This year’s Grammys felt strangely subdued. There were very few dance numbers, very few upbeat jams, and a lot of sad tributes and sad, emotional songs, especially in the first two hours. While a lot of that music was pretty, it was also the awards-show equivalent of a sedative, and considering they were trying to get people to watch a 3-and-a-half hour show, maybe they need to rejigger the playlist, you know? You can see the list of this year’s Grammy winners here – Kendrick Lamar walked away with a Grammys sweep in the rap categories, although Taylor Swift won Album of the Year and Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars won Record of the Year. (PS… I’m saving some videos for individual posts.) Here are some highlights from the show:
The Taylor Swift opening. She did a cold-open with her latest single “Out of the Woods,” one of the songs about Harry Styles. Considering her Anna Wintour hair, jazz hands and sparkly jumpsuit, the whole thing was very LIZA WITH A Z! I never think Taylor has a very strong voice, and I’m always reminded of that when she sings live. But she tried. So… points?
Sam Hunt is hot. I don’t know why I didn’t realize that before last night, but that guy is sexy as hell. His dual performance with Carrie Underwood made her tolerable.
The Weeknd. Nevermind that of all of the presenters, Ariana Grande was chosen to announce The Weeknd. Cough. As for his medley of Can’t Feel My Face/In the Night… it was okay. “In the Night” isn’t my jam, but I liked the simplicity of that arrangement. Apparently, Lauryn Hill was supposed to be a “surprise” duet with Abel, but Hill ended up pulling out, citing a scheduling conflict.
Andra Day & Ellie Goulding. A medley of Rise Up/Love Me Like You Do. While Andra sounded amazing and elevated Ellie’s song, I think this was a bad idea to put these two together.
The Lionel Richie tribute. I like John Legend, I don’t care about Demi Lovato (Lionel liked her though), Luke Bryan was actually sort of appalling, and Meghan Trainor was totally the worst. Tyrese trying to do “Brickhouse” though…my God. I’m still confused as to WHY they did this tribute and used these people? Did they pick those names out of a hat?
Demi Lovato, Meghan Trainor, John Legend & Luke… by musictrending
The Eagles reunite. They reunited to pay tribute to the late Glenn Frey. And while it wasn’t controversial or scandalous, it was a nice and gentle tribute with a performance of “Take It Easy.” I actually like that Don Henley and Jackson Browne still sound pretty great.
The Hamilton performance. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a certified genius and everyone has been obsessed with Miranda and his Broadway smash Hamilton for months and months. But to see the cast perform the opening song at the Grammys? Amazing. One of the best moments of the night.
Kendrick Lamar. He shut it down. You know how everyone got so upset because Beyonce was celebrating her blackness? Well, Kendrick notched it up and then some. It was like Peak Black History Month and it was AMAZING. Kendrick is such a showman too!
Adele performs. Instead of performing “Hello” (her first smash hit off of 25) or her latest single, “When We Were Young,” which has grown on me a lot, she performed “All I Ask,” the song co-written by Bruno Mars. I’ve been listening to Adele’s album a lot, and I think the first major live performance of “River Lea” would have absolutely killed. As is… “All I Ask” was not the best, and yes, it pains me to admit that. Also: Adele had technical problems, which sucked and might have thrown her off a little bit.
Adele – All I Ask (2016 Grammys) by musictrending
Justin Bieber. I absolutely loathe that “Sorry” song, so I wasn’t really into the acoustic performance, but the “Where Are U Now” with Diplo and Skillrex was okay. It was good.
Lady Gaga’s tribute to David Bowie. I knew it was going to be long and I knew it was going to be a medley, but seriously, how many songs did she go through? I thought she would save “Heroes” for the last song, and I was right. But I was expecting a different kind of cover… like, “Heroes” is one of Bowie’s most beautiful songs, and Gaga just didn’t go there. I just wasn’t feeling it, even though, yes, she worked her ass off to pull off that medley.
The BB King tribute. This worked out a lot better than the Lionel Richie tribute, probably because they got some actual blues artists (Gary Clark Jr., Bonnie Raitt, Chris Stapleton) to do “The Thrill Is Gone.” It worked.
Alabama Shakes. The performance was good!
Johnny Depp & the Hollywood Vampires. I was so tired at this point, I didn’t care. Would I have cared more if this had happened earlier in the evening? Doubtful. They didn’t embarrass themselves, which is the best thing I can say.
Taylor Swift winning Album of the Year. Well, it happened for her so she can stop complaining about it. I mean, she was going to have a nervous breakdown if she didn’t win one of the big awards, so this one was obvious. Her speech was pretty epic, but I’ll save something for the individual fashion posts!
In the end, this year’s Grammys did not suck as hard as I was expecting, although I would not have believed that Adele would end up one of my least favorite performances. Also: Rihanna was supposed to perform but she canceled at the last minute, citing throat problems and illness.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
Justin Bieber didn’t perform Sorry, he was singing Love Yourself and he was not good. Anyway, Taylor is a terrible singer and her opening was not good at all just as you said, Sam Hunt and Carrie Underwood were so pitchy and out of tune I had to mute my TV, Andra Day sang circles around Ellie Goulding but I still enjoyed their performance, the Lionel Ritchie tribute was decent, Tori Kelly and James Day were absolutely amazing together, Kendrick Lamar killed it and Lady Gaga looked and sounded like a fool
Did Justin Bieber’s voice change again? I swear it sounded much deeper last night. Or is that just how he sounds live?
Andra Day and Ellie were both fantastic in my opinion.
12 year old jazz pianist Joey Alexander playing his own composition and getting a standing ovation is everything! :))
Yes loved that! Other highlights for me were Demi killing it, Sam hunt, Kendrick, Bonnie raitt, Hamilton. and Stevie Wonder made me smile.
Adele biggest let down.
Poor Lionel. He seemed so into John Legend covering him, but then he got just as confused as the rest of us.
He seemed to like Demi too. He was smiling for her. I only liked John and Demi and then it just got terrible before Lionel was like “alright lemme do my own tribute”
I’m so over rap/hip hop/rnb. It bores me to death. When I read about this guy (Kendrick) I thought he would actually sing. But again it’s only some random guy talking…
Adele was wonderful. I simply lover her. I don’t care what song it is as long as I can hear her voice. This voice makes me feel so good.
…so basically you knew nothing about him and was upset when you realized he was a rapper?
Yes. That’s exactly what happened. I read some positive things about him, I didn’t know him, I became curious, I watched the performance and was really disappointed when it started with some kind of musical-Broadway-ish sounds and a few moments later he opens his mouth and he doesn’t sing. Not my cup of tea.
I get you aren’t into rap. And to be honest, i”m not either, but I think Kendrick is mesmerizing. His delivery, his showmanship, and the words he is delivering makes me stop and listen every time I’ve seen him perform. Look up his performance with Imagine Dragons a couple years back on the Grammys-he was so entertaining and helped turn an overplayed song into something really interesting. 🙂
Yah it made no sense that Kendrick the rapper didn’t sing *rolls eyes*
I didn’t know he is a rapper.
Why is everyone giving Greta such a hard time?I didn’t know who this man was till last night.I am not into the rap or hip hop thing either.His performance by the fire literally gave me a headache from his turbo,red bull rapping.Everyone on here seems to like this genre of music but heaven forbid if someone else doesn’t.The one thing is I hope Kanye is jealous and throwing one huge fit about this.I don’t know if he didn’t show up because he was pissed or embarrassed by his tweaky tweeting.
I don’t get jazz but I recognize that 12 year old kid’s talent. I wouldn’t call him some random kid improvising with his piano. Hip hop and rap isn’t for everyone but it’s not fair to be calling Kendrick Lamar some random guy talking. I’m sure you won’t enjoy Hamilton the musical.
English is not my first language.
You’re criticising a rapper for rapping? That is like criticising a rock band for playing guitars. Ok then….
I didn’t know he is a rapper.
I don’t think I would describe one of the best, most electric performers around just “some guy talking”. What a strange thing to say.
Listen to his Album, it’s incredible. It will grow on you.
Or give you a headache.
Kendrick Lamar was robbed he should of won album of the year!!
i was trying not to get my hopes up for this and was resigned even before grammy started. but i surprised myself how gutted i was when he didn’t win the gong 🙁
I agree. His album was the best this year. But he won 5 Grammys so I’m glad he got recognized.
He completely owned with that performance though. Had tears as soon as the curtain lifted and I saw that he didn’t dumb down he message of the song for the audience. The last performance to get that emotion from me was Glory at the Oscars. KL just killed it and there was nothing but praise on Twitter (not just black twitter either). I’m sure there will be some negative comments today but he just put it all out there.
So much blackness on two of the biggest nights on tv. Your turn Chris Rock!
I’m glad he didnt leave with nothing but its a huge deal that he didnt get the big gong for an obviously deserving album. You would be surprised how many black artists actually have a Best Album grammy. It may shock you even more how many Latino artists have one. The smaller awards are used to soothe the masses while the out of touch voters give the main award to whoever can reassure them that “white is still right”.
As a black woman nothing surprises me anymore. Absolutely nothing
He was totally robbed! TPAB is a masterpiece and it’s going to be considered a classic in a few years!
You are right, Maria. I remember when I heard it the first time knowing the album will be talked about for decades to come. Swifty might have the award, but her album is not memorable.
Yup, absolutely robbed. It’s been named as Album of the Year by SO many publications but that mediocre piece of walking breadstick takes home the prize instead. Taylor seriously gets credited way too much for the blandness that she puts out.
Butterfly was not only critically and commercially acclaimed, but the songs also had REAL WORLD impact. Alright as BLM anthem, for God’s sake. Doesn’t get more Album of the Year-y than that. What did 1989 do?
Let’s hope this brings a HUGE surge in sales. TPAB should be owned by all.
Walking breadstick – love it!
Completely agree with everything you said
I can’t believe Taylor Swift won the top prize over Kendrick… I’m not a fan of hers, but I admit her album was decent…but Lamar…he’s on a whole other level.
That performance by Kendrick Lamar is something but he’s not singing a song. I had the same problem with Beyonce. I like the idea behind it but not the actual song because of the lack of a chorus or some arch which shows that the melody is not flat.
Spoken word verse is one of the oldest traditions from African culture, please let go of the dependence on a chorus in order to enjoy something.
I liked hip-hop in the 90s. His music is nothing like that. Back then the music had rythm and though not a traditional structure, I was still able to enjoy it.
Maybe he’s an acquired taste. I just know that I didn’t like this song.
Most of his songs have a catchy melody. He intentionally chose to play some of his less accessible songs. “King Kunta” and “Money Trees” are two of the catchiest and downright best hip hop songs in recent history. He knows that, but he chose not to play those, instead going for a more profound cultural statement with his more free-verse spoken word tracks.
Does this instance on traditional song structure come into play when you are talking about the hipster favorite albums that usually win this thing? Because, I’m pretty sure the shunning of bridges and chorus is like a genre requirement for those bands.
First off, the live band behind Kendrick was throwing out some major chord progressions and were awesome in their musicality. And not just as a intellectual endeavor-it was a big part of the song.
As for ‘traditional’ song structure-what you’re talking about it pop song structure. This is not a pop artist. Beyonce’s song was not a pop song.
Every genre generally has music, structure, lyrics etc that listeners call out when they don’t like it. I don’t like country it sounds like X, I don’t like rap it sounds like Y, I don’t like hipster music all they talk about is Z. People are just willing to overlook those things in music that they like. What makes Kendrick so amazing is the clear cohesive vision, the combination of a jazz backing band when performing live-and stepping outside the boundaries and pushing the art form forward. It might not be your cup of tea to listen to, but there are true skills and artistry there.
Hear, hear!
Thank you! Scal thanks for bringing up Kendrick Lamar’s backing band. I’ve listened to a fair amount of his music (and there are lots of excellent live videos on YouTube) but last night it was the whole performance – the band, the set, the dancers WITH the energy and intensity of Kendrick’s performance – that blew me away.
Kendrick should have won Album of the Year. TPAB was the most critically acclaimed album of the year and had impact, I mean a song became a protest anthem! I like Taylor and 1989 is a good, solid pop album but not on the same level with Kendrick. As usual the grammys don’t really value hip hop in the big categories, just two rap albums have won AOTY in history.
I thought Tori Kelly and James Bay were the best of the night. They have amazing voices.
They were great! I also like Pentatonix and Stevie Wonder.
Stevie!!! that was so great!
Came here to make sure those kids got mentioned! Nothing better, imo, than amazing voices accompanied by guitar. SWOON!
Kendrick was just amazing. And kudos for the Grammy’s production team for getting all the shots right for him!
Yes, the production for his performance was really outstanding. They didn’t miss a beat.
Peak Blackness indeed! And may it not be the last time of 2016!
Let’s keep raising those stakes and talking about what really matters from all different perspectives. When I see his work, his performances and lyrics I know why Kanye is losing it. It’s hard to see someone just be so perfectly in tune with a message while you’re resigned to misogyny and desperation.
Wish he could have won for best album but hey, it’s a Swifty kinda world.
Him or Alabama Shakes should have won on talent alone. Taylor Swift makes some decent pop hits, sure, but Album of the Year? Give me a break.
LMAO Taylor would have had a breakdown in front of a loss for sure! Chica has spent the last 3 months telling publications that losing AOTY in 2013 was the drive behind making 1989. She talked endlessly about how crushed she was and all that jazz. She’s so award driven!
And could she have celebrated any HARDER after she won??? Smh
I’ll get heat for this, but I feel like we have to talk about this again. The Grammys don’t care about hip hop as compared to other genres and won’t award it with big categories; to a minor extent the same goes with soul music and r&b. Kendrick’s album was excellent and I feel like some voters didn’t even listen to it. They gave him every rap award but nothing in the big categories. Soul music hasn’t won big categories in a long time, only Adele and Sam Smith did in recent years. Now, Sam Smith’ music is mediocre soul at best and completely unoriginal, but black soul artists won’t even get considered for big categories. They have to hustle to get into mainstream music. Laura Mvula and Lianne La Havas have to hustle to get in the same category as Adele despite consistently making a superior brand of soul music. Ed Sheeran won for that rip off of Let’s Get It On.
I’m sorry but there’s a problematic pattern when it comes to Black music at the Grammys.
That performance from kendrick Lamar blew me away. The camera work, the sax, his presence. Haven’t listened to him much but I will be now. Can Kanye just go away with his empty rap lyrics about money and greed and let the people with something powerful to say be heard.
I hear ya. Kendrick Lamar and the Hamilton cast were the highlights of the Grammys for me. Actually, they were the only parts I enjoyed.
He was amazing! I saw him at pitchfork in the summer of 2014 and it was one of the best sets I have seen in a long time, definitely the best rap artist I have ever seen live. The juxtaposition of his moving performance to Kanye’s self-proclaimed “West is one of the most acclaimed musicians of the 21st century*” is really all in his head.
*his Wikipedia page actually says this
Lamar and the Hamilton cast were the only good things about that horrid night
Honestly Hamilton like blew my mind I coulndt comprehend the awesomeness i was watching but THEN King Kunta Himself Kendrick came shors firing that brought chills to me, My entire tl was rejoicing loudly and proudly! It was incredible!
Yes! I wish that KL and the Hamilton could have just taken turns performing last night. That I would have watched over and over. There’s been very few times in recent years that I’ve gotten chills by watching a performance on TV, but KL and Hamilton did just that.
Even Adele sounded off to me – or maybe I’m just getting bored by her.
omg, I would have actually watched the whole show if it had been a Hamilton-Kendrick tag team all night!
🎶ALEXANDER HAMILTON!🎶
HIs performance was true art.
He was ROBBED of AOTY. His album was groundbreaking, out of the box, deep social commentary, fearless. It was critically acclaimed.
How did a good pop album win over his “work of art”?
I am hitting my head against the wall metaphorically on this question. We know the answer It’s hip-hop. She’s safe pop.
There was a time when Madonna like pop was looked down upon at the Grammy’s. Now the nominations are flooded with dance pop.
Where is the quality of music these days?
End of rant. Get off my lawn. LOL
I agree completely. KL should have won, hands down. Hands down.
I like 1989 as cotton candy pop, but it’s not art.
Hamilton won the night.. and my heart. My new life’s mission is somehow land tickets for that show. I was completely enamored.
I watched 70% of this show on mute. Glad I didn’t put the sound on for the Lionel Richie tribute. I kept thinking to myself “they really couldn’t put together a better group of people?”
Lady Gaga’s performance of the Bowie tribute was good, but it wasn’t great. There is no one would could really do David Bowie’s music anywhere near as well as he did it. As a massive fan, I love to see him celebrated but also think that we just have to accept that no tribute is really going to blow us away because it’ll never compare to his original works.
Kendrick Lamar stole the show! Incredible performer and best rapper out right now. It’s nice to see rap return to it’s roots for a change with all the trash that is out in the genre right now. Kendrick is in a league of his own.
Adele’s performance was BAD. Not only because of sound issues, but because she had difficulty hitting notes and noticeably missed a few. The song was also not good and definitely about 2 minutes too long. I love her, but I’m tired of her cry baby ballads. On “19” she had some upbeat songs that were amazing, one of which “Right As Rain” is still in my current rotation. I would LOVE for her to get back to that. “Send My Love to Your New Lover” is another great upbeat song but she has so few!
Kendrick should have won album of the year. He was amazing, he’s such an inspiring artist.
I’m flying to New York to see Hamilton in six weeks and last night made me even more excited for it, if that’s possible. I’ve been listening to the cast recording every day since October and I still can’t get enough of it. I was so happy for Lin-Manuel Miranda and to see the cast’s excitement at winning the grammy. So well deserved.
I was on such a high from that performance and Tori Kelly and James Bay that I didn’t even have time to catch my breath before Kendrick came out and crushed it. That performance was stunning and added to what’s already been a pretty stellar Black History Month. Naturally, the Twitter degenerates crawled out of the woodwork to decry how “racist” his performance was and how he and Beyonce are “dividing the country” by thrusting their unapologetic blackness in people’s faces. If black people loving themselves and making political statements about the systemic inequality that’s existed in this country since its founding makes some people uncomfortable, so be it.
Anyway, the Kelly/Bay, Hamilton, Kendrick half hour was the best part of the show for me, along with Alabama Shakes. Also, Bonnie Raitt is one of the most awesome artists ever. I loved seeing her stroll into the BB King tribute to show, once again, what a badass she is. I felt awful for Adele. Those initial sound problems totally threw off her pitch and you could tell she knew it. But as usual, she was funny and charming about it on Twitter, which reminded me why I love her despite the bad night.
I am so jealous, KJ! My tickets aren’t until August. Sigh. I’ve been listening to the cast recording nonstop since October, read the Chernow bio, and I’ve been in an American Revolution reading frenzy since.
Yeah – that doesn’t surprise me about Twitter at all. I couldn’t bear to look at Twitter reaction. I’ve seen comment sections of other sides where racism was out in full display. Ugh. Makes me appreciate Celebitchy all the more.
The Grammys were awful 30 years ago and they still are. They always reward bland music and fail to recognize real art. That’s their whole jam.
Exactly.
YES HE DID.
I’m sorry is there a question here?
Kendrick was everything…and delivered a message. PREACH.
Kendrick was the performance of the night. Loved Hamilton, the BB King and Lionel tribute.
The rest was embassingly lame.
I was so ecstatic when Taylor Swift won Album of the year 🙂 I knew the meltdowns would be epic. She had a great album, she smashed the charts last year. Deal with it. And this is comming from someone who most of the time finds her annoying AF and childish, but her music was catchy and well produced, what are you gonna do?
Most of the show had technical problems and poor Adele got the worst of it; it threw her whole performance off. I liked Lionel’s tribute very much and Demi totally nailed it. Gaga was alright, I was just crossing my fingers for her not to screw it up or else she would be eviscerated today. Bruno and Mark Ronson wining record of the year was perfection and they should totally have performed, also Florence + The Machine. The highlight of the night for me was the BB King tribute even though the song was slow in a night of too many slow songs.
But her album pales in comparison to the other nominees. Don’t even get me started that it’s because of album sales – Beck won last year, Arcade Fire won years ago, and they sold albums but not that much. The Grammy’s just went to the safe route and gave it to her because a lot of people would if the AOTY award was given to a racially charged album. When was the last time a hip-hop album won?
It’s not a great album, it’s a pretty good album. A third of it was very dull and dated filler (seriously, songs like Bad Blood and Stay and How You Get The Girl sound like the kind of thing that would have been given to fledgling girl bands in 2002). It got average to good reviews, it certainly wasn’t hailed as some kind of pop masterpiece. It also didn’t produce that many major hits compared to albums by Katy Perry and Rihanna, only 3 singles really took off, so it’s not like they’re rewarding it for being some Thriller level hit machine. It’s a really easy, fun pop album to listen to, but it’s nothing special, and the majority of the songs are very forgettable. FYI, I’ll be saying basically the same things next year if Adele wins for 25.
Kendrick made an album that’s going to go down as one of the albums of the decade, and one of the best rap albums of all time. That he didn’t win is insane. But ignoring that for the moment, Alabama Shakes also had a far superior album, and although I loathe the guy, The Weeknd’s album, while flawed, was still better than 1989. Chris Stapleton really isn’t my jam, but Traveller was also objectively a better album.
If she’d won last year, I wouldn’t be that bothered, it was a fairly weak year. But this year was strong, and her album was not.
This performance was everything my weary heart needed. I sat there in awe. YES Kendrick!!!!!!
Kendrick Lamar is so, so special. His performances are like a maze of feelings and thoughts. His quality of performance is above and beyond. Truly one of the greatest artists to come up in the last 20 years. “Alright” is hard for me to listen to. It gives me a window that I am almost afraid to look through. On the album, when he says “We gon be alright” you can hear the doubt in his voice, and at times how tired he sounds asking it. And of course, you can hear the eventual conviction that yes, we are. I just adore him since I saw him on SNL . I am floored and humbled by him. There was discussion on another thread about some statement from Kanye about white people listening to black artists. I honestly think if I had kids, I would sit them down and have them watch Kendrick perform. I would want them to KNOW. The truth is so rare these days. When someone comes along and speaks it as KL does, that is precious stuff. He deserves awards, yes. But Really, he deserves respect and the a place in music history. He is a gift to all of us.
Kendrick should have won album of the year not Taylor swift. Her album was for 10 year old girls. Boo.
He had the best album of the year but it was given to Little Bo Beep. It’s a shame. I understand the appeal of her songs to heart broken teens and tweens, but to have album of the year is ridiculous. Oh well just another award show where the right choice is seldom made.
Kendrick Lamar was AWESOME, sometimes a little bit mumbling but awesome.
Really high Energy, fantastic Stage Presence, a high kicking show.
The Weeknd was quite disappointing, didn’t know he is so …..just not there …. when doing a gig.
Adele better not losing her Voice again and cancel her Tour like a couple of years ago, i spent serious MONEY for that STILL NOT REALLY TRAINED VOICE as a birthday gift for my mum, who loves her.
So many better Singers, a lot of them NOT white, nearly all of them with WAY BETTER TRAINED VOICES and this women get all this praising.
Still my mom wants to see her and i really hope Adele will still have a good enough Voice in 6 weeks for my mom to enjoy it.
Gaga was not good. I heard Nile Rodgers and Adam Lambert doing ” Let’s Dance” a couple of years ago for charity and AWESOME.
My Niece is a huge Lambert fan and she send me a Tribute performance he did on his own Tour recently after Bowie’s Death, because he seems to be huge fan for years of Bowie.
My Niece also showed me Tweets of Nile Rodgers praising Lambert into high Heaven.
I don’t understand why they didn’t get that guy involved into the tribute, he is leagues better than GAGA.
Was it me, or was the sound quality the entire night off for every single number? Honestly, other than Hamilton, it was difficult to make out what anyone was saying/singing. I kept going back to Westminister Dog Show.
Kendrick ruled and it was awesome to see Hamilton!
My jaw is still hanging on the floor after watching Kendrick Lamar. And I don’t even like rap. But he’s more than rap, he is the MESSAGE. Loud and clear and full of emotion. Loved it, loved it, loved it. He made the show.
Yes!!! I love this guy so much. Hes everything!
This was powerful and meaningful and beautiful.
Beyonce, be told. Sincerity will out.
Ed Sheeran won Song of the Year for the worst song in the world. I cannot even tell you guys how much that pissed me off. It is the most trite, flaccid song, and he is a total sham.
Thank you Bridget. Horrible. He is. Song. Whatever.
Having trouble responding to Greta and MeAndYou up above. But I just wanted to say that you don’t have to like or “get” rap and hip hop in order to understand the message and point behind Kendrick’s lyrics. He made a bold statement and he’s speaking truths and doing it lyrically. You can feel the pain behind his words. Isn’t that what music is about? It can make you dance and it can be fun but it also can make you feel and think. That’s what Kendrick does. I can appreciate the words to any song whether it’s a genre I love or one I don’t.
I know we’re not all big Taylor fans here, but can we stop calling her honesty about losing out on previous awards “whining?” I feel like that feeds into the mindset that women shouldn’t be ambitious, shouldn’t be direct about their ambitions. They all want to win. ALL OF THEM. Even the ones that claim otherwise. If they really didn’t care, they wouldn’t show up.
Kendrick Lamar was incredible, and I love that he had no fear in taking the opportunity given to him and doing exactly what he intended to do.
I admire him as an artist but I wonder if Kendrick has ever visited Africa…He could see what life he could have had in there. Maybe that would change his lyrics a bit. Just wondering
He has visited Africa, if you listen to his album TPAB, his song “mortal Man” is Inspired in part by a 2014 trip to South Africa where he even visited Mandela’s prison. there are many interviews too from him on how his visit kind of opened a window to him understanding who he is as a black man and his role in the society as a rapper. Also as someone who lives in Africa, don’t be quick to believe every picture you see in the media. Life is kinda awesome too on these side of planet earth
I’m judging from what I’ve seen with my own eyes. And while Africa was awfully exploited by Europe in the past it has had local governments for at least 50 years. And we see dictatorship, poverty, most disease epidemics start in Africa, hunger, exotic endangered animals are killed for profit, voodoo rituals, mutilation of women, no access to clean water. South Africa is a world leader of rape – someone gets sexually abused every second there. And it’s one of the most developed countries. So yeah. Sure he has some stuff to complain about his life now.
I love his Kendrick Lamar’s positive message. Of course he says a lot of things in his music that need to be said, but his ultimate message is conveyed by what he does, how he deals with adversity and unfairness (Grammys last year!).
His underlying message to kids growing up poor in the city is that you CAN get out, and you CAN make a positive difference in your community, by using your mind. Without relying on violence, gangs, etc. He grew up poor, in Compton, and he avoided the dead-end life that probably feels inevitable to kids in the thick of it. He gets the message across by LIVING it, by being that person. From what I know of him, he’s a hell of a role model.
To answer the question: YES, HE OWNED IT.
Signed,
A little old white lady who doesn’t even like rap but still recognizes massive talent when she sees it.