The Grammy nominations are out and the Hellmouth is open yet again! Only, this year it's not so cut and dry as, "Phew they got everything right" or "OMFG this is horrible." It's a bemusing mix of smart choices, surprising selections, and shocking snubs. Some here at Complex couldn't care less about say, my girl Taylor Swift finding a seat at her usual Album of the Year table. "Blank Space" was one of the best songs of this decade, nothing on reputation comes close—end of story! Also, point me to the person who predicted voters would be so big on H.E.R. because I could use a good stock advisor, ya heard? But good for H.E.R.!
The Grammy nominations are out and the Hellmouth is open yet again! Only, this year it's not so cut and dry as, "Phew they got everything right" or "OMFG this is horrible." It's a bemusing mix of smart choices, surprising selections, and shocking snubs. Some here at Complex couldn't care less about say, my girl Taylor Swift finding a seat at her usual Album of the Year table. "Blank Space" was one of the best songs of this decade, nothing on reputation comes close—end of story! Also, point me to the person who predicted voters would be so big on H.E.R. because I could use a good stock advisor, ya heard? But good for H.E.R.!
There are some developments, though, that warrant a deep dive—both because of the ripple effects they could cause (does Neil Portnow know he just broiled the steak on two of the year's most contentious rap beefs?) and because of the insight that certain nominee choices provide into the Grammy selection committees (course-correcting or usual buffoonery or plain ol' bad taste). Here are some of the biggest takeaways.
Best Rap Album Category Goes Infrared
Remember Will Smith won the first [rap] Grammy? And they didn't recognize Hov until Annie? Pusha may be at the mercy of a game where the codes are missing, but Daytona is undeniable. Meanwhile, the maximalist glut of Scorpion was apparently very easy to ignore rap-wise, Side A be damned! Losing an Album of the Year slot to Drake, but commanding a Rap Album category where Scorpion is absent is exactly how Push would have it, to be honest. That turn of events just further supports his "rapper ≠ popstar" argument. Are Grammy voters on Team Adidon? Drake can shower himself in stats and accolades all he wants, we all know he cares about this rap shit, and a rap snub in the wake of a song like "Infrared" has gotta sting. I'm waiting with bated breath to see how either of them address it in the coming months—hopefully on wax, over a podcast, or on HBO. —Frazier Tharpe
Post Malone and Drake Didn't Make "Rap" Albums?
Drake’s Scorpion and Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys were each nominated for the Best Album of the Year. Interestingly, they were not nominated in the category that many associate them with: Best Rap Album. So, according to the Grammys, did Drake and Post Malone not make rap albums in 2018?
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Post Malone's album had been pushed into the pop genre because "best rap album nominees must contain 51 percent or more of rap music" and the Grammy rap committee felt that "beerbongs leaned more toward the pop genre with its the production, sound and melodies.” According to these nominations, it looks like the Grammy committee might have a similar opinion about Scorpion. Recording Academy Sr. Vice President of Awards, Bill Freimuth, clarified to Complex that the Best Album of the Year and Best Rap Album nominations were chosen by separate committees, so Drake may not have been disqualified from the rap category altogether. At the least, though, the rap committee wasn’t feeling Scorpion nearly as much as the multi-genre committee was.—Eric Skelton
'Sweetener' Shutout
My lord, Ariana Grande getting shut out of the major categories might be the most heinous snub. Granted, Ariana's biggest moment of the year came well after the submission deadline. "thank u, next" is a great, career redefining song that came almost immediately after she dropped a thoroughly great album. She's even toying with the idea of DMX'ing us with a second album before the year's out. This woman is thoroughly in her bag (more now than ever), and yet no love in any of the big categories? Thank you, next, Neil Portnow. —Frazier Tharpe
The Grammys Heard "Apeshit" Loud and Clear
Jigga: "Tell the Grammys fuck that 0 for 8 shit."
The Grammys: "Aight bet."
Listen, no one is arguing that Everything Is Love is on LEMONADE or 4:44 levels, but it's at least a B+ and from two people who made Album of the Year contenders in the last two years. You're telling me "Friends" isn't Rap/Sung performance worthy? No "Apeshit" for Best anything besides just video? I hope Jay and B don't even show up. —Frazier Tharpe
J. Cole? Bueller?
If placing it at No. 3 on our Best Albums of 2018 list wasn't clear enough, let me reiterate: we were very high on KOD on this side. The Grammys, on the other hand, apparently side with pre-sitdown Lil Pump. Absolutely nothing for KOD? Not even for the attention-grabbing "1985" or crossover-appeal "Kevin's Heart"? Jermaine, we need an "Album of the Year Freestyle" follow-up with that "Apeshit" energy! —Frazier Tharpe
Cardi: 5, Nicki: 0
Now that the nominations are out, the only other thing we need an announcement for is the next episode of Queen Radio. We might be in for the best display of Scorched Earth Nicki since ASTROWORLD beat Queen and she called Travis Scott the "Auto-Tune Man." After a year of professing to have a genuine capital-A artistry that Cardi B could never emulate (and certainly not without the help of a gaggle of ghostwriters), we now have Nicki's Queen—which was certainly eligible—eliciting nary a nom. Cardi has five, including Album of the Year. Now, did Queen deserve to be shutout completely? Clearly, Grammy voters weren't among the 32 million blessed souls who watched the "Good Form" music video! Grammys get this shit—especially this rap shit—as wrong as they get it correctly, but clout is clout. And this is a Clout L for the Queen. It's possible she takes the high road, but whether she does that or goes low and burns everything on Queen Radio, hopefully it charges her up to go even harder musically in 2019. —Frazier Tharpe
Travis Scott Gets the Perfect Cap to a Great Year
Give it up one time for the rager. Travis La Flame gets to put a bow on the best year of his career with a long-overdue nomination for Best Rap Album. Our boy was deadass hurt when Birds got the shaft; ASTROWORLD is the product of so much care and precision you can practically hear him, Mike Dean, and Sickamore daring the Grammys to try and snub this one in the background of every song. No shade at the rap albums that did make Album of the Year, but are they good as ASTRO? That's less of a can't say, more of a won't say (no, they are not). —Frazier Tharpe
No Love for Rappers in the Best New Artist Category
2018 has been a crazy year for rap. (Look back at the sheer amount of projects released, and tell me I’m wrong). Most indicative of that is the crop of new artists who broke through this year. Juice WRLD and Lil Baby, to name a couple, have spent significant time this year in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Their ability to infiltrate the most obvious barometer of mainstream acceptance seemed like a real-enough reason for the Grammys to give them a shot. But they didn’t.
The nominees for the 2019 Grammys are Chloe X Halle, Luke Combs, Greta Van Fleet, H.E.R., Dua Lipa, Margo Price, Bebe Rexha, and Jorja Smith—representatives of R&B, pop, rock, and country. So how, one year after it was revealed that hip-hop is the most popular genre in the U.S., did they not find the space to include a single rapper? Juice and Baby aside, there’s also J.I.D and Saba, for the more cerebral, and a slew of street rappers the Grammy committee would probably never touch with a 10-foot pole, anyway. When you think about it, this exclusion is just more proof that the Grammys will never quite be in touch with the culture. —Kiana Fitzgerald
Women Dominated the Major Categories
The Recording Academy couldn’t have hoped for a better headline for this year’s nominations than the one they got in the New York Times. “2019 Grammy Nominations: Kendrick Lamar Leads, and Women Dominate Major Categories,” it read (it was later changed to “Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Women Lead the Way.”) And it was correct: the four big “General Field” categories—Record, Album, and Song of the Year, as well as Best New Artist—all have women in control, culminating in three-quarters of the Best New Artist nominees being women. The Academy folks must have read their headline as a gift from above.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, it hasn’t been a good year for the Academy and women. The Grammys were heavily criticized last year for having only one female winner in a televised category and not giving Lorde, the only woman to be nominated for Album of the Year, a chance to perform by herself. Plus, a report noted that women made up all of 9.3 percent of Grammy nominees between 2012 and 2017.
And backstage at last year’s awards, Academy president Neil Portnow said that women who want to be in the music industry simply need to “step up.” Between that and several other controversies, it’s not surprising that Portnow is now the outgoing president. So for the organization he leads to be making headlines for its inclusion of women in major numbers is just the kind of victory everyone needs. —Shawn Setaro