During the 2025 VMAs, fans celebrated seeing Kendrick Lamar’s name in the running for 10 different awards. The rapper was in the running for some of the most coveted categories of the show, including Artist of the Year, Best Album, and the prestigious Video of the Year.
But fast-forward to 2026, the artist’s name appears only once in this year’s list of VMA nominees, tucked under the Best Collaboration category. The dramatic drop hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans who jumped online to call out the VMAS for overlooking monumental Black artists shaping playlists and culture in the music industry as a whole.
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Digging deeper into this year’s list of nominees, it feels that Black talent is being shut out from the opportunity to claim some of the biggest and buzziest awards of the night, with the VMAs continuing a pattern of Black talent being stuck in “urban” categories that artists like Tyler, the Creator have called out for ages.
Take a look at the roster of artists competing for this year’s Video of the Year award. Pop acts like Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift and Madonna dominate. They are also nominated for the prized Artist of the Year award, while the only R&B artist in these categories is Bruno Mars, something fans also noted in their reactions.
Weirdest @vmas nominations of all time
— BeYAYA (DONK) (@BeYAYA444) August 18, 2026
Where are the other R&B and hip-hop artists like Megan Thee Stallion? They’ve largely been confined to genre-specific categories despite having recent hits, like Megan’s “LOVER GIRL,” that would make them serious contenders in the night’s top awards.
There are some outliers, including Teyana Taylor and Lucky Daye being nominated for the genre-neutral Best Collaboration category for their R&B track “Hard Part,” but these aren’t the categories that typically make headlines.
the vmas racist asf idgaf cos these nominations hunni….
— BREE (@kreamdonuts_) August 18, 2026
The decision to shut these artists out is more head-scratching since the GRAMMY Awards proved what we already knew back when it aired in February—that music crosses genre lines. Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s track “Luther” resonated with millions of listeners and won Record of the Year. R&B also got the chance to shine, with Leon Thomas’ breakout album MUTT being nominated for Album of the Year.
This isn’t to say there aren’t any Black artists on the nominees list this year: Olivia Dean and Raye are both being recognized in the Song of the Year category. The problem is that when most artists are stuck competing in the Best Hip-Hop and Best R&B categories, it pits them against each other and limits their chances to shine outside those constraints. It also feels like the industry is sending the message that genres created and dominated by Black artists are not worthy of being seen as “mainstream.”
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards honored Busta Rhymes with the inaugural Rock the Bells Visionary Award in recognition of his boundary-breaking cultural impact, iconic music videos, and legendary career, proof in itself that Black artists have always shaped music culture and are just as worthy of consideration for leading categories as any other nominee.
The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) will air live on Sunday, September 27, from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles.