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When VH1 hosted their recent Hip Hop Honors: The 90’s Game Changers, SWV’s Leanne “Lelee” Lyons expressed her disappointment at her group being left out of the night’s festivities. After all, Mariah Carey was honored for her many rap collaborations. So it makes sense that, SWV who also collaborated with rappers and had the most Hip Hop swag and fashion sense of any female R&B group, would also be invited to attend. But they were not.

And Lelee let the world know she wasn’t happy about it. During the airing of the show, she hopped on Facebook to say,

Her group member Coko commented on the post when she took it to Instagram, “Say that sh*t, sis!”

T-Boz, of TLC, shared the sentiment and cosigned with a simple “I feel you.”

When people attempted to make her comments about shading the other honorees, Lelee explained further:

When I first read her comments, I did see the merit in them. If Mariah Carey was going to be honored, there are a couple of other R&B groups who deserved recognition as well; especially since Mariah didn’t look like she wanted to be there all that bad anyway.

But then a part of me wondered why she needed the recognition. Surely, SWV got their props back in the day. But…I was wrong.

While SWV has been nominated for 25 awards, including four American Music Awards, 13 Billboard Music Awards and two Grammys, they’ve never won a single award. Not. one.

I stumbled upon this little tidbit when someone tweeted this.

https://twitter.com/goldenerahits_/status/920435223275495424

And my cursory research confirmed the truth.

Really, it’s a pitiful shame considering all that SWV has contributed to the culture. It speaks not only to how exceptional talent can be overlooked and go unacknowledged by these musical institutions we hold in such high esteem; but also, to the fact that if Soul Train, an institution for and by Black people, hadn’t bestowed this honor on them, when would they have been recognized? I like to think that we don’t have any readers or followers who are of the Stacey Dash/Wendy Williams mindset. But for those who may be leaning in that direction, this is why we still have to have our own. So our greatness doesn’t go uncelebrated.

 

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