Music executive Steve Stoute took out a full-page advert in the NYT’s Styles section on Sunday to display his open letter to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, slamming the Grammys for having become “a series of hypocrisies and contradictions.”

Stoute has been connected to the hip-hop industry for some years, so it’s not entirely surprising that the majority of his complaints focus on the apparent snubbing of Eminem and Kanye West – but he does also criticize the fact that Bieber was passed over for Best New Artist, given his popularity;

“Over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture.”

This is hardly a new complaint – one generally responded to with the claim that the Grammys are less popularity contests than a measure of quality, which NARAS claims the capacity to judge.

“My being a music fan has left me with an even greater and deeper sense of dismay — so much so that I feel compelled to write this letter. Where I think that the Grammys fail stems from two key sources: (1) over-zealousness to produce a popular show that is at odds with its own system of voting and (2) fundamental disrespect of cultural shifts as being viable and artistic.”

The letter is reproduced in its entirety over here – as of yet, NARAS has yet to offer response.