Grammy Nominations

        The nominations for the 56^th Grammy Awards were released last week. I must say the competition is stiff this year with each category featuring favorites of the masses. Rapper Jay-Z lead all nominations with nine including Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album. Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Justin Timberlake, and Pharrell Williams all had seven nominations. 

 

Courtesy of Pitchfork.com 

         Personally, I’m curious to see how many awards Kendrick Lamar will win. To me, no other rapper has had a bigger year than Kendrick. I exclude Macklemore from that because his success for an independent artist is amazing and beyond words. I would exclude Jay-Z as well because he is definitely one of the top 10 rappers of the last decade (or even top 10 rappers ever). Lamar is nominated for Album of the Year (good kid, m.A.A.d. city), Best New Artist, Best R&B Performance (“How Many Drinks?” – Miguel featuring Kendrick Lamar), Best Rap Performance (“Swimming Pools (Drank)”), Best Rap Song (“Problems” – A$AP Rocky featuring Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar), Best Rap/Sung Performance (“Now Or Never” featuring Mary J. Blige), and Best Rap Album (good kid, m.A.A.d. city). My prediction would be that Lamar wins at two to four of his categories. If he doesn’t get Album of the Year, I will be shocked if he doesn’t get Best Rap Album.

         In a previous article I wrote, I talked about how 2013 was the year for artists making a comeback. The top names nominated this year would be Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. Timberlake returned from a music hiatus and released a two-part masterpiece with The 20/20 Experience. Timberlake was nominated for Best Solo Performance (“Mirrors”), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“Suit & Tie” with Jay-Z), Best Pop Vocal Album (The 20/20 Experience: The Complete Edition) and a few others. Jay-Z dominated the nominations with nine including Best Rap Song (“Holy Grail” featuring Justin Timberlake), Best Rap Album (Magna Carta…Holy Grail), and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“Holy Grail” featuring Justin Timberlake & “Part II (On The Run)” featuring Beyonce). 

 

Courtesy of Los Angeles Times 

         Singer/Producer Pharrell Williams had an incredible 2013 and the seven Grammy nominations he received proves that. Williams received two nominations within the same category for Record of the Year (Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”). Williams competition in that category include Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive”, Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” and Lorde’s chart-topping song “Royals.” 

 

Courtesy of Billboard 

        Kanye West, who I wrote about in most recent article, received two Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album (Yeezus) and Best Rap Song (“New Slaves”). This does not come as a surprise to me because Yeezus was way different from his previous albums, but West has some strong competition in Best Rap Album category including Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist, Jay-Z’s Magna Carta…Holy Grail and Drake’s Nothing Was the Same. 

Twitter: @OddKingz