Yesterday, we took a look at the nominees for Best Rap Song for this year’s 2010 Grammy Awards, taking place this Sunday at 8 P.M. on CBS. As the ceremony approaches, we continue taking a closer at each of the nominees for awards in the rap category. For the biggest award in the category, Best Rap Album, 2010 features some able competitors, with a trio of backpack rappers (Q-Tip, Mos Def and Common) going head-to-head with Eminem and Flo Rida (though let’s face it, Flo Rida’s nomination was all about mainstream acknowledgment instead of quality – that album was terrible). Without further ado, here’s Showing Out’s breakdown of this year’s nominees for the Grammy for Best Rap Album.
The Nominees
Universal Mind Control
Common
[Geffen]Relapse
Eminem
[Aftermath/Interscope]R.O.O.T.S.
Flo Rida
[Poe Boy/Atlantic]The Ecstatic
Mos Def
[Downtown Records]The Renaissance
Q-Tip
[Universal Motown]
Who Should Win
The competition here is pretty tough, but The Renaissance and The Ecstatic are the best of the nominees – not to mention some of the best albums of last year (even though Q-Tip’s album was released in 2008, but it made the Grammy cutoff date). Mos Def created one of his best albums to date, swirling together indie production care of Madlib, Oh No, J. Dilla, Georgia Anne Muldrow and more and peppering each beat with lyrically dense, socio-political rhymes for the record books. Meanwhile, Q-Tip followed up 1999’s Amplified with a velvety jazz-inflected romp, making the decade-long wait for a sophomore release more than worth it. If the trophy goes to anyone in the category, it should be these two.
Who Will Win
Eminem. Not only has Marshall won nine Grammy Awards throughout his career, but he continues to be a Grammy favorite in spite of the quality of his albums. Relapse is far from his best – in fact, it could quite possibly be his worst – but the Grammys don’t award artists for the quality of their music. Eminem had the highest-selling rap release of 2009, and by today’s standards, the album was decent, making it a clear frontrunner for the trophy. And not only that, but the Grammys rarely take a chance and award Best Rap Album to an indie release – just take a look at past years (Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III in ’09, Kanye West’s Graduation in ’08, Ludacris’ Release Therapy in ’07 – you get the picture). Considering that Em has won this award three times before, we wouldn’t be surprised if he went home with the statue.
Who’s Missing
While it wasn’t the best album of 2009, Kid CuDi’s debut Man on the Moon: The End of Days should have at least been given a nod instead of Flo Rida’s R.O.O.T.S. (we still can’t believe it was included for any nominations). If they really wanted to throw the awards for a loop, they could have nominated Doom’s Born Like This, an album as skittish and muddled as it was captivating and boundary-pushing. Or, they could have even gone political and given a nomination to K’Naan for the excellent Troubador. But no, they had to make room for Flo Rida. Tell us how this makes sense.
