Episode 3 of The Group Chat dives into Grammy snubs and Internet trolls with a little bit of Donald Glover/Childish Gambino talk.
During and after the GRAMMYs, Twitter blew up and people were both excited and upset. In a way, the awards show both won and lost this year. No doubt, they got the nominees right, but it’s the winners that were mostly wrong. Let me break it down for four artists:
SZA
Nominations: 5 Wins: 0
The biggest upset of the night is when SZA lost Best New Artist to Alessia Cara. Everyone from fans to experts were bought into the fact that Solána would get the gramophone, but she ended up empty handed. However, this could be a blessing in disguise. The Best New Artist “kiss of death” is this thing where whoever wins it ends up being some type of one hit wonder, such as Evanescence, Meghan Trainor, and other now-unfamiliar artists. Obviously, it doesn’t affect everyone (Chance the Rapper, The Beatles, Adele), but it happens every now and then. I’m also an Alessia Cara fan myself and hope she doesn’t fall under the curse, but was she the most deserving Best New Artist on GRAMMY night? No. But do you know who else has zero GRAMMYs? Nas, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Bob Marley, and Queen, just to name a few. Give it up for SZA, though. She's making money moves with all of the commercials she was in when the GRAMMYs aired for MasterCard and Gap.
JAY-Z
Nominations: 8 Wins: 0
To be honest, based on each category Jay was nominated in this year, I wasn’t expecting him to win any. That’s just me. Having the most nominations of the night is actually an accomplishment in its own. And though 4:44 was just one of his best albums to date, he was competing against DAMN., which is Kendrick’s best album to date. Also, do you think they gave Jay the "Salute to Industry Icons" Award the night before as a consolation or do you think that was already decided before he lost all eight awards?
Kendrick Lamar
Nominations: 7 Wins: 5
Even though Kendrick didn’t get his well-deserved Album of the Year GRAMMY, he still had a huge night. He opened the show with a dope performance that set the bar high and still won big going five for seven. If he were a quarterback, that'd be an amazing completion rate. It does suck for him to be nominated for Album of the Year three times and have zero wins in the category, but it won’t stop K. Dot from dropping new heat. Just look at the Black Panther album. Based on the singles so far and the recently dropped track list, it’s looking like it’s going to be banger after banger.
Bruno Mars
Nominations: 6 Wins: 6
Congratulations to Bruno Mars for getting a clean sweep this year. That’s a huge accomplishment, especially when three of them are for the four general categories (Album, Record, and Song of the Year). I’m a huge fan of the guy, but he absolutely did not deserve every GRAMMY he won that night. If anything, he deserved half of what he was nominated for. He was the safe choice that the majority of America could stand behind, but as hip-hop fans, it pissed us off. Hip-hop has won Album of the Year ONE TIME in all of GRAMMY history! The first and only win was for OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004. Even then, the double album was half hip-hop and half R&B. Lauryn Hill won the same award in 1999, however, it was submitted as an R&B album so it technically doesn't count.
When it came down to performances, most were snoozefests, but there were a couple of great moments. Aside from Kendrick’s opener with Dave Chappelle and U2, there was Bruno and Cardi B with the remix to “Finesse” (and a little bit of “Bartier Cardi”). I agree with Speedy that the album version “Finesse” is better, but I don’t understand how Emily doesn’t like it (!?). It’s my favorite song off the album because it reminds me so much of Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison” and that’s the kind of music I grew up on. So maybe it’s the age difference that gives me a bigger appreciation (I was born in 1990). *shrug emoji* Other highlights included Gambino’s “Terrified” and SZA’s “Broken Clocks”.
Donald Glover Appreciation
When it comes to Donald Glover, I’m such a stan and I geek out. I’ve been following Donald’s career for over a decade, and he’s gotten better and evolved over the years. He’s an actor, rapper, singer, standup comedian, director, producer, writer, etc. Anything he touches turns to gold and I’ve compiled some essentials that any current and new fans should be aware of (in chronological order):
Derrick Comedy – This is where it all started and there are dozens of sketch comedy videos posted to his YouTube channel.
30 Rock – Glover earned multiple Writers Guild of America awards for writing jokes for on of NBC’s smartest shows and appeared in 4 episodes.
Community – Glover got his first recurring role as a failed football star, Troy, in this show about a study group made up of random strangers.
EP – “Freaks and Geeks” is still his hardest track and it’s found on his first EP. It was just re-released on streaming services.
Weirdo – His second standup special is filled with dick jokes, but smart dick jokes.
R O Y A L T Y – His sixth mixtapes may be his best with guest sports from ScHoolboy Q, Beck, Chance, and…Tina Fey?!
Because the Internet – His most recognized studio album mixes rap with R&B and tells the story about his character, The Boy.
Clapping for the Wrong Reasons – A short film that coincides with Because the Internet.
Kauai – His second EP shines a light on Gambino’s favorite Hawaiian island.
Atlanta – This is peak Donald Glover in terms of acting, writing, directing, and producing.
Spider-Man: Homecoming – After fans campaigned for the longest to get Glover as Miles Morales, Disney finally let him into the MCU as Miles’ uncle.
Upcoming projects to get excited about:
Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 2018)
Deadpool animated series on FX (2018)
The Lion King (2019)
Trollin'
On the topic of Internet trolls, I don’t fully understand them. It seems like their only goal is to get under the skin of whoever they’re hating on and usually it backfires. Either way, they’re losing. Not only are they wasting everyone else’s time, but they’re definitely wasting their own. They make trolling their full-time job (I’m assuming) and I can’t wrap my head around the fact that that’s all they want to do. Time is such a valuable thing and it pains me to see it go to shit, but whatever, that’s on them. If they want to hit “tweet” more times than sending messages to actual friends (if they have any), they’re allowed to. The unfortunate bottom line is that Internet trolls are here to stay whether we like it or not.
Also, Donald Trump most likely doesn’t run his own Twitter account, but he probably verbally says all his tweets out loud and has an assistant type it out and send. I’m not entirely sure Trump knows how to use a smartphone and/or knows how to spell and punctuate correctly.
Fucking With
Riverdale – It’s based off Archie Comics, but it’s much darker. The acting is great and each episode is more and more suspenseful. Don’t let the fact that it’s a show on The CW, because I applaud the fact that they’ve diversified the cast with an Asian villain and a black version of Josie and the Pussycats.
Adidas EQT Support ADV CNY – I’m not Chinese, but it didn't stop me from copping the 2018 Chinese New Year edition of these adidas EQTs. They were too clean not to cop. Still haven’t worn them yet and I’m kind of too scared to. They're nice to look at, though.
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