DEAR GRAMMYS:
Your annual festival of mediocrity that you call an “awards ceremony” occurred this past Sunday night, and boy were they lackluster! I hate how you can still pass as an awards season staple despite hardly ever recognizing the most acclaimed music from the year. Essentially, nominations are dependent on how many streams an artists get on Apple Music or Spotify, or some website calculating you how many records you sell. And let’s be honest, most of the music that gets nominated is insipid. How lame is that? The Oscars recognize the best in film, same with the Emmys for TV. I feel like the majority of artists that make genuinely good music get snubbed each year, and smaller artists need a big following if they want any sort of recognition by the RIAA…so, through the power of my ten fingers and my intellectually-powered mind, I’m going to put my two cents in on this year’s good and bad.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS:
Kacey Musgraves wins for Album of the Year.
Honestly, good for her. It was either Musgraves or Janelle Monae as the least populist choices out of all the nominees. Both women actually makes genuinely good music, but I am more of a Kacey Musgraves fan than Janelle Monae. I thought for sure that Scorpion was a lock for AOTY, but I suppose neither the Billboard charts or Drake’s Spotify page had any effect on this result. So far, not a bad job.
Young LaFlame is in SICKO MODE after losing to Cardi B for Best Rap Album.
“Okurrrrrr”, guys, this is ridiculous. Going into the ceremony, everyone and my mother KNEW that Astroworld was going to win Best Rap Album. Hell, Daytona by Pusha T could have come out on top. Instead, we got an aggravatingly annoying rap (?) album that gave very little enjoyment to its listeners. SMH, guys. You know what’s even more unfortunate? Travis Scott walked out of the Grammys empty-handed from each category he was nominated for. Remember when everyone was raving about ASTROWORLD being “the album of the year”? Yeah, me neither…
“This is America” gets Record and Song of the Year dubs.
Smart move, voters; these picks did not “have me slippin’ up”... I was pretty sure ‘Bino would win these, no doubt. I was not able to enjoy this song very much, but I thought the music video was pretty well-shot (it won for Best Music Video)... “Summertime Magic” is the single I was more partial to. All in all, it was nice to see even more consistency from Donald Glover; he will add some much-deserved hardware into his already large collection
Somehow rising From the Fires, Greta van Fleet wins Best Rock Album…
This EP was released in 2017, and shouldn’t count for a win. However, it had pretty below-average competition for the award. I will say Greta Van Fleet had a couple of good singles rolling into 2018, but an atrocious album released this past October (1.6 on Pitchfork!) was a major pothole on the Michigan outfit’s road to success. In my opinion, they’re based too much on nostalgia for 70s hard-rock, and these musical ideas have already been watered down in the recording industry. Can someone in the organization explain how these guys managed to get 5 Grammy nominations?
Beck beats out Arctic Monkeys for Best Alternative Music Album
I found this somewhat surprising. Sure, Beck is a solid performer who usually puts out solid LPs, but Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was Arctic Monkeys’ first release in five years. I’ll be real, it was actually pretty decent. Sadly, the popular Brit garage rockers lost out to a more “qualified” candidate in Beck.
Two Best Rap Performance Winners?
Out of the two winners, Bubblin’ by Anderson Paak superior. I was happy to see Cheeky Andy get a win, as he was not able to win with Malibu two years ago. I’m also bummed that this track got left off the final cut of Oxnard. Anyways, let’s talk about the other winner, “King’s Dead”... I never was a big fan of the Black Panther soundtrack, and I hated how much airplay it got all throughout last year. Moreover, I found it weird why this was the only category to have two winners… admit it, Grammys, it was to probably give K-Dot another Grammy win for his collection.
Pharrell Williams beats out Yeezy for Producer of the Year
I’m sorry, what? Pharrell’s accomplishments in the Grammy year had no comparison to what Yeezy produced: 5 studio albums in 5 weeks? Sure, they were each under 25 minutes long, but c’mon, quality over quantity… not to mention he put Kid Cudi back on the map. Pharrell’s highlights include APESHIT by The Carters, Stir Fry by Migos, and N.E.R.D’s 2017 album No One Ever Really Dies. Though Pharrell has had a pretty good string of productions in the past, Kanye should have won this in a heartbeat.
So Grammys, will we see some diversity in music nominations next year? I sure as hell hope so.
From this letter, I strongly hope that you will affirm my rebuttals of your shameful organization.
Sincerely,
bazzreviews
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