BY DAN GARCIA
The official nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards were announced earlier today and while none of their picks were major surprises, artists like Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd are looking to win big when the awards are announced next year on February 15th, 2016. And if reading the list of nominations has your scratching your head, wondering who will pick up the W for each particular category, don’t worry! We have the work cut out for you as we put together our list of predictions for some of Grammy‘s biggest categories.
Check out our predictions for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards below.
Best New Artist
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly
Meghan Trainor
Arguably this is one of the weakest years for the “Best New Artist” category. While the category gave nod to some super talented artists like Courtney Barnett, James Bay and more, this year’s best new artists don’t appear to compete with groups from previous years. Having said that though, it is likely that the exciting young rocker James Bay will take him the Grammy. His album Chaos and the Calm has a good chance of taking home the award for Best Rock Album, his track ‘Hold Back The River’ is nominated for Best Rock Song and overall the man is just too good. While other artists, including Country music’s Sam Hunt, are nominated for other awards, it is unlikely they can compete with Bay on this one.
Best Rap Album
J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive
Dr. Dre, Compton
Drake, If You’re Reading This Its Too Late
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint
While Drake’s If You’re Reading This Its Too Late and J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive should give Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore LP, To Pimp a Butterfly, a run for it’s money, they won’t. With TPAB nominated for the overall Best Album award, it is almost a given that it will take home the W for Best Rap Album. And don’t consider this a make-up award, even though Lamar’s debut album was upset by Macklemore a couple years ago, TPAB is a classic album and our favorite album of 2015.
Best Rap Performance
J. Cole, ‘Apparently’
Drake, ‘Back to Back’
Fetty Wap, ‘Trap Queen’
Kendrick Lamar, ‘Alright’
Nicki Minaj feat. Drake & Lil Wayne, ‘Truffle Butter’
Kanye West feat. Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom & Paul McCartney, ‘All Day’
Almost anything associated with Kendrick Lamar is going to win this year, whether it’s Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’ music video or whether it’s the award for Best Rap Performance. ‘Alright’ was and is one of the best records from 2015, and while songs like ‘All Day’ and ‘Trap Queen’ were huge as well, they can’t compare to ‘Alright’. Kendrick Lamar won’t totally sweep the Grammys next year, especially in the non-Rap categories, but it should likely pick up this win.
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Big Sean feat. Kanye West & John Legend, ‘One Man Can Change the World’
Common & John Legend, ‘Glory’
Jidenna feat. Roman GianArthur, ‘Classic Man’
Kendrick Lamar feat. Bilal, Anna Wise & Thundercat, ‘These Walls’
Nicki Minaj feat. Drake, Lil Wayne & Chris Brown, ‘Only’
This is the rare exception to the “Kendrick Lamar rule” for Rap Categories that we just mentioned. Although Kendrick will win huge in the rap categories next February, his Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat collab ‘These Walls’ just doesn’t compare to the beautiful collaboration between John Legend and Common, ‘Glory’. The record has already received some huge accolades, including the “Best Original Song” award at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, and now it’s time for the song to win a Grammy as well.
Best Rap Song
Kanye West feat. Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom & Paul McCartney, ‘All Day’
Kendrick Lamar, ‘Alright’
Drake, ‘Energy’
Common & John Legend, ‘Glory’
Fetty Wap, ‘Trap Queen’
Kendrick Lamar won’t be too upset about losing to Common and John Legend in the Rap/Sung category, especially since ‘Alright’ is the favorite to win both Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. While the two awards are technically different, they both have given Grammys to the exact same record for the past few years (including last year for Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly record ‘i’). Especially with such a great song like ‘Alright’, there is no reason to expect that trend to change. Mark up Kendrick for another Grammy for this one.
The Early Registration 