"Win Y'all Hearts Before I Win a Grammy": Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Grammy Wins

Well, it was what we thought it was. The 2014 Grammy Awards came and went, with the same frustration and disappointment that seems to follow the milestone award ceremony year-to-year. After a run-up to the show that included the judges for Hip-Hop suggesting that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis not be included in the rap category for their album, The Heist, which eventually stayed put, winning that and sweeping the rap category. A lot else happened at this year's Grammys, but this may have been the biggest robbery since Naughty By Nature's Poverty's Paradise beat out 2pac's Me Against The World in 1996, the first year the title was a part of the festivities. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis deserve a ton of credit, and they certainly received it last night, but The Heist was not the best rap album of the year by any stretch. To be fair, Kendrick's Good Kid, m.A.A.d City should have been last year's Rap Album of the Year, having been released in October of 2012, but nonetheless was the most powerful album on the list by far.

Last night Macklemore & Ryan Lewis very well may have realized both the best and possibly most damaging moment of their careers. A lot was written about 'white privilege' in hip-hop and the Grammys at large and the inevitability of the Seattle rapper walking away with the golden gramophone. To be fair, The Heist deserves accolades, but different ones. It is a huge independent success that has laid a road for artists like Chance The Rapper to keep from signing, and furthered the ability of an artist to create music creatively and find an outlet, but even he knew what would happen if the Grammy voters were as un-inventive as ever, choosing him for every award available.  In an interview with The Source Macklemore said: "“We’re up against Kendrick, who made a phenomenal album. If we win a Grammy for Best Rap Album, hip-hop is going to be heated. In terms of [that category], I think it should go to Kendrick. He’s family. TDE is family, and I understand why hip-hop would feel like Kendrick got robbed [if he didn’t win]."

One thing is for sure; Kendrick got robbed. No one in the building or watching on TV last night can dispute that, but at least they got it wrong with the right guy. With a message behind his music that saw 33 gay marriages happen live onstage, Macklemore allowed an optimistic spirit in a year when we crept to the edge of the fiscal cliff several times while battling each other over petty social issues seemingly on the daily. The hip-hop game needed a breath of fresh air and got it in Kendrick Lamar, but the greater world needed a breath of fresh air from day-to-day life, and that's what Macklemore & Ryan Lewis provided. On his 2009 mixtape, The Kendrick Lamar EP, K Dot rhymes, "See y'all don't understand me/My plan B is to win y'all hearts before I win a Grammy." With those bars in mind, perhaps no one understands Kendrick's loss better than him.

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Macklemore's text to Kendrick afterwards.

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[Video] 2014 Grammy Awards Performance Recap

While the awards may have left some excitement on the table, the performances of the 2014 Grammy Awards certainly did not disappoint. Jay-Z and Beyonce started things off with a rousing performance of their track "Drunk in Love" from her recent release that got the energy going in the Staples Center. Lorde performed her 2013 seminal track "Royals" to a certain degree of minimalism, sporting a darker new look and Pharrell and Daft Punk teamed up with none other than Stevie Wonder for a rendition of "Get Lucky" which went on to win record of the year and Kendrick Lamar linked up with Imagine Dragons for an inspired performance than skipped across songs, opening with "m.A.A.d City" which had at least two in the front row out of their seats. Alas, all the showmanship was thus in vain to the almighty Macklemore & Ryan Louis whose Teflon-esque evening continued into their live performance as they trumped the rest of the field by hosting 33 gay marriages onstage with Madonna. There's a lot you can do to create entertainment, but I have to say there's not much more than that. We rounded up the whole lot of Grammy performances and have them streaming here below for your viewing pleasure. Check them out and stay tuned to RH for continuing Grammy coverage.

Beyonce & Jay Z: "Drunk In Love"

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Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar: "Radioactive"

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Lorde: "Royals"

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Pharrell, Stevie Wonder & Daft Punk:

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Katy Perry & Juicy J: "Dark Horse"

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Taylor Swift: "All Too Well"

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Keith Urban & Gary Clark Jr. "Cop Car"

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Pink: "Try"

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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert & Madonna 'Same Love"

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[Video] Schoolboy Q Announces "#OXYMORON" Release Date

The collective of Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and now SZA and Isaiah Rashad, have established themselves atop the overall music landscape as the team to beat. Top Dawg Entertainment, TDE for short, has grown the larger group on the strength of Lamar's breakthrough album, Good Kid m.a.a.d. City, released late last year. With a steady run of solid features and loosie single since his 2011 critically-acclaimed release, Habits and Contradictions, Schoolboy Q's proper album debut, Oxymoron has been one of the most anticipated projects on the horizon for some time now. Today, Q announced the arrival date for the project in a video with his daughter, Joy. The project drops officially on February 27, at which point TDE may very well have a full-nelson on the rap game. Check out the cute video of Q and Joy below making the announcement and keep it locked to RH for continuing coverage.

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Grading the Grammy Nominations

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As the music industry has evolved over the past decade into the digital world, things have changed quite a bit. Hard copies are hardly ever bought anymore, nor does anyone seem to buy whole albums at all, as the iTunes Store model has taken over and the industry has increasingly become about what the consumer wants as opposed to what the labels want the listeners to hear. While this has resulted in a sort of musical reawakening, creating a culture where listeners can stream, download or play any track they can think of with the touch of a button, music has expanded at a rapid pace, creating new genres and sub-genres and infinite new off-shoots that don't fit cleanly into any one established genre or sound.

Standing behind this industry, bearing the largest prize of all, is the Grammy Awards. This year, the award show enters its 56th installment and, while a dance music category was finally introduced last year, the judging seems more out of touch than ever, but of course this has been an issue for some time. The Grammys are like Social Security. You don't really care about it much until you're too old to get up from the sofa. Generations have rallied against the award for years. In 1991 Sinead O'Connor simply refused to show up and boycotted the show, despite being nominated in four categories. After winning "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1998, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder stood onstage perplexed and, staring at the golden trophy, said into the microphone, "I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything." It's not news that the team behind the Grammy Awards has been out of touch for some time, but at no time in history has it been so blatantly about the money in an industry that today makes significantly less money than it used to. It's macroeconomics of the current American condition played out with celebrities and gold gramophone statues. Plus, Kanye already spoke out. So, for this latest round of Grammy nominations, I figured I would sift through who was chosen and offer up my own choices for the top prizes in music this year.


[Video] Isaiah Rashad: "Ronnie Drake"

In case you haven't noticed, TDE is a pretty big deal these days. The latest from Top Dawg Entertainment comes from the pair of recent signees, Isaiah Rashad and SZA. The newbies show they can certainly hold their own, proving why they were tapped by Kendrick, Schoolboy, Ab and Jay Rock to join the team. The video here is directed by Fredo Tovar and Scott Fleishman and eschews stereotypical hip-hop motifs for a more organic, grassroots approach that accentuates Rashad's lyrical ability.Keep an eye out for his upcoming release, Cilvia, due out soon and check the video out below.

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Schoolboy Q: "Man of the Year"

If you haven't already heard, Kendrick Lamar was named 'Man of the Year' by GQ Magazine recently. While TDE's owner, Anthony Tiffith, took issue with the cover story written in honor of the recognition, Schoolboy Q struck a different tone by releasing this single, "Man of the Year" today. The celebratory track is an ode to how tight the TDE crew is and is an appropriate ode to the year Kendrick has had and the positioning Tiffith and TDE have done to place themselves firmly in the center of anything that happens in hip-hop today.

"It’s a party over here/Shake it for the man of the year/Uh ma-man of the year/Ma-man of the bounce" (RapGenius)


[RH Editorial] Why TDE's 'Top Dawg' Isn't Happy With GQ

Last week, Kendrick Lamar added to the illustrious 2013 he has enjoyed by being named GQ’s “Man of the Year”, complete with cover story and a party/performance in his honor. What should have been a landmark event for the Los Angeles MC instead turned sour after the “Top Dog” of Top Dawg Entertainment (Kendrick’s Label), Anthony Tiffith, pulled Lamar from the performance at the party, citing problems with the way the story was written and going as far as to point to “racial overtones” in the article as a reason for the cancellation. While on the surface, the move may be viewed by many as a bad one by Tiffith, looking further into the reason why he made such a bold statement at such a traditionally celebratory moment demonstrates the growth of a genre not only in the product, but in the way it is marketed.

Seventeen years ago, Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas. Under a year later, Biggie Smalls followed suit in Los Angeles. Those two deaths forever changed hip hop music from top to bottom in ways that we are now just realizing, as the youth that lost their heroes become the artists in the spotlight. It is something that has been discussed at length throughout the year, the new state of hip hop in which “beefs” have been replaced by sub-tweets and everyone is friends for the camera. It’s the world of hyper-manicured personas and multi-million dollar endorsement and marketing deals. The interesting thing about Kendrick Lamar and TDE is that he came from a typically Gangsta Rap locale spitting stories seemingly written in a diary about how to cope with the world around him. He wasn’t marketed as a gangster, a thug, or someone to be afraid of. Instead, Lamar has been ushered to the public eye as a true lyricist and artist to be reckoned with. It is because of this difference that Tiffin was enraged at the antiquated aesthetics with which GQ’s Steve Marsh penned his cover story on Lamar.

TDE is easily one of the most carefully manicured outfits in hip hop today. The crew of Jay Rock, Ab Soul, Schoolboy Q, Isiah Rashad and SZA is a tight-knit clan, hungry and eager. They have been groomed by Tiffith and established a sort of team mentality that has in turn produced a sort of family atmosphere among the group. They are artists from different backgrounds, with different stories. Kendrick, Ab, Schoolboy and Jay Rock are all from the LA area, but possess myriad different stories of their experiences there, while SZA hails from St. Louis and Rashad from Tennessee. TDE has slowly and steadily made their rise to the top of the hip hop game in a way that forewent selling an image to potential fans, instead opting to pitch a story, an art-form. It is much the way individual back stories drive the narratives of individual sports like golf or tennis as opposed to the big hits and shiny lights of basketball or baseball. They’re selling intellect, not brawn in a genre that has long leaned toward the latter.

In his article, Marsh described his “surprise” at the discipline of Tiffith’s stable of artists, projecting TDE to one of the darkest times of West Coast hip hop by calling the label the “baby Death Row Records,” and referencing Tiffith as “basically TDE's Suge Knight.” The rest of the article is certainly complimentary of the job Lamar and Tiffith do, but even just those small mentions were enough to expose Marsh as a writer out of touch with today’s hip hop climate. The reason for Tiffith’s anger and eventual pulling of Kendrick’s performance was explained in an open letter from the CEO, explaining: “Instead of putting emphasis on the good that TDE has done for West Coast music, and for hip hop as a whole, he spoke on what most people would consider what’s wrong with hip hop music.”

Hip hop has changed. It is no longer a fringe genre with colorful characters and off-the-wall personalities. Today, it is a real business, perhaps the most influential genre in the pop culture lexicon, and the people involved with the music and the artists that populate it understand this and have followed suit. The issue with this change is that it has happened somewhat suddenly; it’s just under the past 9 years since Kanye West’s College Dropout came out and pink polos became okay in the game. What has been slower to change, however, are others’ views of hip hop. Marsh seems to have a cerebral grasp of hip hop culture, but is unable to let go of the idea of the West Coast as a “gangsta’s paradise”, is too focused on how Kendrick doesn’t drink or smoke to spend the necessary amount of time talking about his team’s headiness or poetic lyricism. It is because Marsh chose to look backward in telling the story of a forward-thinking star that Tiffith found issue with the article, and rightfully so. By putting Tiffith and TDE in the realm of Death Row is to truly play your hand in how to decipher the rap game today.


Fredo Santana: "Jealous" (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

Fredo Santana's Trappin Ain't Dead suffered a delay due to issues with iTunes. Nevertheless, the GBE artist decided to reward his fans' patience with a leak from the album. "Jealous" is probably the most attention-grabbing track on the LP, and it's largely due to the Kendrick Lamar feature that nobody saw coming. The song still works on all levels and is one of the best tracks I've heard this Fall.

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