I've been meaning to jot down my thoughts on the release of the Grammy nominees for some time now, but even with my massive amount of time off, I haven't got around to it. . .until now.We're right in the thick of the holiday season and another one is rapidly approaching, the awards season. Most of the major awards for achievement are given once the Christmas holiday departs; some even have started already. TIME Magazine, for instance, released its "Top Ten Albums of the Year" list just yesterday. Surprisingly, hip hop had a strong presence in the rankings with Kanye claiming the top spot (Drake's Thank Me Later finished #5 and Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot placed 9th).
I could rant about how TIME has no business including Drake while excluding The Roots or Nas & Damian Marley, but just like Rolling Stone and many other popular magazines, their reviews are heavily based on how an album does commercially and if it is "popular" enough. Being named to this list is surely something artists will appreciate, but it isn't significant. Awards such as the Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys are what many actors really strive to earn. The Grammys are supposedly supposed to hold that same standard for musical artists.
Did the Grammys fix those mistakes that TIME had? The answer is a definitive NO.
I took a look at who the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences thought deserved a chance at hardware for their work in 2010. For each category, I listed the Grammy Nominees and then gave my list of the "Real Nominees", which were the ones I felt should've been nominated. Here they are:
*Note: I took only singles or songs that were part of an artist's album. Mixtapes were excluded since the Grammys don't consider them in their nominations. Also, albums/songs that were released from November till now also were not eligible for a 2011 Grammy, hence, they also will not be on my "Real" lists.
BEST SOLO RAP PERFORMANCE:
"Over" - Drake
"Not Afraid" - Eminem
"How Low" - Ludacris
"I'm Back" - T.I.
"Power" - Kanye West
THE "REAL" BEST SOLO RAP PERFORMANCE:
"Power" - Kanye West
"General Patton" - Big Boi
"Don't Let Me Fall" - B.o.B.
"I'm Beamin'" - Lupe Fiasco
"Going Through Changes" - Eminem
Congratulations Academy! You successfully picked just one of the top five solo performances this year!
Actually, this wasn't even the worst list of nominees the Academy put together for the Rap category (it gets much, much worse, trust me). I like to start with praise rather than criticism, so I will give the Academy some credit for at least getting "Power" right. Because "Power" was released in July, it was eligible for this award, even though My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won't be up for a "Best Rap Album" award until the 2012 Grammys. "Power" was Ye's best single since "Good Life" and it had the rarity of being both popular and maintaining strong substance. It was, at least in my opinion, one of the standout tracks on Dark Fantasy, so I was pleased to see it nominated.
The Academy also did get another artist correct with Eminem; it just didn't pick the right song. "Not Afraid" was incredibly successful and I have even warmed up to it much more than I did when Recovery first hit shelves. It's not a bad selection from Recovery for this award, it's just not the right one. I said that "Going Through Changes" was the best track from Em's latest offering back in June, and I still stick by that. It had more emotion than "Not Afraid", a stronger effort production wise, and also contained as good as, or better, lyrics than "Not Afraid". "Going Through Changes" may not have been released as a single, but it was still Em's best solo performance of his album.
I also didn't have that big of a problem with T.I.'s "I'm Back" being nominated. However, the other three nominees I listed that the Academy failed to do, were better. "General Patton" easily trumps "I'm Back", even with only two verses. "I'm Beamin'" is clearly much, much more creative lyrically than "I'm Back" and "Don't Let Me Fall" edged it out because of B.o.B.'s well done execution of two verses and a strong hook. Still, "I'm Back" isn't a terrible nominee for the award and I don't expect the Grammys to nominate every perfect candidate (even the Oscars screw up, i.e. The Blind Side's Best Picture nomination last year).
Now here's where the National Recording Academy really, really screwed up. "Over" and "How Low"? Are you kidding me? Create a separate category for "Best Club Song" and put these two in there if you want, but it's ridiculous to include them in this one. I'm fine if "I'm Back" get's nominated just so that the other two didn't even make the conversation for this award. A friend of mine (his name's The Truth if you're really curious) made even better tracks on his first mixtape than both "Over" and "How Low". You think we're going to be bumping "How low can you go" or "I could teach you how to speak my language, Rosetta Stone," ten, even five, years from now and not feel like a complete tool? I don't think so. The inclusion of these two destroyed any credibility this award had in my book, so I move on to the next category. . .
BEST RAP PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP:
"Shutterbug" - Big Boi ft. Cutty
"Fancy" - Drake ft. T.I. & Swizz Beatz
"On to the Next One" - Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz
"My Chick Bad" - Ludacris ft. Nicki Minaj
"Lose My Mind" - Young Jeezy & Plies
THE "REAL" BEST RAP PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP:
"Shutterbug" - Big Boi ft. Cutty
"The Fire" - The Roots ft. John Legend
"Just Begun" - Reflection Eternal ft. Jay Electronica, Mos Def, & J.Cole
"Lookin' 4 Ya (Remix)" - OutKast ft. Sleepy Brown
"Strong Will Continue" - Nas & Damian Marley
I'm lucky I was able to realize my bank account isn't in the best shape, otherwise, I would've thrown my laptop at the nearest wall when I read the Grammy nominations. Again, I'll start with the good, then move to the bad. The Academy, thank goodness, did put the crack pipe down long enough to at least nominate "Shutterbug". It was clearly one of the top five, and probably the top single, of 2010. It had the most creative beat I heard all summer and was accompanied with a seamless set of verses from Big Boi and an outstanding, and very catchy, hook from Cutty. I pray that it will win this award to give the Academy any sense of sanity after taking a gander at the other nominees.
Unlike the previous award I looked at, the Academy wasn't even close to getting it right for the rest of its candidates. I could write another whole post on how bad these nominees are, but I'll be concise here.
"On to the Next One" was simply nominated because of the artist's name behind it. Being that it was one of the worst tracks on Blueprint 3, and Jay-Z still got nominated, I'd love to hear the voter's justification on giving it a nomination. "Lose My Mind" was a good song to listen to for all of, I don't know, three weeks? Jeezy isn't great as it is and then the Academy nominates one of his weaker songs for this? "My Chick Bad" was another one you can add to your recycling bin. The Academy thinks lyrics such as "My chick bad, badder than yours, my chick do stuff that I can't even put in words" is intelligent, yet doesn't nominate a song like "Strong Will Continue" which has a very moving message of working through struggles behind it.
And then there's "Fancy". When I saw Drake perform this at the VMA's last September, I was shocked he picked one of his worst songs he's ever done to do in front of millions. Seems like the Academy decided to take a bathroom break when that one came on, because I can't think of any other reason why this garbage got a nomination. It contains one of the worst hooks I've heard in recent memory and the verses are average at best. What's worse is that songs like "The Fire", "Just Begun", and "Lookin' 4 Ya (Remix)" were considered to be lesser in quality than "Fancy". The Grammys hand out gold plated records as their hardware, but if "Fancy" were to win, they might as well just Mr. Hankie on the record instead. . .
BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION
"Nothin' On You" - B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars
"Love the Way You Lie" - Eminem ft. Rihanna
"Deuces" - Chris Brown ft. Tyga & Kevin McCall
"Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys
"Wake Up! Everybody" - The Roots & John Legend
Okay, I'll give the Academy credit here, they did make one slam dunk and this was it. I can't really argue with any of those nominations, as they all contained pretty strong vocals from those who did the actual singing. I'd hope to see "Empire State of Mind" win just because it was the best I've ever heard of Alicia Keys (she's already built off its success with "Empire State of Mind pt. 2") but I don't have a problem if any of the other four get the nod. When it comes to rapping & singing as one, the Academy does seem to know what its doing.
BEST RAP SONG:
"Love the Way You Lie" - Eminem ft. Rihanna
"Not Afraid" - Eminem
"Nothin' On You" - B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars
"On to the Next One" - Jay-Z ft. Swizz Beatz
"Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys
THE "REAL" BEST RAP SONG:
"Power" - Kanye West
"Shutterbug" - Big Boi ft. Cutty
"Strong Will Continue" - Nas & Damian Marley
"General Patton" - Big Boi
"I'm Beamin" - Lupe Fiasco
It's very apparent at this point that the Grammys are reserved for the most popular artists, not the best. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing Eminem or Jay-Z for making millions off of their incredibly popular singles and for mainstream, they were pretty damn good. But the Academy voters need to clarify whether a Grammy is for how much your single sells or actually how good the song overall is.
Four of the five Grammy nominations for this award were a #1 single at one point on the Billboard Hot 100 and each one of these four went platinum. This, for one, proves that even if the Academy nominates only the singles that sold the most, it makes no sense for it to nominate "On to the Next One" for this award. It also reinforces my point that this award's nominations were given to artists based on popularity in culture. The Award states "Best Rap Song". Read that again. It doesn't say "Best Rap Performance" or "Best Song by an Emcee", it uses the word "Song". By just going by the simple definition of the award, "Love the Way You Lie" and "Nothin' On You" shouldn't have even been on the ballot to vote for being a nominee of this award.
What's also puzzling is that the Academy nominated "Power" for "Best Solo Rap Performance", yet, didn't nominate it for "Best Rap Song". By putting "Power" into two categories, it makes perfect sense and the Academy is consistent in its nominations. But not including the one song that is, in my opinion, an absolute sure-fire nominee and legitimate contender for the award, is unsettling. I'm not suggesting that "Power" is far and beyond better than the candidates that should've been nominated, but it was certainly a better rap song than any of the Grammy nominees. I also was stunned to see "Shutterbug" not get a nomination, considering that it was the only nominee the Academy got right in the "Best Performance by a Duo or Group". The pattern of no nominations for Nas & Damian Marley was another thing to be upset about, as there were at least 4-5 other songs on their album that could've had a serious argument made for their nomination for this award. The lack of recognition for artists who are actually conscious (Nas, 'Ye) or stick to hip hop's roots (Big Boi, Lupe) was clear when these nominations were announced.
BEST RAP ALBUM:
Recovery - Eminem
Thank Me Later - Drake
The Blueprint 3 - Jay-Z
How I Got Over - The Roots
The Adventures of Bobby Ray - B.o.B.
THE "REAL" BEST RAP ALBUM:
Distant Relatives - Nas & Damian Marley
Sir Lucious Left Foot: Son of Chico Dusty - Big Boi
How I Got Over - The Roots
Recovery - Eminem
The Blueprint 3 - Jay-Z
Ugh. It's unfortunate Dark Fantasy wasn't eligible already, because this past year was not a great one for rap when it comes to albums. Don't get me wrong, the first three on my "REAL" list are phenomenal and will leave a lasting impression for years to come. It's rare you hear three albums of that caliber in one year. However, most of the time, there seems to be one or two albums that are on the level of Sir Lucious, Distant Relatives, and How I Got Over, and then at least 3-5 more albums that are just a notch below that. This year was obviously not the case. Sorry Hova and Slim, but Recovery and BP3 shouldn't even be considered in the same conversation as the albums I just listed a sentence previous.
This is what I would refer to as a "cop-out" for the Academy, at least on this list. They matched two albums on the "REAL" list just because I couldn't think of any more albums that were better. Reflection Eternal's Revolutions Per Minute had more intelligent material, but it just couldn't stack up as well on the replay factor. Same goes for Devin the Dude's Suite 420. Great lyrics, okay production, but it didn't have much to offer in the "Is it still playing in your car 6 months from its release?" category. Jay and Em, I will admit, had some tremendous songs that I can still play today and love it as much as the first listen. I even have "Empire State of Mind", "Thank You", "Cold Wind Blows", and "Going Through Changes" in my iTunes "Top 25 Most Played" as of today ("Passing Me By" by Pharcyde is my #1, just in case you were wondering).
I also praised the Academy for including How I Got Over here. The best album, in my opinion, that The Roots have put together in over ten years (since Things Fall Apart really), it was met with overwhelming critical acclaim, myself included. My only gripe with How I Got Over, which ?uestlove even tweeted the day after the nominations were announced, was that the album didn't receive a nomination for album of the year. How Teenage Dream or The Fame Monster get one, but an actual album with messages, outstanding production, and real music isn't included just blows my mind about how bad of shape the music industry is today. We favor sales over substance, something that will, and already has, destroy music.
I couldn't blame the Academy voters for putting Recovery and BP3 on the list of nominees. However, I was, and still am, fuming about the exclusion of Distant Relatives and Sir Lucious. The voters think Thank Me Later was better than both Big Boi's and Nas's latest? This is about as ridiculous and sad as the "I'm gonna let you finish," by 'Ye just over a year ago. Give me a break. An album about how many girls an artist has had sex with and bragging about his newly found riches contains more substance than one that is uplifting, and brings hope to those in Africa and around the world?
It'd be one thing if Nas and Marley had one verse about helping Africa on one song, and then donated the profits (which they did to build schools in Africa), claiming that they had done an album rich with content. But they didn't. Not only did they make every track about their homeland and its problems, but their verses were written so intelligently as well. If the album was just judged solely on how good Nas's delivery was, it's still better than Thank Me Later. It's also an insult that Big Boi was looked over for this award. Just because Big Boi sold less than Drake or B.o.B., doesn't mean his album wasn't as good or better. Remember too that this was Big Boi's first solo album, as well as Drake's. They were both debut albums and Sir Lucious, I can guarantee you, will still be listened to for years to come, while Thank Me Later has probably already been put on the back burner of the majority of iTunes out there. The Adventures of Bobby Ray could be argued over Recovery or BP3 if you really, really want to push for B.o.B., but that's about it. I would've still been upset if B.o.B. was nominated and Big Boi or Nas was excluded. The wound wouldn't have hurt quite as bad though, if at least one of the two got a nomination over Drake.
The Grammy's have failed, yet again, to make their award one worth trying to earn for rappers today. The incredible nominations of Drake's "Fancy", "Over", and Thank Me Later, as well as the absolute horrific idea of giving Ludacris any hardware for his year, cements this fact. The Academy also proved to be inconsistent in it's nomination for "Power" for one category and not the other. The biggest sin, however, had to be the Academy's failure to give not even one nomination to Nas & Damian Marley.
I'm sure that a good number of the adult population will watch the Grammy's in February. They'll see mult-million dollar artists walk away with more hardware that they will be able to add to their already massive trophy cases. They'll see performances by some of these popular artists and maybe even a wisecrack or pun here and there. But what they'll also see is the supposed awards for "best music" be given to the ones who don't deserve them, and they won't even get a chance to hear the names of the ones who do.
The Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys all seem to mean something to those who receive it. When Bryan Cranston won his first ever "Best Actor for a Drama Series" in 2008 after being nominated three times previous, he was quoted as saying: "I guess [the Emmy voters] finally removed that restraining order on me,". Steven Spielberg said about his Oscar for "Best Director" in 2006, that it was, "The greatest award I've ever received." And even when Viola Davis won her second "Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Play" this year, she could barely finish her speech because of how emotional receiving the award made her. But when lead singer Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam won the award for "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1996, all he could say was, "I don't know what this means. I don't think it really means anything."
Well said Mr. Vedder, well said.
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