorial intent to push them back into a small box of opportunities and prioritize their white consumers.

Even with the pushbacks from major institutions, including the Grammys, Black creatives are still working hard to break boundaries and explore different genres. They are emphasizing their authorial intent in interviews as well as on social media, speaking out about racism and disrespect from industries, and creating more genre-bending work. After Jordan Peele's Get Out caused much controversy on what constitutes a film as a horror and what horror looks like for a Black audience, Peele did not become frustrated with the lack of acknowledgment for his authorial intent. Instead, he returned with another horror film, US, led by a Black cast in 2019. Unlike Get Out, US was respected by many industries and viewers as a clear horror film. Peele is currently working on releasing a present-day adaptation of the well-known horror film Candyman in 2021. His persistence to expand Black creativity into a genre that has left out the Black experience was not hindered by the confinements of the film industry's categorization. As Black creatives continue to release work, represent Blackness in horror, and spark conversations about expanding Blackness in genres besides comedy, Black creatives will gain more authorial authority.

Tyler breaks the boundaries of genre in the music industry, refusing to be boxed in the urban and rap category. His way of challenging the industry, however, looks different from Peele's. While Tyler has not released another pop album since IGOR, he continues to be genre-bending through features and social media use. He featured on the song "Automatic Driver" with famous pop duo La Roux. Working with other artists already established in the pop genre helps Tyler assert the Black possibility in genres besides rap. Since the Grammys, Tyler has also posted on Twitter saying, "YALL GON STOP COUNTING ME OUT!," asserting that he can tear down barriers that keep his creativity confined (@tylerthecreator). To add on, he posted, "tell these black kids they can be who they are" too, reminding his followers that the Black possibility is limitless regardless of the subject at hand (@tylerthecreator). In interviews, Tyler emphasizes the influence of genres, outside of rap, on his songs as well. For instance, his song "November" was influenced by "Night and Day" (1982), a pop song by Everything But the Girl. He also shows admiration for 80s British pop, "taking notes from mainstream bands like The Smiths and The Style Council, and lesser known groups like Freeez and Linx" (Genius 00:03:11 - 00:03:22). Tyler uses his platform and connections with other artists to continue battling the industry's confinement of his art and assert his authorial intent.

Asserting Black authorship, representation, and possibility is a difficult battle that has not been won yet. The battle is being well fought with creatives like Peele alongside other Black film directors and producers as they continue to produce horror films about the Black experience rather than dismiss the Black experience as strictly comedy. With the productions of more Black horrors, the Black audience also has the potential to become the mainstream audience rather than the majority remaining as white viewers. Similarly, with artists like Tyler, the Creator continuing to produce music outside of the rap genre and using their platform to voice their authorial intent, over time, Black artists will be able to explore genres without as much resistance as they face now. However, all of these are ways for Black creatives and the Black audience to combat creative confinement. A large part of the change also rests on these music and film industries. There needs to be more Black people and younger members who embrace genre-fluidity from Black creatives in music and film working on the committees in these major industries to help eliminate the bias and embedded racism stifling Black creatives.

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