I wanted Kendrick Lamar to win the Grammy for best rap album for obvious and probably selfish reasons. I know Macklemore probably had the bigger mainstream year with “Thrift Shop” and his politically charged track “Same Love”. I also knew that Kendrick did not stand a chance. If anyone would have told me back in ’09 that Macklemore would have beat out Kendrick Lamar, then K-Dot, for a Grammy in literally every rap category, I would have laughed you out the building. Kendrick has been crowned the Prince of hip-hop and King of the West Coast for the last several years. He has released 2 critically acclaimed projects before Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. Macklemore had released an album and a few EPs over the years, with little recognition, leading up to The Heist. Of the two, I believe that Kendrick had the better album, though I don’t get a Grammy vote. There has been a ton of backlash towards Macklemore because he beat out Kendrick. I mean most of you were dancing to “Thift Shop” before it got big and you know it. I really don’t care for dudes music and I never have, that song was catchy though. So what makes you “discount” his music now that he beat out Kendrick? Discount, get it?, ha, anyway would it be different if Kendrick would have won at least one award last night? Macklemore himself knows that Kendrick deserved to win. What if he would have said so during his acceptance speech. Would the hate still have been so much?

A lot can be learned when comparing the two acts last night, Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons performed a mash-up of their smash hits “Maad City” & “Radioactive”. A spectacular performance that was executed flawlessly. Regarded by many as the not just the best performance of the night but the best Grammy live act in a years. Macklemore performed his “controversial” track “Same Love” with Mary Lambert (who co-wrote the song), Trombone Shorty, Queen Latifah who married 33 couples (although the television cameras still wouldn’t show anyone kissing), and Madonna’s sorry, Boss Hogg, calling her son a *****, looking self. It seemed more like a publicity stunt using Macklemore, sans Ryan Lewis, as the main attraction. This is where I believe the line is drawn. Kendrick Lamar is an artist, he lives his art, he is Hip-Hop. He will continue to make great records and we will continue to support him. Macklemore is a nice story, he almost gave up on making music. Then teamed up with Ryan Lewis and started making music again and then a few years down the road they strike gold or platinum rather. The mainstream has continually looked for it’s great white hope in the Rap industry. Vanilla Ice couldn’t do it, Eminem wouldn’t do it, so what will Macklemore be? I don’t know if Macklemore has the ability to be it. Maybe he does. Time will tell. That is what was at work last night, Kendrick Lamar had a great album and in most any other year would have won numerous awards. Unfortunately he went up against the machine, a machine who wants to create stars but prefers those stars to be on the lighter end of the color prism.