Even if Kanye West decided to make a normal rap album this year rather than his poppy achy breaky heart album ”808s and Heartbreak,” he probably wouldn’t have won just because that ridiculous stunt he pulled on Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards. Either way he did leave one spot open for someone new to take home the rap album of the year so thanks for that Kanye.
Good old Hova will also be absent from the nomination for best rap album due to the one month advance to the eligibility period. Put simply his album released too late to be considered for the 2010 Grammy’s. This is good news for Eminem because “The Blue Print 3″ was pretty incredible and I’m not even that big of a Jay-Z fan.
Other nominees include Q-Tip, Common, Mos Def, and Flo Rida. Q-Tip’s album “The Renaissance” included some interesting collaborations with my girl Norah Jones and Timberland’s past project Nelly Furtado. This would normally be something that Grammy judges eat up but they simply won’t be able to ignore Eminem’s much anticipated album from a five year absence which sold off the charts.
I confidently believe that Eminem’s Relapse has the best rap album of the year on lock down and he will be taking home that shiny new award to put right next to the other three he probably has in his basement somewhere.
Q-Tip’s single “Getting Up” from his Grammy nominated album “The Renaissance”
Common’s track “Everywhere” featuring Martina Topley-Bird from his Grammy nominated album “Universal Mind Control”
Jay-Z talked about Eminem’s fame, Kanye West, Obama, and Clinton in a recent interview with Interview Magazine. Here is what he said about our man Eminem…
“I never even told him this, but I remember that Eminem came into the studio when we made ‘Moment of Clarity,’ which he produced, on The Black Album. So here’s Eminem. It’s 2003, I think The Eminem Show had come out, and he was like the biggest rapper in the world—he sold like 20 million records worldwide or some ridiculous number. But when he came to the studio, I remember I hugged him, and I could feel that he had on a bulletproof vest. I couldn’t imagine being that successful. I mean, he’s a guy who loves rap and wanted to be successful his whole career. Then he finally gets it, and there’s this dark cloud over him.”
Just for kicks I thought I would include one of my all time favorite songs, “Renagade” by Jay-Z featuring Eminem live. Listen to when Eminem surprises the audience, they go nuts!
