The Grammys are out of touch. I really like Kendrick Lamar, but being nominated for 11 awards for "To Pimp a Butterfly" is more than a stretch. Given his album was unique, from an art perspective - it's not even close to Kanye West's 2010 release of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" which was snubbed. Kendrick's work was nominated for Album of The Year and Best Music Video while MBDTF wasn't nominated for either (even with an entire short film of the album from Kanye Below.) Kanye did get nominated for Song of The year w/All of The Lights, but only received 3 nods overall.
In my mind MBDTF may go down as the best "album" (because it's meant to be listened to as one work) of our time (not just rap) and wasn't even considered outside of the rap category. To me, Runaway is a timeless listen and a clear Song of The Year candidate, but I can't think of a track from Kendrick that brought it all together like that. Listen to these back to back...
I understand the cultural influence of Kendrick's samples and themes - I get it. The jazz elements, and historical references - but I don't think simply going for it is enough. Bringing a mix of culturally relevant mechanisms to your music make the generations build on each other and can come together in a way that cuts through the fabric and connect us all - thats what GREAT music is about. But I don't get that from "To Pimp a Butterfly."
I see an interesting statement that isn't complete. Why rap over Jazz if no one can get through the entire song without gritting their teeth? It doesn't come together in a way that I both get intellectually and feel in my bones. I can't see the merit in Kendrick's work beyond a talking point at a party. "Hey isn't this wild - he's rapping over jazz" doesn't mean anything to me if the work itself doesn't move me.
MBDTF does that - on nearly every track. I just listened to "Blame Game" again and it still stands. Kanye's voice distortion pitting himself against himself against another self is both incredible, fun to listen to, and sad at once. The raw power of pulling artistic elements together is also displayed on the opener and title track "Dark Fantasy". This features a chorus, another rapper (Minaj - who doesn't rap) and a hard verse from Kanye that provokes thought ("Refresh the page, restart the memory - respark the soul, rebuild the energy") and gives raw style sound bites (I'm Just a ChiTown Ni**a w/a Nas Flow). Not to mention the brilliance of collaborating heavy w/Bon Iver on the production - who was the best new artist of that year and in many ways owes his mass appeal to this album.
In any case, the grammy's are out of their element in modern music, particularly when it comes to hip hop and need to get up to speed quickly or die out like the rest of the antiquated media money machine fixtures wasting our time and news feeds. And I want to like the Grammys! I like the tradition, the honor. But get it right.