The Grammy Conspiracy
Year after year the Grammys continue to pick the same winners. Specifically, Adele — this year's big winner again.
The Recording Academy has become out of touch with the most culturally relevant artists. The Recording Academy, which selects Grammy winners, are mirroring the tactics of the Oscars. The Best Picture usually goes to a film in the Drama category and in terms of the Grammy's, Best Album always goes to Adele.
So lets take a look at who won this year and why...
Compare my picks, which are underlined, with the Grammy winners, which are in bold:
Album Of The Year:
25 — Adele
Lemonade — Beyoncé
Purpose — Justin Bieber
Views — Drake
A Sailor's Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson
This year I had Beyonce winning over Adele in this category. For the second year in a row, Beyonce produced a visual video music album to go along with her recording album. Beyonce's album Lemonade produced four hit single's including "Lemonade", "Hold Up", "Sorry", and "Formation." Last year, she was snubbed by the rock band "Beck" which no one had heard of until they won. Adele's album 25 is a solid body of work but nowhere near as successful from a singles standpoint as her sophomore album 21. 21 rightfully won the Album of the Year Grammy in 2012 due to her stellar songs such as "Someone like you", "Turning Tables", "Rumor Has it", "Rolling in the Deep", and "Set Fire to the Rain". The only hit single from Adele's 25 album was "Hello".
Record of the Year:
"Hello" — Adele
"Formation" — Beyoncé
"7 Years" — Lukas Graham
"Work" — Rihanna Featuring Drake
"Stressed Out" — Twenty One Pilots
Many get confused about the difference between Record of the Year and Song of the year. Song of the year is usually given to songs that are stronger in quality and message. Record of the Year usually goes to the song which receives the most radio play, which is why it's a shocker that Adele won again in this category. In terms of the Academy's logic, the Record of the Year must be off the Album of the Year.
Song of the Year:
"Formation" — Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan, Beyoncé Knowles & Michael L. Williams II, songwriters (Beyoncé)
"Hello" — Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Adele)
"I Took A Pill In Ibiza" — Mike Posner, songwriter (Mike Posner)
"Love Yourself" — Justin Bieber, Benjamin Levin & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Justin Bieber)
"7 Years" — Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Pilegaard & Morten Ristorp, songwriters (Lukas Graham)
This is the category that I believe Adele should've definitely won. The song Hello's slow ballad with Adele's powerful voice makes for an authentic musical experience that the other songs just don't compare to. Hello triumphs in quality.
Best New Artist:
Kelsea Ballerini
The Chainsmokers
Chance The Rapper
Maren Morris
Anderson .Paak
For me, the real competition in the Best New Artist category was between three stars. One is Chance the Rapper, the young musician who's positive messages have inspired several youths in the hip hop community. Also The Chainsmokers, who've been dominating the EDM scene with their exciting performances and break out radio hits such as "Closer" and "Roses". I'm happy to say that my guess of Anderson. Paak did not win and the academy was able to recognize the talents of the gospel inspired Chicago rapper whom in 2016 became won of the world's biggest break out artists. I had Anderson. Paak winning because the Recording Academy tends to be dubious in this category. Previous winners in this category include: Sam Smith, Adele, Maroon 5, and Cristina Aguilera.
Best Pop Vocal Album:
25 — Adele
Purpose — Justin Bieber
Dangerous Woman — Ariana Grande
Confident — Demi Lovato
This Is Acting — Sia
Adele is Adele. We saw this coming. Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato can't compete but we wanted you to win Justin!
Best Pop Solo Performance:
"Hello" — Adele
"Hold Up" — Beyonce
"Love Yourself" — Justin Bieber
"Piece By Piece (Idol Version)" — Kelly Clarkson
"Dangerous Woman" — Ariana Grande
If we're talking pop music, and Adele's in the category... you got no chance. The Recording Academy's star child.. Adele wins again.
Best R&B Song:
"Come and See Me" — J. Brathwaite, Aubrey Graham & Noah Shebib, songwriters (PartyNextDoor Featuring Drake)
"Exchange" — Michael Hernandez & Bryson Tiller, songwriters (Bryson Tiller)
"Kiss It Better" — Jeff Bhasker, Robyn Fenty, John-Nathan Glass & Natalia Noemi, songwriters (Rihanna)
"Lake By the Ocean" — Hod David & Musze, songwriters (Maxwell)
"Luv" — Magnus August Høiberg, Benjamin Levin & Daystar Peterson, songwriters (Tory Lanez)
I had Rihanna winning this one because she was the biggest star in the category and the song "Kiss it Better" was my favorite song out of the five. Since the Recording Academy takes an Oscar like approach to selecting winners in certain categories, they selected Maxwell's slow tempoed and dramatic "Lake by the Ocean" and snubbed Rihanna who didn't win anything this year. The Recording Academy can be so tasteless.
Best Urban Contemporary Album:
Lemonade — Beyoncé
Ology — Gallant
We Are King — KING
Malibu — Anderson .Paak
Anti — Rihanna
Sonically, I preferred Rihanna's "Anti" album more then Beyonce's "Lemonade." Since I originally had Lemonade winning album of the year I assumed she would also win the category the genre her album is in but since the Recording Academy snubbed Beyonce's Album of the Year they undoubtedly gave her the win in her category.
Best Rap Performance:
"No Problem" — Chance The Rapper Featuring Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz
"Panda" —Desiigner
"Pop Style" — Drake Featuring The Throne
"All The Way Up" — Fat Joe & Remy Ma Featuring French Montana & Infared
"That Part" — ScHoolboy Q Featuring Kanye West
Best new artist winner Chance the Rapper won this category. Originally I had Nineteen-year-old Brooklyn based rapper Desiigner which had one of the biggest songs of the year "Panda." The real key in this category is the word "Performance." Chance the Rapper's gospel vibrancy alongside 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne's rapping ability makes for one amazing song. The Recording Academy got this one right and I got it wrong.
Best Rap/Sung Performance:
"Freedom" — Beyoncé Featuring Kendrick Lamar
"Hotline Bling" — Drake
"Broccoli" — D.R.A.M. Featuring Lil Yachty
"Ultralight Beam" — Kanye West Featuring Chance The Rapper, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin & The-Dream
"Famous" — Kanye West Featuring Rihanna
Drake had a big year in 2016. His 4th album "Views" reached a billion downloads and lost to Chance the Rapper's "Coloring Book" for Best Rap Album. This one was hard. For me It was really between two songs: "Famous" and "Hotline Bling". "Hotline Bling" was one of the most popular song on Drake's Views album. The song, which is great on its own, came to fruition with the release of the music video featuring Drake performing hilarious dance moves which inspired multiple internet memes. Going viral helped the song shoot up the Billboard charts. The Recording Academy had to give Drake this award due to the other awards he did not win.
Best Rap Album:
Coloring Book — Chance The Rapper
And the Anonymous Nobody — De La Soul
Major Key — DJ Khaled
Views — Drake
Blank Face LP — ScHoolboy Q
The Life of Pablo — Kanye West
This was a big surprise to me. Not only did Views receive way more radio airplay, it was the number one selling album of 2016. Chance, whom took home the Best New Artist category was the winner of the Best Rap Album. I was not expecting this at all and I thought the real competition was between Drake's "Views" and Kanye's "The Life of Pablo." Chance took home this award because he created a new sound which was gospel inspired with a positive message which the Recording Academy could identify with. Either way the Recording Academy totally snubbed Drake from this win. How can you have the highest-selling album and not win in your own music genre? Come on Recording Academy, get it together.
Best Rap Song:
"All The Way Up" — Joseph Cartagena, Edward Davadi, Shandel Green, Karim Kharbouch, Andre Christopher Lyon, Reminisce Mackie & Marcello Valenzano, songwriters (Fat Joe & Remy Ma Featuring French Montana & Infared)
"Famous" — Chancelor Bennett, Ross Birchard, Ernest Brown, Andrew Dawson, Kasseem Dean, Mike Dean, Noah Goldstein, Kejuan Muchita, Patrick Reynolds, Kanye West & Cydel Young, songwriters (Kanye West Featuring Rihanna)
"Hotline Bling" — Aubrey Graham & Paul Jefferies, songwriters (Drake)
"No Problem" — Chancelor Bennett, Dwayne Carter & Tauheed Epps, songwriters (Chance The Rapper Featuring Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz)
"Ultralight Beam" — Chancelor Bennett, Kasseem Dean, Mike Dean, Kirk Franklin, Noah Goldstein, Samuel Griesemer, Terius Nash, Jerome Potter, Kelly Price, Nico "Donnie Trumpet" Segal, Derek Watkins, Kanye West & Cydel Young, songwriters (Kanye West Featuring Chance The Rapper, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin & The-Dream)
Previous winners of this category include Kendrick Lamar, Mackelmore, Kanye West, and Jay Z. The Recording Academy usually gives this award to the artist whose rap song is best in quality rather than popularity which lead me to believe that Kanye was taking the Grammy home in this category but got snubbed by Drake's viral song "Hotling Bling." I'm not sure if this song should be considered the "best" rap song but it definitely was the most popular of 2016.
Summary:
I went four out of twelve in my category picks. Not so good. The Recording Academy continues to favor dramatized music without paying attention to current cultural trends to pick the artists whom are most deserving in each individual category. It is with my hope that the Grammy organization finds a new way or new characters within the Recording Academy to produce better results in February 2018. As Kanye West says "The Grammy's are no longer culturally relevant."
