The bigger names didn't drop. The artist that would normally get nominated. That's why Gibbs hasn't been back nominated since and he won't be. He got in off the strength of it being a strange year. He should be grateful for the nomination.
He actually has a somewhat fair chance of being nominated this year. There’s usually one underground rap album that makes it in amongst the bigger releases and as a previous nominee Gibbs has the name recognition, as does Alchemist, to get in again.
The absolute locks for Best Rap Album nominations are GNX and Let God Sort Em Out.
Then you’ve got Chromakopia as a good bet and maybe Playboi Carti’s Music as the super commercial pick. Alfredo 2 could easily slide in the fifth slot as the underground pick.
So only LIG then.
Although I thought Undun was the by far best album that year. I can’t deny that the biggest rapper, dropping the most popular album, hailed a classic by millions and an era defining album winning. Very few people who aren’t super Nas fans would put it over Take care.
So in realistic terms. No album then.
Life Is Good was more acclaimed than Take Care so there weren’t “very few” people putting it over Take Care. In real time it was LIG that was hailed as the classic, not Take Care.