Thoughts on Grammy’s 2019
As I reread my Grammy Nominations for 2019 article, the only thing I wanted to do was socking myself in the face and questioning my life choices. I could've made better decisions, but the thing about prediction articles or YouTube videos that do similar things is that we always get the opportunity to call ourselves out on it and return to our proverbial high horse as it was always intended to be!
Now to get serious, having really analyzed all of the categorized and thought it through, my newest prediction is much better and more generalized: the entire genre of Hip-Hop isn't going to get recognized in the way that they should this year. As per usual.
In a bloated 3 and a half hour show, there will be over thirty acts that will be performing a ungodly number of songs. Only four of them (Young Thug, Cardi B, Travis Scott and Post Malone) are or can be considered part of the genre that held 45% of the Billboard Hot 100 year end songs - not including latin Hip-Hop or songs that were heavily carried by a Hip-Hop track *cough* Maroon 5 *cough* - and half of the top 10. While one could argue that Billboard shouldn't have to do with the artistry of the Grammy's, the argument falls to shambles when one considers that streaming plays a large part in the rankings since Spotify became a credible source for intel since radio is slowly dying out. Oh, and for those that they saw articles claiming that Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Childish Gambino all refused to perform when they have the most nominations this year, that's true. Don't mean they'll win.
If that isn't enough for you, the Grammy's have an extensive history of shortchanging Hip-Hop artists (that will most likely be covered in a future article). Bring them to the award show but don't award them; that's the cycle every year. Examples? Nicki Minaj and J. Cole both lost to Bon Iver for the Best New Artist Award in 2012. Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" understandably beat "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars, but is it really a better record than Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" and Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind", arguable two of the most iconic songs in their respective catalogues? Sorry, but no. Oh, and KOD didn't get any Grammy nominations. At all. Even though it played all summer and fall. Nice.
Instead of continuing with harkening to the past, allow me to look forward to the future.
Drake should in theory win three of the general categories by numbers alone, from his extended stay on the Billboard to the amount of clout that has been given to his album. Doesn't matter if the album is all that great artistically because Bruno Mars won the award last year on the strength of five songs. "God's Plan" almost spent all of 2018 in the lips of every person who understood english and listens to hip-hop due to how universal the lyrics are. But is that going to happen? Probably not.
I honestly believe that Drake is going to get neglected again this year - if I'm wrong on this, I have history to back me up. This will prove to me that the Grammy's aren't targeting Hip-Hop in general. If the awards are given to another Hip-Hop artist, I will be happy as any victory in our medium should be taken greedily due to its scarcity, however, than it has to be that the Golden Gramophone Organisation doesn't want the Canadian rapper/crooner to get the award singularly, which is just as wrong me in my eyes.
In conclusion, this is going to be a fun and eventful edition of the Grammys. I walk in with optimism, expecting the worst and believing that realism should win the day.