The absurd shutout of The Weeknd may be the most reprehensible of this year’s Grammy injustices, but the nominations in the Rap Album category come in a close second. The median age of the artists therein is 43, and not a single title in that list was among the many hip-hop releases that ruled the culture and the marketplace over the last year. Putting aside the exclusion of these artists from Album of the Year, on what planet do you have five contenders for Rap Album and not one of them is Lil Baby, DaBaby, Juice WRLD, Pop Smoke, Lil Uzi Vert or Roddy Ricch? It seems insanely out of touch and certainly not a reflection of popular sentiment—only in Bizarro World would these huge artists be shunted aside. Who voted for this?
HITS LIST: RULES
FOR ENTRY It's exclusive, but you're invited to come on in. (4/19a)
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RHYTHM, BLUES AND THE FUTURE
The musical tapestry we know as R&B.
WHO'S NEXT?
Predicting the next big catalog deal.
JUST THE VAX, MA'AM
Once we all get vaccinated, how long before we can party?
WORLDWIDE GROOVE
How is globalization bringing far-flung territories into the musical mainstream?
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