Do It For The Gram(my): OmMas Keith Pens Essay On The Importance Of Music’s Highest Award

When OmMas Keith won his first Grammy Award in 2014 for his role as a producer on Frank Ocean‘s seminal LP Channel Orange, he was mighty damn pleased about it. And rightly so–Keith played a crucial part in what has already become a landmark album in all of modern music, let alone the R&B genre. His fingerprints are all over Ocean’s work, and his shining gold statue is a reward for many, many years of hard work.

That Grammy Award has opened up doors for Keith that might have otherwise remained forever closed, and in a new essay published on Medium, he’s shared some reflective wisdom on what a Grammy can mean for modern players. “Once you have it, the qualifier ‘GRAMMY Award winning’ or ‘GRAMMY-Award nominee’ will follow you for life,” he wrote. “A whole new world of people start taking your calls, your commercial visibility increases, people start trusting your artistic vision like never before.” As the essay continues, Keith recalls the “surreal” moment when his actual statue arrived in the mail.

“It signifies more than the prestige of having a gold statue on your mantle. It’s the recognition and respect of the music community,” he wrote.

The entire essay is packed with wisdom and, perhaps even more importantly, clear artistic joy and gratitude from a man who has worked so very hard, and continues to do so. Read it in full here.