Jay is the second person to earn the recognition after Dre took home the inaugural award last year.
Hov also took the moment as an opportunity to call out the Recording Academy for Beyoncé never winning Album of the Year despite having the most Grammy wins of any artist with 32 awards.
"I don't want to embarrass this young lady but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year," Jay-Z, who was jined on stage by daughter Blue Ivy, said of his wife. "So even by your own metrics that doesn't work. Think about that. Most Grammys, never won Album of the Year, that doesn't work."
“Some of you gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in the category,” he added.
Jay's speech was the latest in a long line of Black artists calling out the Recording Academy for the way it recgonizes Black music. "We want y’all to get it right. We love y’all, we love y’all,” he continued. “We want y’all to get it right. At least, get it close to right. And obviously, it’s subjective… because it’s music and it’s opinion-based."
