Member Since: 11/8/2011
Posts: 31,648
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Kendrick Lamar will win Album of the Year at the Grammys
Quote:
The 56th Grammy Awards are this Sunday, which means we all get another chance to be annoyed by Taylor Swift's enthusiasm (or its 2014 counterpoint, Lorde's apathy), nitpick every outfit and complain about each performance. Hey, that's why we watch, isn't it?
Of course, this year, there's actually another reason to tune in: We'll probably witness history. For the first time ever, a hip-hop track — however you choose to define the term — will more than likely win Song of the Year. I'm talking about Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' equality anthem "Same Love," though given its popularity and message (not to mention this year's scattershot Song category,) that's not exactly a bold prediction.
But this is: Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city is going to win Album of the Year.
And that's historic. Not because it's been a decade since a hip-hop album — OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below — won the night's biggest prize, or that, by winning, the 26-year-old Lamar will have accomplished something that Kanye West, Eminem and Lil Wayne haven't (to say nothing of Jay Z, who's never even been nominated for Album of the Year). No, a win for good kid is significant because it represents the Grammy's redemption.
It's not exactly a stretch to say that the award has had a rather complicated history with hip-hop, beginning with the fact that they didn't recognize it until 1989, when the Best Rap Performance category was unveiled ... though not televised. That lead to boycotts by artists — Jay famously refused to attend the ceremony for years, though he's apparently showing up on Sunday — and scathing criticisms from the likes of West, who has called Grammy voters out of touch and petty (though, to be fair, he's sort of turned complaining about the show into an annual occurrence.)
That said, when you consider that Steely Dan's Two Against Nature once beat Eminem's classic Marshall Mathers LP for Album of the Year (or that Kanye has lost to cover albums by Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock), those critiques seem valid. The same can be said about Steve Stoute's "Open Letter" to the National Recording Academy — penned after Em was upset by Arcade Fire for AOTY — in which he called the Grammys "a series of hypocrisies and contradictions."
Read More: MTV.com
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What do ya'll think? 
Album of the Year
Nominations
Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, m.A.A.D City
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist
Sara Bareilles - The Blessed Unrest
Taylor Swift - Red
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
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