Tank was not a happy camper Sunday night while watching the 2015 American Music Awards on ABC.
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He hopped on Twitter and blasted the AMAs—Kanye style—for not nominating Tyrese in the Favorite Male Artist—Soul/R&B category.
https://twitter.com/TheRealTank/status/668603205635465216
He questioned the premise of the entire category, asking, "What's soul R&B?" since the Weeknd walked away with the award. The other two people nominated in the category were Chris Brown and Trey Songz.
Tank wasn't taking shots at the Weeknd and made clear that he was a fan of the Toronto native's music. But Tank argued that maybe there should be two separate categories honoring R&B music, since the genre has grown to encompass all sorts of sounds that aren't traditional R&B.
https://twitter.com/TheRealTank/status/668610629549301761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfwhttps://twitter.com/TheRealTank/status/668623234007506945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It's an argument that's been percolating in R&B circles for years: whether this new-wave pop sound, in which artists are technically singing but not saaahhnging (à la Sam Cooke or R. Kelly), is truly R&B.
For more of black Twitter, check out The Chatterati on The Root and follow The Chatterati on Twitter.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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