It’s hard to believe that the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards are less than a week away. It seems like only yesterday that a pregnant M.I.A. graced the stage with Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye West and Lil Wayne to perform the epic “Swagga Like Us” and Lil Wayne nabbed four of the five rap awards being given that night. In anticipation of this year’s awards (being broadcast on Sunday, January 31st at 8 P.M. on CBS), Showing Out decided to weigh in on this year’s rap nominees, kicking things off by taking a closer look at the songwriting award, Best Rap Song, which honors songwriters for a single or track submitted for nomination. Hit the jump to get the full rundown on this year’s nominees for Best Rap Song, and check back all this week to get the rundown on each rap category.
The Nominees:
Best I Ever Had (Drake)
Dwayne Carter, Aubrey Drake Graham & Matthew Samuels, songwriters (Nakia S. Coleman & Danny Robert Hamilton, songwriters)
[Aspire/Young Money/Cash Money; Publisher: Sony/ATV Tunes.]Day ‘N’ Nite (Kid CuDi)
S. Mescudi & O. Omishore, songwriters
[Universal Motown/Good/Fool's Gold; Publishers: Elsie's Baby Boy, Owo Olorun, Universal Music Publishing.]Dead And Gone (T.I. featuring Justin Timberlake)
C. Harris, R. Tadross & J. Timberlake, songwriters
Track from: Paper Trail
[Grand Hustle/Atlantic; Publishers: Crown Club Publishing/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing/Tenman Tunes/Universal Z Tunes/Cleopatra's Sons Music/EMI April Music.]D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune) (Jay-Z)
Shawn Carter & Ernest Wilson, songwriters (Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, Paul Leka, Janko Nilovic & Dave Sucky, songwriters)
[Atlantic; Publishers: EMI April Music, Carter Boys Music/Chrysalis Songs/No ID Music, Unichappell Music, APM Music.]Run This Town (Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West)
Jeff Bhasker, Shawn Carter, Robyn Fenty, Kanye West & Ernest Wilson, songwriters (Athanasios Alatas, songwriter)
[Roc Nation; Publishers: EMI April Music, Carter Boys Music/Please Gimme My Publishing/EMI Blackwood/Chrysalis Songs/No ID Music/All The Above Publishing/Sony ATV/Annauhi Music/Athanasios Alatas Publishing.]
Who Should Win
In all fairness, Drake had one of the best-written rap singles to be released in 2009. To look at the track from the songwriting perspective, Drake struck a wonderful balance between singing and rapping in the same way that Kid CuDi did with “Day ‘N’ Nite,” but Drake seemed to be much more comfortable flipping between styles. Not only that, but his sense of melody made for a much more enticing track. And in all fairness, Jay-Z and T.I. didn’t necessarily do anything but write raps and ride a beat, which isn’t to detract from their artistry, but the craftsmanship in clearly more evident in “Best I Ever Had” (the same cannot be said for the video - we’re still scratching our heads over what went wrong there).
Who Will Win
Drake. While Jay-Z has been a Grammy favorite in the past, it seems like it would be too convenient for Jay to beat himself in the category. And as for T.I., “Dead and Gone” wasn’t anything more than a radio single, and while he’s nabbed a few trophies in the past, this one was far from the best single that T.I. released off Paper Trail. CuDi, meanwhile, managed to nab himself a hit, but Grammy voters don’t tend to take too kindly to those that make complete fools of themselves so early in their career - and rarely give the award to newcomers, period. But Drake, on the other hand, is pretty much loved by everyone, and it would be a surprise if those with ballots didn’t vote for the song, even if it was their guiltiest pleasure.
Who’s Missing
As far as songwriting goes, you could easily include Q-Tip or Mos Def in this category. Those two spent so long putting together their fantastic albums, and the songs that made the final cuts ended up being not just excellent rap song, but well-written songs. If the Grammy squad had decided not to cater to such mainstream tastes, these two should definitely have made the cut. And they should have, considering that “D.O.A.” and “Run This Town” got nominations. Really, Grammys? Two nominations? Spread the love.
