“Urban” and “urban contemporary” have been used for decades as catchall terms to categorize rhythmic music made by Black artists — primarily R&B and hip-hop — but connotations associated with these names have often segregated those artists from mass-market platforms such as Top 40 radio.
In June 2020, in response to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in the U.S. and around the world, Republic Records announced that it would “remove ‘urban’ from the label’s verbiage in describing departments, employee titles and music genres,” saying that “over time the meaning and connotations of ‘urban’ have shifted and developed into a generalization of Black people in many sectors of the music industry, including employees and music by Black artists.” In the same month the Recording Academy — the parent organization of the Grammy Awards — announced that it would rename the “Best Urban Contemporary Album” category “Best Progressive R&B Album” and rename “Best Rap/Sung Performance” category to “Best Melodic Rap Album.”
