This year there’s been a lot of chatter around whether Macklemore and Ryan Lewis deserve a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Because of their tremendous commercial success and media exposure there’s a good chance they will win, despite the fact that most hip-hop experts would prefer to see the award go to Kanye West, Jay-Z, or Kendrick Lamar. This sort of thing has been an issue ever since 1989, when the Best Rap Performance category was first added. The award that year went to “Parents Just Don’t Understand” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince—who led a boycott of the ceremonies because the rap category was not televised. Even more outrageous was the fact that classic 1989 releases by BDP, EPMD, and Big Daddy Kane were not even nominated. And I've resigned myself to the fact that
Beres Hammond's One Love, One Life stands little chance of winning the Best Reggae Album Grammy that it so richly deserves because it's
up against releases from household names like
Ziggy Marley and
Snoop Lion. When the winners are announced, we'll hear the usual chorus of criticism from knowledgeable listeners, which the Grammys will ignore, and voting members like myself will greet with a collective #KanyeShrug.
