So far, we’ve taken a look at the nominees for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album for this year’s Grammy Awards, taking place this Sunday at 8 P.M. on CBS. Now, it’s time to swing the spotlight on the nominees for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. The nominees in this category don’t necessarily stray from the main artists nominated for other awards, but the chosen songs are definitely not ones that you’d expect to see on a Grammy roster. As the third of the five rap awards being given this year, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group has some tough competition. Hit the jump to see the nominees and read who we think should win, will win and is missing from the list.
The Nominees
Too Many Rappers
Beastie Boys & Nas
[Capitol]Crack A Bottle
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent
Track from: Relapse
[Aftermath/Interscope]Money Goes, Honey Stay
Fabolous & Jay-Z
Track from: Loso’s Way
[Def Jam]Make Her Say
Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common
[Universal Motown/GOOD Music]Amazing
Kanye West & Young Jeezy
Track from: 808s & Heartbreak
[Roc-A-Fella]
Who Should Win
Clearly, this one is going to be a rough and tumble battle for the trophy. So instead of starting off by saying who we think should win, let’s focus on who shouldn’t. As much as Nas and the Beastie Boys did their thing on the powerful “Too Many Rappers,” this seems like a track that was thrown into the mix just to fill out the category. It doesn’t really stand on its own as well as the others, and without the context of an album, it’s just a loosie of a song. And as far as Loso’s “Money Goes, Honeys Stay” goes, Fabolous and Jay did their thing on the track, but it doesn’t have that classic award-worthy feel to it. “Crack a Bottle,” on the other hand, is grating with its singsong chorus, and clearly is not the best track we’ve heard by Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. That leaves “Make Her Say” and “Amazing,” two songs that equally deserve the trophy. We’ll leave it at that.
Who’s Going to Win
While the Grammy voters could throw a curveball here, it’s likely that Eminem will take home the track. We already expressed that this is far from Em’s best, so this would be more of an award given based on popularity and sales than anything else. But as far as we know, they could also throw this Grammy to Kanye for “Amazing,” one of the standouts from 808s & Heartbreak that still knocks to this day. But we wouldn’t put our money on Kanye. Marshall will probably be adding this trophy to his mantelpiece.
Who’s Missing
How about Slaughterhouse’s “The One” or Rick Ross’ “Maybach Music Pt. 2″ featuring Kanye West, T-Pain and Lil Wayne? Both of those tracks were infinitely superior to “Crack a Bottle” and “Money Goes, Honeys Stay,” which seem like consolation nominations when pitted against tracks like those. Or what about a collabo between Mos Def and Talib Kweli? Their Black Star reunion on “History” off of ’09’s The Ecstatic was underground rap at its finest. The Grammys should have thought twice before clotting the nominations list with unreasonable choices.
