Tuesday morning saw the release of the list of nominees who will be up for awards when the 59th annual Grammy event goes down in February 2017. Youth was represented by the likes of Chance The Rapper, Lil Yachty and D.R.A.M. while familiar names like Drake and Kanye found themselves nominated multiple times in the Rap category. With the announcement came the usual reactions of fans and critics playing armchair A&R with critique and predictions about who’ll win, who shouldn’t have been nominated and the like, so here’s a quick rundown of key topics we’ll hear over and over again between now and February.
Chance The Rapper and De La Soul take the road less traveled
Chance getting Grammy consideration leaves his major goal for 2016 completed. The fact that he’s up for seven awards total, including three of the four main categories for Rap as well as Best New Artist for all genres, is destiny fulfilled and an exceptional accomplishment for a free album and the first streaming-only album to receive a Grammy nomination.
The only thing coming close to it in comparison would be De La Soul’s And The Anonymous Nobody…, the project they funded via Kickstarter and went to No. 1 with, wound up making it in for Best Rap Album category as well. Since Tribe’s reunion album missed the cutoff for this year’s awards, seeing their Native Tongue compadre’s in the mix isn’t a bad consolation prize at all. After years of being nonexistent in the new digital landscape, it’s only fitting they utilized an online fundraising platform to raise the money needed to record and release a feature-filled album, eschewing sampling.
Either way, aspiring artists can take comfort in knowing they don’t have the backing of a traditional label in order to win big at awards time. It wouldn’t be bad if they have one of the most influential companies around helping them out, but it’s still not necessary.
Remy Ma could go from prisoner to Grammy award winner
No one would’ve believed it a year ago if someone said “Remy Ma will one day be nominated for a Grammy award.” But, the Terror Squad rapper has accomplished just that with her Fat Joe collab “All the Way Up.” Her recognition comes after she was released in August 2014 after serving a six year prison sentence on assault and illegal weapons charges. Fast forward to March 2016 for the song’s release and it becomes an overwhelming success out of the gate. The horn-drenched anthem spawned multiple remixes, inspired a lot of people to stand on club couches and was a big radio hit. It all makes for one hell of a redemption song for Remy. It’s also proves Nicki Minaj isn’t the only female MC making noise in the game.
Is there any possible way we can we write-in Solange?
When it comes to the urban music scene, the Grammys typically reserve their biggest oversights for Rap. That changes this year as the biggest whiff comes on the R&B side of things with Solange and her phenomenal A Seat at the Table album only receiving a single nomination with “Cranes in the Sky” pulling a mention for Best R&B Performance. To be frank, that’s a damn shame because, even as a staunch Mya supporter, I can admit A Seat… is a stronger album than Smoove Jones and just about every other LP nominated for Best R&B album. Maybe the powers that be didn’t want to the Knowles women to completely dominate or maybe Bey’s baby sister and her unapologetic pro-black work of art was just too much to handle.
Whatever the case may be, we may need to start some sort of online petition to have “Cranes” considered for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration because a gang of MCs tried their hands at the beat, from Common and Styles P to Rick Ross and Nick Grant, who actually remixed a handful of songs off the album for a makeshift EP of his own. Sure, the chances of the project being added now are nonexistent, but there’s no way the snub could go by without comment.
Where’s Jeffery?
Again, rap fans are used to the Grammys overlooking certain acts and albums in their selection process and this year’s nominees are no different. The youth were not rewarded in the selection round-up as guys like Young Thug, Isaiah Rashad, Travi$ Scott, YG, and Rae Sremmurd did not make the cut, even though they had considerable success this year. Last year, Rick Ross said the Grammys were out of touch with what music was really dominating the streets and people’s playlists, which is about the best way we can explain why a lot of these guys weren’t mentioned. He also made note of how actually winning a Grammy can be a double-edged sword, one that moves smaller artists away from the clubs and smaller venues that helped give them their strong start in the first place. So maybe it’s not a bad thing that we’ll have La Flame, Thugger, et. al. to ourselves for a bit longer before they level up to bigger stages.
Does anybody stand a chance to knock off Views?
Drake’s album may be the most polarizing of all the Best Rap Album contenders. Views is currently four times platinum by the RIAA, was the most streamed album on Spotify, broke Billboard records with its chart run and has a host of other accolades attached to it. Yet, it comes with its fair share of criticism from rap fans, who knock the project because Drizzy spent a large chunk of the album singing and it really wasn’t all that groundbreaking from the hip-hop perspective. So will the people in charge of making the final decision be blinded by the numbers or will they see past the stats and award a critical darling like Chance, similar to how they selected Kendrick over Drake’s IYRTITL last year?
It should be noted that Views is the only one of those up for the general AOTY, category which probably means it’ll win the Rap category. Unlike MTV, the Grammy respect award hierarchy. Prepare for the social media outrage that’s bound to ensue when the 6 God trumps Chance, Kanye and the rest of his competitors.
Lil Yachty could end up being a Grammy awarding-winning rapper
Let that sink in. Because for all the hate and the generational divide he’s helped created, directly or indirectly, he’s up for golden gramophone thanks to “Broccoli,” his hit song with Big Baby D.R.A.M. The comeuppance isn’t a bad one for a 19 year old kid who went from “sitting in high school” to sudden stardom in music in a short amount of time. Of course, to actually win Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, they’ll have to overthrow Beyonce, Kendrick, “Hotline Bling” and Kanye. But, if they do manage to pull off the win, expect the debate around Lil Boat to take on more fervor than ever before.
