The Grammy Controversy

This post will not be about basketball or the NBA. Here I will focus on the Grammy Awards which took place recently and may have caused some controversy. As I logged in on my Twitter account I came across a couple of weird, some hateful tweets, directed at the Grammy's, espacially the hip hop/rap genre. You may have heard that Macklemore (the guy from Thrift Shop) won 4 Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album. Now the whole hip hop community/listeners (including myself) had a big problem with it, and here's why: because Kendri-ekhem- King Kendrick Lamar was nominated for these awards as well. In matter of fact he was nominated for 7 different awards, so I was sure he would win AT LEAST one Grammy Award. Well, unfortunetaly I was wrong. Now I know that this is not such a big thing and some people may have overreacted, but I still think this is something worth talking about. 

I discovered Macklemore in 2011, during the NBA lockout, when some YouTuber made a video called "Bring the NBA Back" and added Macklemore's song "Wings". The song was so good I decided to do a little bit of research on this new rapper. Back then Macklemore, Ben Haggerty, was an underground rapper from Seattle, making songs with his buddy Ryan Lewis. They didn't have much exposure at that time, I was the only one listening to his music and more importantly I enjoyed listening to his music. He didn't rap about how many women he slept with, how much money he has, etc. He rapped about life, his drug addiction, his beloved Seattle, consumerism, the pursuit of your own identity, he rapped about things that really matter. So I downloaded all his mixtapes and listened to them over and over again for like 3 months. Then I heard the news about his first studio album coming out "The Heist". A couple of weeks later he released a video for his new song from that album called "Thrift Shop". When I first heard the song I had some mixed feelings about it. It was catchy and all, but I didn't like the fact that it became so popular. I felt that he had so many better songs and people should listen to them instead of "Thrift Shop". But anyway, I decided to forget about that and wait for "The Heist" to drop. When the release date finally came upon, I quickly sailed to the Pirates Bay and downloaded the album. I was really, really hyped before opening iTunes and playing each song and I was really, really disapointed right after I closed iTunes. The reason why I was disapointed is because I expected to listen to some real hip hop and what I got was some pop tunes with annoying female vocals on the chorus'. Now I didn't completely hate the album, a few songs were actually good, Macklemore rapped a couple of good verses, but that's it. I do not consider "The Heist" to be a hip hop album, just because it has so many pop/radio songs on it. Sorry Macklemore, I thought you will be one of the upcoming artists which would change the game and save hip hop, turned out, you made it even worse. 

Now let's head over to Compton, California, to meet Kendrick Lamar aka KDot. The first time I heard Kendrick, it was on The Game's song "The City" in 2011, where he dropped some hot bars in one of the verses. I didn't pay much attention to him to be honest. Later on I came across his song "A.D.H.D." which really caught my ear. I was very impressed with his rapping skills, but it was not until I entered rapgenius.com did I see Kendrick's true greatness. The metaphors he was using were mindblowing and the message he wanted to pass on was so deep. Now normally I hate poetry in school, but deciphering the meaning of hip hop verses is nothing less than pleasureable for me. Kendrick's album "Section.80" is my go-to music right now. It is one of the most underrated hip hop albums of the decade, in my opinion. After listening over to all his albums and mixtapes I heard about Lamar's new project: "good kid m.A.A.d. city" aka GKMC. "Finally hip hop will get the classic album it deserves!"-were my first thoughts. And I was not dissapointed. Kendrick's new album has everything you need, some oldschool hip hop, and also some songs that can be played on the radio too. As I listened to GKMC song by song, I realized, this is like a movie without picture. This impressed me even more. Kendrick accomplished something amazing. Each song was a different chapter from his life, and that was Lamar's initial goal. He wanted to tell his story, but he didn't want to make a movie about him, so he made an album. It is said that GKMC is an instant classic, and I agree. If you do not know what hip hop is, listen to this, this is old school hip hop, this is rap. 

Now Kendrick may not give a f@#k about a Grammy like Eminem, we, the fans, feel like he deserve to be awarded for his briliant masterpiece. Someone on Twitter came up with an idea of creating a new category 'radio' and I agree. In that case Macklemore would win for the best radio song, best radio album and best radio performance. But what can we do? It cannot be undone. Fortunetely, I think we are witnessing a legend in the making, in Kendrick Lamar Duckworth and I hope to see more classic albums from him. While Macklemore? Meh, do your thing, just please don't rob Kendrick of any more awards, and stop apologing for your success. 

Here is a hilarious picture I found on grantland.com from Shea Serrano: