Magna Carta Holy Grail?! 5 Questions About The Grammy Nominations Posted by Lucas Garrison on 12/09/13 | Filed under Top Stories, Opinion, Jay Z, Grammys

You can say “fuck the mainstream music and the horse they rode in on” all day, but winning the Grammy is something every artist dreams of. It is the pinnacle of success in the music industry and winning one proves you are an elite talent, so forgive me for being interested. Over the weekend the nominees were announced s since we are just a buncha rap nerds, we have a few questions.  Like the Rolling Stone critiques, there are a few things we here at RefinedHype want to know. So lets dive right in. For those interested here is the full list of nominees.

 

What’s the difference between song of the year and record of the year?

 

This is less of a critique about which song shouldn’t be nominated (like why No Poison No Paradise isn’t nominated for best album of all time in forever) but is more about the logistics. When looking through the nominations I saw there was both a “song of the year” and “record of the year” categories and wondered what the difference is.  Well, the answer is simple, song of the year is given to just the songwriter where as record of the year is for the whole enchilada, production, vocals, mixing and everything in between. The official explanation is below.

The Record Of The Year category recognizes the artist’s performance as well as the overall contributions of the producer(s), recording engineer(s) and/or mixer(s) if other than the artist. The Song Of The Year category recognizes the songwriter(s).

Something else I found interesting related to this was how not one of the nominated tunes for record of the year came off an album nominated for record of the year. Logic would say that one of the years best albums would also include a few potential nominees for song/record of the year, but what do I know?

Is Kendrick really a “new artist”?

In addition to  Good Kid M.A.A.D City being nominated for album of the year (the timeframe is October 2012 to September of 2013), Kendrick was also nominated for best new artist alongside the likes of James Blake and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The best album nomination I understand completely, but is Kendrick really a “new artist”? A break out artist definitely, but before GKMC Kendrick had his Overly Dedicated tape, Section.80 (which charted in the U.S.) and an EP so, while his name might be new to a whole bunch of people, I don’t really think he is a new artist. When I think of the years new artists, I think of Lorde or maybe even The Weeknd; Kendrick just seems like too big a part of hip-hop to be considered “new”.

Can a producer get some love (why is there no production category)?

They have a Grammy nomination for about everything you can imagine, from best song to Best Recording Package—what in the fuck is best recording package*??—but nothing for producers. If they were only doing the basic “best of” categories I guess I could understand, but they get pretty damn specific and even show songwriters love. Still, producers get little to no attention. It goes beyond hip-hop too, producers are pivotal for any song nominated and to see them no category of there own is a shame. The Oscars have categories for cinematography, sound mixing, and of course production, yet the Grammy academy doesn’t seem to want to give credit to those behind the scenes. Surely there is room for the likes of Rick Rubin (who helped on 3 of the years biggest albums) and Kanye in all of this.

*recording package is basically best artwork.

How come you don’t have a mixtape of the year?
aside from best producer the Grammy’s are also missing a big  aspect of the industry today; the free album (or mixtape in hip-hop lingo). You would think the group in charge of handling music awards would have their finger on the pulse of how music is released. Quite frankly it feels odd not seeing Chance’s name up there (or Run The Jewels or Rapsody) just because their albums were free. It isn’t like they cant quantify the numbers with downloads serving as sales, and some of the years best work came for these free projects. If the Grammy’s is about the best music getting honored, surely they need to include mixtapes; money doesn’t make a project great, and now, mixtapes are often more important. So why not a category of their own?

How come Jay-Z has so many damn nominations?

When discussing the best hip-hop albums, Magna Carta Holy Grail doesn’t even belong in the top 10 but somehow, Jay Z landed nine nominations! Nine! I get “Holy Grail” being nominated, but I can’t see how it deserves nine. If you looked at the list of nominees you would assume Jay blew everyone out of the water, but nobody is still talking about the album unless its in the context of it getting too many nominations or being on too many best of lists; putting it bluntly, MCHG was average. If you are gong by album sales alone, shouldn’t it count against him that Samsung essentially made the album platinum on its first day, buying a million copies? Basically what you are saying is that if an artist is rich enough, no matter how good or bad the content is, they can buy their way to a Grammy. It is a slippery slope and even if Jay had put Blue’s college fund in, Magna Carta Holy Grail still doesn’t deserve nine nominations.

It might seem like I care too much about the Grammys, and I probably do, but when there aren’t any more new albums to talk about, what’s a rap nerd to do? So yeah, I nit picked, but I’m sure I am not the only one, what questions, comments, concerns, omissions to you guys have? While I am sure there are plenty more things to critique,  its good to see hip-hop taking over; Kendrick, Jay, Macklemore, Pharrell, and JT have the most nominations, and all come from the hip-hop/R&B community; be proud y'all!