Bump To This is BE’s fortnightly curated list of the tracks that we’ve had on heavy rotation. Last week was the 61st GRAMMY Awards and hip-hop artists broke records and made history. To celebrate we’ve featured some of the honoured artists here including H.E.R., Cardi B, Childish Gambino, Drake, Chance The Rapper and The Carters. Link up to our Spotify to hear more.
Lights On by H.E.R. (BEST R&B ALBUM, BEST R&B PERFORMANCE)
I’ve been a fan of H.E.R. ever since I heard ‘Focus’. I listened to the first two EP’s as they came out and was still obsessed after they were combined and became the award-winning, self-titled EP that it is now. Her mysterious persona, relatable lyrics and insane production have us entranced. I saw her live last year and can vouch that she sounds even more incredible irl and absolutely deserves the win. H.E.R. was nominated five times and won the Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance for ‘Best Part’ with Daniel Caesar. Huge congratulations to the well deserving Daniel Caesar too!
God’s Plan by Drake (BEST RAP SONG)
Drake’s acceptance speech was one of my favourite moments of the night. He used his time (which was cut short) to remind us all that this industry is opinion-based and that not everyone is going to understand your music. He was essentially saying that he is not better than them for winning a Grammy, which is super respectable for an artist at his level. He said ‘If there [are] people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don’t need this right here. I promise you, you already won.’ It’s the fans that matter...and as J. Cole once rapped, ‘They don’t know, they just study the charts/Me I studied the shows/The fans study their hearts.’
Best Life by Cardi B ft. Chance The Rapper (BEST RAP ALBUM)
Cardi B made history last week when she became the first female solo artist to win Best Rap Album, with her debut record ‘Invasion of Privacy’. She also became the eighth female rapper to win a Grammy—ever; following in the talented footsteps of Missy Elliott, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Lil’ Kim, Eve, Left Eye (TLC), Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifa. Despite the backlash over her win, Cardi spoke up in defense like the strong woman she is, saying she ‘locked herself in the studio for three months, sleeping on sofas’ while pregnant just trying to finish it. Which, by the way, is packed full of hits! ‘Knock me down nine times but I get up ten’ – Cardi B.
This is America by Childish Gambino (RECORD OF THE YEAR, SONG OF THE YEAR, BEST RAP/SUNG PERFORMANCE, BEST MUSIC VIDEO)
As we all witnessed back in May, this song stopped the globe. The video captivated not only America but the world and was analysed and critiqued by many. The layered music video highlighted America’s poorly dealt with issues to do with gun violence and the plight of African Americans. ‘This is America’ is the first rap song to win Record of the Year and Childish Gambino is the first hip-hop artist to win Song of the Year. What’s the difference between song and record of the year? Record Of The Year deals with a specific recording of a song and recognises the artists, producers and engineers who contribute to that recording. Song Of The Year is about the composition of a song and recognises the songwriters who wrote it. Either way, Gambino broke records for both categories, and also won Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Music Video. The four awards tied Gambino with country music singer Kacey Musgraves for most awards of the night.
Boss by The Carters (BEST URBAN CONTEMPORARY ALBUM)
Lovers Jay-Z and Beyoncé surprised us all back in June with their first collaborative venture ‘Love Is Everything’, which earned them a Grammy for the Best Urban Contemporary Album. Singles from the album were also noted by the Academy. ‘Summer’ was nominated for Best R&B Performance and ‘Apeshit’—their iconic Louvre Masterpiece—was nominated for Best Music Video. Visitors to the museum increased by a record amount. Despite the award and nominations, Jay Z and Beyonce took a similar stance to Drake by not attending. With a sprinkling of sass, they were instead at the Roc Nation Pre-Grammy Brunch, which was—in our opinion—the more star-studded and stylish event of the weekend. The couple have over twenty Grammys respectively, but as Hov rapped in ‘Apeshit’, ‘Tell the Grammy's fuck that 0 for 8 shit.’
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