As wild as it maybe to contemplate, Kendrick Lamar — one of the biggest names in hip-hop — has never won the award for Best Hip-Hop at MTV’s Video Music Awards. In fact, exactly half of the wins he does have come from a collaboration that had many of his most hardcore fans questioning whether he’d sold out for just that sort mainstream of mainstream acclaim. In 2015, he shared two of his four wins with wholesome, All-American pop star Taylor Swift for her cinematic “Bad Blood” video: Video Of The Year and Best Collaboration. It also brought the long-simmering rivalry between the blonde pop star and her onetime frenemy Katy Perry to a head, and lent her some street cred besides (Kendrick claims he was unaware of this background).
His two other awards were technical awards, and again, half of those were split with lo-fi producer Flying Lotus for the surreal “Never Catch Me” video (Best Cinematography). The lone individual award he managed to pull down that year was for Best Direction for “Alright,” the bizarre, though inspirational visual from To Pimp A Butterfly that saw him levitating throughout the city of Los Angeles only to be brought plummeting back to Earth by a policeman’s bullet — a profound sight that somehow wasn’t enough to garner a Best Hip-Hop Video award. The winner was Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.”
Kendrick has been given an opportunity to reverse his VMA luck this year with his upcoming performance and nine nominations — which leads all nominees — including Video Of The Year and Best Hip-Hop Video, both for the masterful lead single “Humble” off his record-setting 2017 blockbuster album DAMN. With all due respect for the talented hip-hop field, the win for Best Hip-Hop Video is all but foregone, and the only real challenge in the Video Of The Year Category is DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” (because RIHANNA), but it seemed that way for Kenny before — 2014 Grammy Awards, anyone? In 2017, Kung-Fu Kenny has been given his best chance for redemption for past years when he just came up short. Here is a timeline of Kendrick’s nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards; depending on where you stand, it could also be considered all the times Kendrick Lamar was robbed.
2013: Best Male Video — “Swimming Pools (Drank)”
Back in 2013, for some reason, the VMAs still gendered the awards, placing Kendrick and “Swimming Pools (Drank)” in competition with Ed Sheeran (“Lego House”), Justin Timberlake (“Mirrors”), and Robin Thicke (“Blurred Lines”). Ultimately, it was Bruno Mars who walked away with the Moon Man for “Locked Out Of Heaven.” Incidentally, Kendrick is also up against Bruno again this year for Video Of The Year; this time Bruno’s ostentatious “24K Magic” has some pretty stiff competition from the elaborate “Humble.”
2013: Best Hip-Hop Video — “F*ckin’ Problems” with ASAP Rocky, Drake, and 2 Chainz / “Swimming Pools (Drank)”
Although 2013 was the year of Kendrick’s triumphant promotional run for Good Kid, MAAD City, the bulk of his visual output was overlooked in favor of the star-studded collaboration from Rocky’s Long Live ASAP debut, directed by Sam Lecca and Clark Jackson featuring a bevy of buxom bombshells. That track, Kendrick’s teetotaler’s anthem “Swimming Pools,” as well as J.Cole’s “Power Trip” and Drake’s “Started From The Bottom,” lost out to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us” — a foreshadowing of the next year’s upset at the Grammys.
2015: Best Male Video — “Alright”
Bruno Mars got the better of Kendrick again in 2015, winning this category with the ubiquitous “Uptown Funk.” While technically Mark Ronson’s song, Bruno’s swaggering vocals propelled it to the top of the charts, and the video, self-directed by Bruno and Cameron Duddy and featuring Bruno’s backup dancers/hype men/band The Hooligans was pure, unbridled, glossy fun. “Alright,” with its somber black-and-white visual, didn’t stand a chance. Nor did Nick Jonas’ “Chains,” Ed Sheeran’s sweet, low-key “Thinking Out Loud,” or The Weeknd’s racy, risqué “Earned It.”
2015: Best Hip-Hop Video — “Alright”
Look, Nicki Minaj’s assets are far more fun to look at than a dark rumination on police violence in America, but come on, now. The rest of this category was practically anemic; Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again,” while touching, was hardly a master achievement in audiovisual synergy. Fetty Wap’s catchy, effervescent “Trap Queen” was everywhere in 2015, sure, but again the video itself was nothing to write home about. Big Sean’s “IDFWU” was a coolly executed bit of storyline that only partially served its accompanying music. This should have been in the bag for Kendrick, but then again, sex sells — or at least wins Moon Men.
2015: Video Of The Year — “Alright”
So, technically, Kendrick did get a win in this category (more on that below), but some of the other competition was pretty stiff, with Beyonce (“7/11”), Bruno Mars (“Uptown Funk”), and Ed Sheeran (“Think’ Out Loud”) all nominated, but while four of the five nominees were pretty fun visuals, none of them felt quite as important as “Alright.”
2015: A bunch of awards with Taylor Swift for “Bad Blood”
“Bad Blood” was nominated for: Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Special Effects aside from Best Collaboration and Video Of The Year. If it didn’t win something, Katy Perry would have been caught red-handed stuffing envelopes in a ballot box backstage.
2016: Best Collaboration — “Freedom” with Beyonce
Again, you could hardly expect a firestarting protest song to trump a teen girl pop group at an MTV award show, even during the rise of — well, Donald Trump. Beyonce may be the reigning queen of pop, but today’s teens — much like those of many generations prior — aren’t exactly looking for royalty, just something catchy and fun to dance to. Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla Sign gave them that with “Work From Home,” more than Ariana Grande and Lil Wayne did with “Let Me Love You,” or Calvin Harris delivered with Rihanna for “This Is What You Came For.” I am a little disappointed Drake and Rihanna’s “Work” was considered inferior by MTV’s voters, but on the other hand, many of them couldn’t even understand its lyrics, so I couldn’t say I’m surprised. But once again, Kendrick lost out.
Hopefully, it’ll be the last time anyone ever has to write those words. The VMAs are this Sunday at 5 PM PST / 8 PM EST. Tune in then to see how many of his whopping nine nominations Kendrick takes home in 2017.
