Urban Contemporary Album
"Ego Death," the Internet
When Kendrick Lamar Duckworth won tonight, Compton won. Mr. Duckworth's achievements further Compton's legacy of ingenuity and excellence. He represents Compton's evolution, embodying the New Vision for Compton: purpose, prosperity and progress. I appreciate — we appreciate — Mr. Lamar always representing Compton with great pride in any venue he’s in, from the White House to the Grammys.
Is there a lesson the Motion Picture Academy might learn from the Recording Academy to make its award nominations more reflective of the world at large?
That question was put to veteran record company executive Clive Davis and Recording Academy President Neil Portnow in the days leading up to Monday night’s 58th Grammy Awards ceremony.
“I’m not coming out here to critique anyone,” Davis, 83, said with a smile last week at his hotel suite while making plans for his annual pre-Grammy Gala held Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “But I think you have to take a look at how you do things if you overlook a film like ‘Straight Outta Compton.'
When artists drift out of tune on live TV, or find that their bodies and schedules have failed them ... it’s a last vestige of the kind of animal fear that can grip even the mighty.
Adele’s piano-mic kerplunk. Rihanna calling in sick, and Lauryn Hill not showing up. Jack U’s shaggy-dog set of electro-emo with Justin Bieber.
This year’s Grammys were full of the rarest things in pop music today — mistakes. Not social media meltdowns, bizarre rap beefs or surprise album leaks patched over with duct tape on Tidal. These were earnest attempts to find greatness that fell dramatically, unmistakably flat.
And the Grammys were all the better for it.
James Corden, the late-night host most likely to share intimate moments with his audience, leaned into his desk not long after the conclusion of Monday's Grammys ceremony and asked, "Do you want to hear some inside info — gossip" about Rihanna and the Grammys?
With his audience cheering and egging him on, "The Late Late Show" host revealed details about the Grammys performance we would have seen — if a doctor hadn't intervened at the last minute to say that Rihanna "could really damage her voice," as Corden put it, if she went forward with the song.
Corden, it turns out, was supposed to play a 1980s-era talk show host who would introduce Rihanna and then pretend to interview her on a show that would have been called "As It Lays." Rihanna was going to sing "Kiss It Better" and showed up to rehearsal Saturday, Corden said, "a bit under the weather," but ready to perform.
The Grammys are a live event, and live events by nature aren't perfect. Backstage in the press room Monday, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow spoke about the night's snafus, including Adele's performance problems, an absent Rihanna and the Lauryn Hill rumors.
The Grammy Awards are usually reliable for over-the-top, censor-vexing fashion, but with the notable exception of Joy Villa, who dressed in what appeared to be animal bones, the stars who hit the red carpet at Monday's show kept things noticeably dialed down. When old-school black and white is the most noticeable trend, you know you've got a tame red carpet.
Look, there was a lot going on -- especially right at the end, with that overstuffed “In Memoriam” sequence, Taylor Swift’s implied dig at Kanye West and the heavenly sight of Beyoncé dressed as a doily.
But the morning after the Grammy Awards, with our heads beginning to clear, a shocking fact is swimming to the surface, one that nobody seemed to notice during the show itself.
Joe Perry performed Monday night on two separate occasions. As part of the Grammy Awards. In 2016.
Before Monday night's Grammys ceremony, there was talk that a big win for Taylor Swift could register as a loss for the pop superstar in this year of heightened awareness over the need for more awards-season diversity. But when she was named winner of album of the year, a savvy Swift turned her acceptance speech into a inspirational call-out to women -- and a dig at Kanye West.