Los Angeles – Lamar’s album “To Pimp a Butterfly” has 11 nominations for the 58th annual Grammy Awards on Monday night.
The rapper has shown very ambitiously since the nominations were announced back in December and even told a reporter from Billboard magazine he wants to win them all.
Despite the rapper’s desires, the history of the award is not on his side. He is well expected to do great in the rap category, some even say he could win all four awards around the gender, but winning album of the years might not be so secure.
In previous years, the top honor of the night has gone to best-selling artists like Adele or Taylor Swift and to veterans like Herbie Hancock or Robert Plant. But in the history of the Grammy, Hip-hop albums have conquered the biggest honor of the night only twice.
“It’s bigger than me. When we think about the Grammys, only Lauryn Hill and Outkast have won album of the year. This would be big for hip-hop culture at large,” the rapper from Compton recently said to Billboard Magazine.
Many different media like Rolling Stone Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, the Guardian and Pitchfork agree Lamar’s album is the best of 2016 and Even President Barack Obama declared “To Pimp a Butterfly” was the best album of the year in a recent YouTube interview.
Hilary Hughes, music editor for the Village Voice also agrees that “To Pimp a Butterfly” was the top album of the year, according to this year’s Pazz and Jop poll of more than 500 music critics. Paul Porter, the founder of RapRehab.com and a former BET exec, says that this year the system favors Lamar.
The entire academy votes for the album of the year, the best new artist, record, and song of the year but just those members involved in a specific genre decide the winners by field. That’s why Lamar’s chances to win inside the rap category are bigger and better.
Lamar has been privileged with a big honor from Compton, the city where he grew up, on Friday. Compton officials announced that the rapper will receive the key to the city this weekend.
Source: Billboard