A week ago, a full seven days before Grammy nominations were set to hit, our Man of the Year Tyler, the Creator called his shot. He tweeted, “willtakethatgoldbitchhome.” The “goldbitch” that he was referring to wasn’t specified, but with Grammy nominations on the horizon, you didn’t need to be a detective to understand that he wasn’t talking about one of the president’s properties. Tyler’s newest album, 2019’s Igor, was his most mature and creatively adventurous album of his prodigious young career. It was met with critical raves (Vulture’s Craig Jenkins called it “pretty, confident, and considered”) and, more surprisingly, commercial success (to DJ Khaled’s chagrin, it debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200). In a world in which the Grammys were an awards show remotely interested in representing musical excellence, Igor would’ve been a no-brainer Album of the Year nomination, and a real contender.
But that, of course, is not the world we live in. A rap album has never won Album of the Year. And the Grammys have once again turned premier hip-hop artists invested in the awards into Charlie Brown trying to kick a football held by Lucy. Like all awards ceremonies, the Grammys—the nominations and the awards themselves—are intended to recognize artistic achievements. But this year’s list of nominations, which was released this morning, reads more like a list of slights—particularly where hip-hop is concerned.
The affronts begin with Tyler—who, despite softening his approach on Igor, received a whopping one nomination (for Best Rap Album)—and extend through the awards’ biggest categories. The closest the Grammys got to nominating a hip-hop track for Song of the Year was Lizzo’s empowerment anthem “Truth Hurts” (which includes some rapping, but is truly a soul-funk track). For Record of the Year, Grammys voters acknowledged big, hip-hop-inflected pop tracks like Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” and Lil Nas X’s kitschy world conqueror “Old Town Road,” but completely ignored the genre’s viral vanguard (DaBaby’s “Suge,” Megan Thee Stallion’s “Cash Shit,” Blueface’s “Daddy”) and its most dynamic veterans (Tyler’s “Earfquake,” A$AP Rocky’s “Babushka Boi,” Pusha-T’s “Sociopath”).
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Lil Nas received a nomination for “Old Town Road”; if nothing else, the oft-remixed single was the biggest song of 2019. But the only way to explain his feeble EP, 7, being nominated for Album of the Year is that voters were demonstrating their understanding of trolling (for goodness sake, “Ayy, Panini, don't you be a meanie” should be a disqualifying lyric). 7 beat out ambitious, poignant rap albums like Danny Brown’s uknowhatimsayin¿, Kevin Abstract’s Arizona Baby, and GoldLink’s Diaspora—not to mention superb R&B albums from Solange (When I Get Home) and Blood Orange (Angel’s Pulse).
But if hip-hop was poised to have its moment in any category, it was Best New Artist. This year’s crop of freshmen was vast, lively, and stylistically diverse. It featured animated social-media creations like Blueface, DaBaby, and Rico Nasty, proficient craftspeople like YBN Cordae, Gunna, and Roddy Ricch, and hybrids like Megan Thee Stallion. None received a nomination. Ultimately, maybe it was for the best; better not to get another generation of stars’ hopes up about fool’s gold.
Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, and Lizzo deservedly dominate the major categories this year.
Between a platinum album, sold out shows, and dealing with "f--cking goob-goobers," GQ's provocateur of the year has been busy.
