It’s that time of year again, that magical span of Sunday evenings where the good viewing public gets to sit back and watch as our favorite artists and entertainers all ceremoniously pat each other on the back. That’s right, it’s awards season.
Sunday night, for those of you who are living under a rock, the 56th annual Grammy Awards were held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA and the famous and glamorous alike turned up by the boat load. Since there is so much to discuss when it comes to events of this nature, i.e. how hideous that dress looked, how stupid that comment was, Pharrell’s rodeo-themed choice of headwear, etc. But for the sake of brevity I will narrow this down to three compelling aspects of the most discussed music award show (if you want fashion advice, maybe check out E!).
First and foremost, I want to talk about the public instance of grand larceny that occurred in front of millions of home viewers Sunday night. I’m talking, of course, about the Best Rap Album award that went to everyone between the ages of 11-14’s favorite rapper: Macklemore! To put this into context, Macklemore’s album “The Heist” went up against musical masterpiece “Good Kid M.A.A.D City,” Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore effort. GKMC is of the most heavily lauded albums of the new millennium. It transcends its own genre and has been hailed as an innovative piece of art that conjures the image of a short film in the listener’s head. The other nominees were Drake’s highly regarded album “Nothing Was The Same” and Kanye West’s triumph “YEEZUS,” both of which received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. J. Cole’s commercially successful sophomore album, “Born Sinner,” did not even receive a nomination. When Macklemore took the prize for “The Heist” there was an immediate outcry via various social media outlets calling for justice and claiming that Kendrick had been robbed.
The Best Rap Album title was awarded during the pre-Grammys, meaning that before the show aired Macklemore had already decidedly won. However, the most interesting aspect of Macklemore winning the award was that Macklemore himself admitted that he did not deserve to win. After the award show, the Seattle native took to Instagram, revealing a text message that he sent to Kendrick Lamar during the show. In the message Macklemore writes, “You got robbed, I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and it sucks that I robbed you.” If that isn’t definitive enough proof that the Grammys erred in this category selection, I don’t know what is; how often do we see the winner claiming he did not deserve to win? Rarely do we see anything gracious when it comes to the megalomaniacs that we call celebrities so it was pretty fascinating to hear Macklemore respond in such a way.
Kendrick performed later on in the evening with pop-rock group Imagine Dragons and delivered a raspy, visceral verse as he threw up all over a heavily synthesized rock beat. Definitely check that out, it is something worth hearing.
Another extremely compelling aspect of Sunday’s show was Beyonce’s steamy performance of “Drunk in Love,” during which she brought her superstar hubby, Hova, on to the stage to perform a very sensuous verse to a song that is riddled with sexuality. The risqué number sparked a lot of controversy amongst parents who feared that Beyonce’s sexy performance and content was inappropriate for its 8 p.m. time slot. Beyonce donned a revealing, thin black dress and steam clouds both literally and figuratively surrounded the stage as she twerked up a storm that even Miley would be proud of. Beyonce delivered an electrifying verse to the song and the entire arena was really getting into it. Midway through the song, Jay Z popped out on stage and began rapping. The crowd erupted the moment the legend walked on. He and Beyonce proved that marriage can still be sexy as they embraced on stage for a moment in the middle of performing together. Despite the controversy stirred up on stage, Beyonce delivered in a big way: the culture of music is shifting to a more subversive place and Beyonce is holding her own. I think it’s amazing that she has managed to remain so strikingly relevant over such a long span of time.
Finally, I wanted to talk about Daft Punk, and more specifically the collaborator behind hit song “Get Lucky,” Pharrell. Daft Punk took home top prize of Album of the Year for their hit album “Random Access Memories.” It’s amazing to me that in the year 2014 Daft Punk would win such a prize, especially because the trajectory of their career saw them fading long before now; however, with the help of the musical magician Pharrell and quick paced pop-syntho beats, Daft Punk has managed to not only become relevant again, but to be back on top.
