The 2023 Grammy Awards will take place this Sunday, February 5, in Los Angeles, California. Comedian Trevoh Noah will return as the ceremony’s host, many music lovers are curious about this year’s attendees. While superstar Adele ensures she will indeed be attending the event, other stars have kept their RSVP status a secret.
Well, given people that are on the fence about tuning into this year’s broadcast, the Recording Academy has released the first wave of featured presenters. The list includes multiple Grammy Award winners, Olivia Rodrigo, and Shania Twain. Despite being after to submit her smash single “WAP” for this year’s ceremony, Cardi B will also present at this year’s ceremony. Also, current Best Musical Theater Album nominee actor Billy Crystal will present.
Non-musical figures set to present during this year’s ceremony include First Lady Jill Biden, actor Dwayne Johnson, The Late Late Show host James Corden, and actress Viola Davis, who is nominated for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for her memoir, Finding Me.
If that isn’t enough, they’ve also shared a list of confirmed performers for the evening. Musicians Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras, and Sam Smith will take over the stage for a performance of one of their songs.
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. The ceremony will be broadcasted live on the CBS Television Network and streamed live and on-demand on Paramount+.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Update 2/3/23: The rumors are seemingly true! Jay-Z will indeed perform at the Grammys for the first time since 2014. Variety reported that Jay-Z will take the stage this Sunday at Grammy Awards to perform his verse on “God Did” along with Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, John Legend, and Fridayy.
Original Article 1/26/23: The 2023 Grammys (or the 65th annual Grammy Awards, if you’re nasty) are right around the corner, and that means speculation about who all will win — and perform — at the show is getting downright feverish. The first batch of confirmed performers includes Bad Bunny, Lizzo, Steve Lacy, and more, and fans can’t wait to see who else gets the nod.
One name a few fans are looking out for is Jay-Z, who was tagged as a potential performer by HitsDailyDouble along with Harry Styles. Jay’s performance would likely be in tandem with award show fixture DJ Khaled, with whom Jay collaborated on the monster posse cut “God Did” from Khaled’s album of the same name.
However, Jay — who has become more elusive than ever over the past few years — has yet to confirm or deny the report, which as of now remains an unsubstantiated rumor. Given his and rival-turned-frequent-collaborator Nas’ inescapable orbit, though, it probably wouldn’t be a surprise if he did show up the year after Nas performed at the Grammys for the first time in his 30+ year career.
Meanwhile, “God Did” is nominated for three awards: Song of the Year, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Performance. A win would see Jay finally passing his Watch The Throne partner-in-rhyme Kanye West, with whom he’s tied at 24 apiece, as the most-awarded hip-hop artist in Grammy history.
By now, you’ve probably seen a post on social media featuring a list of names of prominent Black authors, poets, and culture critics like Amiri Baraka, bell hooks, and Ta-Nehisi Coates with their names crossed out. (If you haven’t, I suggest you meet some Black people or at least start associating with people who care about Black people. You might not think we’re all that important, but in this country, we’ve been the canaries in the coal mine for 200 years.)
This list denotes recent changes being threatened by the Florida College Board to optional AP African American Studies classes as part of a wider effort in that state to suppress historical works or studies that paint the US in anything less than a flattering light when it comes to the government’s treatment of Black folks. You know, like how there were forcible, undisclosed medical studies performed on Black men at Tuskeegee, or how prominent Black towns were burned to the ground.
On Thursday, Questlove, whose directorial debut Summer Of Soul was one of those works that unearthed a vital piece of Black History, the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, after footage was shelved for over 40 years, called out the “Black erasure” that the changes represent on Instagram, warning followers that this changes could become widespread should Florida governor Ron DeSantis run for President. DeSantis has been described as a “sanitized” version of Donald Trump, but in actuality, he might be worse.
“For all of you kind folk who praised @SummerOfSoulMovie this is the exact kind of erasure that makes black erasure so easy to do,” Quest wrote. “It starts slow and benign….and before you know it—-it spreads and spreads & we ignore or hope it will fall on someone else’s hand to come with a solution. Then it’s too late. This is why local elections are important. This is why you can’t sleep for even a micro minute until the job is done.”
“If this is what is happening in Florida….what will happen when he runs for president?” he wondered. “Don’t wanna start the morning fear mongering but these are different times we living in. You can’t sleep for a second.”
First things first, let’s get this out of the way: The Grammys have a fraught and sordid history with hip-hop. This much we know and there’s little reason to expect it to change in the near future, even with the adjustments the Grammys have made in recent years. But there is reason to hope, which we’ll get into below.
Now that that’s taken care of, let’s do some predictions! We’ve already done the Big Four awards, but here, we’ll concentrate on rap. Depending on where you stand, this year’s rap nominations are either the most forward-thinking the Recording Academy voters have put together in ages (I mean, GloRilla’s in there! Future and Gunna are nominated for stuff! It’s fun!), or it’s a thin field with the usual middle-of-the-road pandering (I personally like Jack Harlow, but I’m told rap fans aren’t rooting for him. Then there’s DJ Khaled…).
Either way, it should make for an interesting show full of surprises. Will Grammy voters (who tend to skew Gen-X) finally acknowledge the modern sounds of the genre? Will perennial favorite Kendrick Lamar clean up? Will the Grammys’ ugly history with female rap artists rear its head again? We’ll find out Sunday, February 5 (Here’s how to watch the show and here’s the full list of this year’s nominees) but for now, let’s pray for those parlays, for which I will warn you now, I bear no responsibility.
Best Rap Performance
DJ Khaled Featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy — “God Did” Doja Cat — “Vegas” Gunna & Future Featuring Young Thug — “Pushin P” Hitkidd & Glorilla — “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Who will win: Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5” Who should win: Doja Cat — “Vegas”
Kendrick Lamar is an award-show favorite and his Big Steppers table setter, set to a smooth interpolation of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You,” is a classic example of his primary preoccupations. He addresses the “culture,” expresses sympathy for the canceled, and muses on the destructive cycles and systems of modern-day America. The thing is, he’s done all this before, and while I hesitate to say the schtick is wearing thin, the series of caricatures Kendrick samples through in the face-morphing visual has aged poorly enough to put off much of the Recording Academy voting base.
On the other hand, Doja Cat, fresh off the successes of her versatile third album Planet Her, demonstrates she’s got plenty more creative space to stretch out in — and she’s just getting started. A venomous excoriation of a philandering romantic partner, “Vegas” catches Cat traipsing over a slick reimagining of Big Mama Thornton’s original version of “Hound Dog” by Shonka Dukureh — a sly reclamation of a musical legacy that reframes the titular ne’er-do-well, turning the spotlight on the subject of the film from which this song hails (and his ilk).
Best Melodic Rap Performance
DJ Khaled Featuring Future & SZA — “Beautiful” Future Featuring Drake & Tems — “Wait for U” Jack Harlow — “First Class” Kendrick Lamar Featuring Blxst & Amanda Reifer — “Die Hard” Latto — “Big Energy (Live)”
Who will win: Jack Harlow — “First Class” Who should win: Latto — “Big Energy (Live)”
Jack Harlow’s gonna win by virtue of two facts: One, this song was borderline inescapable for the better part of a year after its release, and two, … well, you know. The Grammys have managed to avoid embarrassing themselves in that way in the rap categories since the Macklemore debacle in 2015, but then again, they haven’t had many opportunities since (the closest they came was Adele rejecting her win over Beyoncé for Lemonade).
Still, if they really want to make up for past mistakes, they can start by acknowledging that they snubbed Doja and Megan Thee Stallion in the performance and song categories and women overall for Best Rap Album. Yuck. If there was any song that challenged “First Class” for having a chokehold on your eardrums in 2022, it was “Big Energy,” which was also Latto’s breakout moment (even if she had already been around for a while).
Best Rap Song
DJ Khaled — “God Did” Feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy Future Featuring Drake & Tems — “Wait for U” Gunna & Future Featuring Young Thug — “Pushin P” Jack Harlow Featuring Drake — “Churchill Downs” Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Who will win: Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5” Who should win: DJ Khaled — “God Did” Feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy
So, like my colleague Derrick did in the Big Four list, I must begin here with a disclaimer. Best Rap Song is considered “A Songwriter(s) Award” by the Recording Academy. This means that it’s (ostensibly) awarded strictly on the technical aspects of the writing/production, rather than the vocal performance of the rapper(s). As we all know, good delivery can make a mediocre bar sound like the illest words ever written, while the transverse is also true. With that said, I looked at the lyrics of each song, combined with other stuff like sample selection. Ultimately, it’s still entirely subjective based on my own tastes.
From that standpoint, I think Jay’s peak on “God Did” overshadows Kendrick’s consistency on “The Heart.” While “God Did” on the whole is mostly a collection of fairly straightforward flexes from Jay’s co-stars, once his verse starts, it’s his song, relegating everyone else to background roles. Not only does he lay out his reasoning for “what the stove did,” but by the end of the verse, he’s got even the most staunch law-and-order conservative starting to agree with his choices, no matter how self-destructive they might have been.
DJ Khaled — God Did Future — I Never Liked You Jack Harlow — Come Home The Kids Miss You Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Pusha T — It’s Almost Dry
Who will win: Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Who should win: Future — I Never Liked You
Don’t kill me! Look, it breaks my homer heart to give anything the nod over my Compton countryman, but from my perspective, the best album has to be the most consistent, the most committed to the bit. To quote a bit of secondhand writing advice from one of my esteemed peers, all the sentences in a piece should aim in the same direction, and every single bar on Future’s album does that.
While Kendrick gets credit for the ambition of his fifth and final project for TDE, it’s a little too disjointed, too directionless, and too difficult to listen to straight through. Meanwhile, Future has gone for over a decade and a half as one of rap’s most esteemed yet uncelebrated cult personalities; a genre unto himself, his sole win was for a feature on Jay Rock’s “King’s Dead” and it was a tie with Anderson .Paak’s “Bubblin’” (again, the Grammys are not known for making the best choices when it comes to rap; also nominated in 2019 were Drake’s “Nice For What” and Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode”).
I Never Liked You offers exactly what it says on the tin, but it’s also Future at his best, stepping up his lyricism, curating some of his most effective beats choices, and delivering the consistency that has kept him at the top of the charts since his legendary three-mixtape run in 2015. Breaking new ground is cool, experimentation is fine, and pushing boundaries is always welcome, but sometimes, you just want dope beats, dope rhymes, and a signature Drake feature. The streets love I Never Liked You; for once, the Grammys can align with the people’s champ if they give it the hardware it deserves.
Last night (February 2) was the Recording Academy Honors Presented by the Black Music Collective at Hollywood Palladium, where Wayne and Missy Elliott were given the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. As The Hollywood Reporternotes, Drake honored Wayne with a video message, which he started, “Good evening, Grammys. Well, I haven’t gotten to say that since 2016.”
He continued, “Lil Wayne… I love you so much. I know I probably get annoying with saying how much you mean to me and my family, but I think I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that our careers, our cadences, our melodies, maybe our face tats or our outfits or our decisions in general would not have been the same without your natural gift to just be yourself.”
Wayne gave a touching speech of his own, saying in part, “I want you all to know that I don’t get honored. Where I’m from, New Orleans, you’re not supposed to do this. I walked into my mama’s room when I was 14. She asked me for a kid because my dad was killed. And her son had just blown up and went on his first tour. When I came home she said, ‘Son, I can’t live in this house by myself. We’re going to have to figure something out.’ “I’d like to thank Antonia Johnson [his first child’s mother] for reasoning with me and my mom, and my life. I’d like to thank every single one of my kids and every single one of their mothers.”
Deion Sanders also honored Wayne with a video message and 2 Chainz, Swizz Beatz, and Tyga closed the show by performing some Wayne songs.
Considering all of the Ticketmaster messes lately — from Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny to Death Grips and John Mayers — concertgoers deserve a break. Luckily, it looks like Slowthai fans in the UK are getting just that.
The artist has announced the aptly titled Best Night Of Your Life Tour, a UK run in small pubs where tickets will only be £1 (about $1.23). It’ll kick off at the end of February in Sunderland and end at the beginning of March in Northampton. It’s a short leg, but it’s sure to be a good one.
“I make music for myself but I wouldn’t be where I am without my fans,” Slowthai said in a statement. “It’s important to me that people can have access to me and my music so I wanted to go to some new places and play this album first. Times are tough for a lot of people and working with Jägermeister has helped me keep tickets to only a quid.”
Check out the full dates below.
02/23 — Sunderland, UK @ Independent 02/24 — Blackpool, UK @ Bootleg Social 02/25 — Milton Keynes, UK @ Craufurd Arms 03/01 — London, UK @ The George Tavern 03/02 — Bath, UK @ Moles Club 03/03 — Northampton, UK @ The Black Prince
Pre-sale begins at 10 a.m. on February 13. General sale follows at 10 a.m. on February 15. Find ticket information here.
Vic Mensa is on the comeback trail after releasing his spacey new single, “Strawberry Louis Vuitton,” with Thundercat and Maeta. On Wednesday night, he dropped by The Late Show to perform a dreamy rendition of the new song. While Thundercat had to sit this one out, Vic found the perfect replacement in Phony Ppl, the groovy R&B band that is starting to really discover its niche backing fellow rappers like Joey Badass and Megan Thee Stallion.
The five-piece band picks up the groove, providing a smooth counterpoint to Vic’s rough-edged but tender come-ons. Maeta, who features on the original, also appears here, providing backing vocals and cutting through with her honeyed ad-libs.
Mensa’s 2023 is off to a hot start. In addition to releasing the well-received “Strawberry Louis Vuitton,” he and fellow Chicagoan Chance The Rapper hosted their Black Star Line Festival in Accra, Ghana last month, bringing their message of unity to Vic’s father’s home country. The festival also afforded Vic the opportunity to provide clean water to 200,000 people in Ghana by building new water boreholes in locations that have historically gone without. Could all this activity mean that a new Vic Mensa album is on the way after six years without one? Let’s hope so!
Watch Vic Mensa perform “Strawberry Louis Vuitton” on The Late Show above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
Since the last update of this weekly R&B and Afrobeats column, we’ve received plenty of music and news from the genre’s artists. Chlöe announced her debut album In Pieces and shared its lead single “Pray It Away” while Daniel Caesar returned with “Do You Like Me.” Ari Lennox shared a steamy video for “Waste My Time” while Kehlani, Brent Faiyaz, Chlöe, and more signed on for the Sol Blume 2023 Festival. Elsewhere, Ella Mai announced a deluxe edition of Heart On Sleeve ahead of her North American tour and SZA’s SOS registered a seventh straight week at No. 1 on the albums chart.
Here are some more releases on the new music front that you should check out:
Chlöe — “Pray It Away”
Chloe finally arrived with an update about her highly-anticipated solo debut album. In Pieces will arrive in March, and she kicks off its rollout with “Pray It Away.” It’s a pain-stricken ballad that Chloe uses to express her pain and maturity following a tough breakup. She could wish the worst on her former partner, but she knows it’s better to pray about it.
Daniel Caesar — “Do You Like Me?”
There’s a pretty good chance that Daniel Caesar’s third album arrives this year. After the release of “Please Do Not Lean” with BadBadNotGood, Caesar returns with “Do You Like Me.” The seductive number finds Caesar on a quest to discover whether he and his partner share the same feelings about each other.
Popcaan — Great Is He
A little over two years after Fixtape, Popcaan is back with his fifth album Great Is He. Through 17 songs, the Jamaican dancehall star shares records with Toni-Ann Signh, Burna Boy, Drake, and Chronic Law for an album that strikes as triumphant and glorious.
Eric Bellinger — “Decide”
On February 10, singer Eric Bellinger and producer Hitmaka will release their joint project, 1-800-Hit-Eazy: Line 2, the sequel to their 2021 effort 1-800-Hit-Eazy. Ahead of its release, the duo returns with their latest single “Decide,” a record Bellinger uses to win back a girl who he believes settled for less with another man.
Mannywellz — “Ouu Ahh”
Months after releasing his Unwanted EP, the follow-up to Mirage, a project highlighted by “Peaace” with Tems and “So Good,” Nigerian singer Mannywellz is back with more tunes. He checks in with “Ouu Ahh,” an exotic yet creeping record that presents a balance that truly satisfies the ear.
Boy Spyce — “Folake”
Nigerian afrobeats singer Boy Spyce released his debut self-titled EP last year. Afterward, he teamed with his Mavins record label, a group that includes Ayra Starr, Rema, Magixx, and more, for their joint project Chapter X. Now, Spyce is back with his latest single, “Folake,” and it’s simply the perfect record you could ask from him.
Pheelz — “Stand By You”
Nigerian singer Pheelz will release his Pheelz Good EP next month. Led by stellar collaborations that include the smash hit “Finesse” with BNXN fka Buju and “Electricity” with Davido, Pheelz is now showing off his solo talents with “Stand By You,” a sweet that Pheelz uses to express his commitment to his love interest.
The WRLDFMS Tony Williams — “UBUBU”
The WRLDFMS Tony Williams kicked off 2023 with the release “UBUBU.” Williams describes it as a track that “represents the confidence that it takes to be you, in a world that celebrates imitation and riding someone else’s wave.”
Zeina — “Whatever”
Egyptian-Lebanese singer Zeina checked in with “Whatever,” her first offering since 2023. The record touches on the bad experiences she’s had in friendship and the ways she was able to move on and recover. “Sometimes after you remove the ‘I love you so much glasses,’ even in regards to friends, you realize how much you’ve been done wrong,” she says about the song.
WanMor — “Mine”
Signed to 300 Entertainment and Mary J. Blige’s new label Beautiful Life Productions, R&B group WanMor are back with their new single “Mine.” The bouncy record balances a throwback R&B feel with the confidence of today’s R&B acts. “‘Mine’ is about our feelings for the girl we always wanted,” the group said about the song. “Being impressed by her in every way and wanting to tell everybody.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
We are now just days away from the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 5. (Here’s how to watch the show, in case you didn’t know, and here’s the full list of this year’s nominees.) The Recording Academy’s picks for who is going to win what awards are in, and all that’s left to do is wait and see who will be cement themselves in music history and take a golden gramophone trophy home.
Actually, there’s another thing left to do, not a requirement but a fun thought exercise: make picks for who the Academy has likely chosen for the four major awards (Best New Artist, Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year) and who we think should win them.
Make your own selections if you’d like, but if you wouldn’t mind hearing another perspective before you do, I’ve come up with some predictions and opinions. It wasn’t easy, because New Artist, Song, Record, and Album categories are stacked this year; A lot of new artists made an immediate impact on the music landscape, a number of songs are already being hailed as classics, and some albums on this year’s list are all-timers (at least one is if you ask Questlove, anyway).
So, before the 2023 Grammys officially kick off, let’s take a look at who probably will win the big four awards and who probably should get them.
Best New Artist
Anitta
Domi & JD Beck
Latto
Måneskin
Molly Tuttle
Muni Long
Omar Apollo
Samara Joy
Tobe Nwigwe
Wet Leg
Who will win: Anitta
Who should win: Anitta
Really, it’s hard to call Anitta new. It’s been nearly a decade since the Brazilian superstar released her 2013 self-titled debut album, which went No. 1 in her home country. In recent times, though, she has profoundly broken out on a broader international level. Her 2022 album Versions Of Me was her first on Warner (previous releases came out via Warner Music Brasil) and its biggest single, “Envolver,” was a global hit: It’s her first solo track to place on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (after the Cardi B and Myke Towers collab “Me Gusta” in 2020), it became a TikTok sensation, and it was the first song by a Brazilian artist to rank No. 1 on the daily Spotify Global Chart. Between all that and other viral moments, Anitta is currently the best version of herself and is only getting better. While the crop of Best New Artist nominees is strong, none of the others have yet reached Anitta-level success.
Song Of The Year
Adele — “Easy On Me”
Beyoncé — “Break My Soul”
Bonnie Raitt — “Just Like That”
DJ Khaled — “God Did” Feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, and Fridayy
Gayle — “ABCDEFU”
Harry Styles — “As It Was”
Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Lizzo — “About Damn Time”
Steve Lacy — “Bad Habit”
Taylor Swift — “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)”
Who will win: Adele — “Easy On Me”
Who should win: Taylor Swift — “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)”
The new expanded version of “All Too Well” quickly became one of the most storied songs in Swift’s discography, an oeuvre that has not been wanting of praise. Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield proclaimed the tune “sums up Swift at her absolute best,” and in the age of allegedly waning attention spans, fans have streamed the lengthy song over 450 million times on Spotify and made it the longest No. 1 song in Billboard Hot 100 history. There’s a problem, though: The Grammys honor new music (relatively new, anyway; “ABCDEFU” came out in August 2021). “All Too Well,” which originates from 2012’s Red, isn’t exactly a brand new track. That may dissuade Grammy voters from giving it the trophy, but it also wouldn’t be a crime if Adele’s “Easy On Me,” another powerfully evocative former No. 1 single, ended up winning. Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit” is also worth noting here, as it’s far from a pop tune but has nonetheless had pop tune success and acclaim.
Record Of The Year
ABBA — “Don’t Shut Me Down”
Adele — “Easy On Me”
Beyoncé — “Break My Soul”
Brandi Carlile Featuring Lucius — “You And Me On The Rock”
Doja Cat — “Woman”
Harry Styles — “As It Was”
Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Lizzo — “About Damn Time”
Mary J. Blige — “Good Morning Gorgeous”
Steve Lacy — “Bad Habit”
Who will win: Adele — “Easy On Me”
Who should win: Harry Styles — “As It Was”
First, an important note: The Recording Academy previously explained, “Record Of The Year deals with a specific recording of a song and recognizes the artists, producers and engineers who contribute to that recording, while Song Of The Year deals with the composition of a song and recognizes the songwriters who wrote the song.”
So, broadly, Song is about songwriting and Record is about the finished recording. That said, Harry Styles’ “As It Was” is a gorgeously executed recording deserving of the Record Of The Year title. At its core, it’s a summery pop-rock song that sounds a lot like some beach-faring indie music from years back. But, that aesthetic has been revived and refreshed just enough for modern day, yielding a tune that sounds warmly and breezily nostalgic while also slotting nicely into the current pop landscape. Headphone listeners are rewarded with the one, too, as there are a lot of production treats and intricacies that are hard to appreciate on an iPhone speaker but that give the song new dimension when you pay attention to them. The results really speak for themselves: “As It Was” is the longest-running No. 1 song by a solo artist in Hot 100 history and it appears not too long from now, it’ll become the first song from 2022 to eclipse 2 billion Spotify streams.
Album Of The Year
ABBA — Voyage
Adele — 30
Bad Bunny — Un Verano Sin Ti
Beyoncé — Renaissance
Brandi Carlile — In These Silent Days
Coldplay — Music Of The Spheres
Harry Styles — Harry’s House
Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Lizzo — Special
Mary J. Blige — Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe)
Who will win: Adele — 30
Who should win: Beyoncé — Renaissance
Like many Grammy categories, pitting the nominees against each other is like comparing apples and oranges… and hammers and beach balls and secret family recipes. By what metrics do you measure products as wildly different as Album Of The Year nominees from Brandi Carlile, Adele, Coldplay, and Kendrick Lamar when they’re all up for the same award? It’s a task so impossible, it’s a wonder the Recording Academy is able to come to a decision at all year after year.
Annually, though, they do come up with a pick, one that makes fans mad regardless of who won. However, Beyoncé’s Renaissance would be a hard (but not impossible, as haters will prove should the album win) pick to hate, no matter your disposition. The LP has elements of dance, house, disco, pop, R&B, and probably dozens of other musical styles too numerous to mention here, all delivered by the incomparably confident, capable, and charismatic Beyoncé. Even putting her star power aside, Renaissance is a spectrum-spanning album that is full of mind-blowing musical moments. Here’s something that’s hard to make an argument against: Renaissance defined music in 2022 (and more importantly, during this year’s eligibility window from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022). That sounds like the Album Of The Year to me.
But some of her past looks haven’t been as successful; in a new video for Variety, in which she’s got a cover feature, Doja gives her outfits through the years “smash” or “pass” ratings, shooting down some of her more outrageous ones. Some passes include her self-styled look at the 2014 pre-Grammy party — before she was the Doja we all know and love — and her 2020 AVN performance nude bodysuit.
“I don’t know why I said to contour the ass cheeks,” she wonders. Meanwhile, the “What if I was a worm?” suit from her 2021 VMAs hosting gig gets a “big Thom Browne smash.” “It’s less of a dress, more of a piece of art,” she enthuses, praising its “dramatic, camp” effect.
In addition to commenting on her outfits, Doja offers some observations about her TikTok presence. “I maybe have like five that I really like, but every time I go back, I’m pretty embarrassed,” she admits, before predicting she’s going to delete them all soon.
You can watch Doja Cat’s “smash or pass” video above.
Inependet Music Collection 