Grammy countdown: Is Eminem's 'Relapse' a lock for best rap album?
Pop & Hiss will be handicapping the major Grammy categories leading up to the Jan. 31 telecast. Read our picks, and vote for your own, below.
The category: Best rap album
The field at a glance: Three of the last five years, the best rap album went to Kanye West. During the eligibility period for the 2010 awards, West drifted from his hip-hop past, offering up a collection of moody pop with "808s and Heartbreak," and thus opening up the rap album field.
But West isn't the only superstar absent from this category. Due to a one-month advance in the eligibility period from Sept. 31 to Aug. 31, Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" missed the window to be considered for the 2010 awards, having been released on Sept. 8. The omission of the 2010 Coachella headliner will be felt, as the album has sold more than 1.5 million copies in just four months, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
What's left, however, is a rather broad snapshot of hip-hop over 2009. Flo Rida maintained his dominance as a singles artist, as his "Right Round" featuring Ke$ha sold more than 4 million downloads throughout 2009. His album "R.O.O.T.S.," however, didn't make the same impact as its individual cuts.
Introspective rapper and perennial nominee Common went the party route with his more lighthearted "Universal Mind Control," and indie-minded artists such as Mos Def and Q-Tip are also represented in the field. Q-Tip's album, "The Renaissance," was released in late 2008 and featured him melding hip-hop and neo-soul, as well as working with an impressive group of collaborators including Norah Jones and Nelly Furtado. It should be the kind of easily approachable album Grammy voters love, but it's far from the biggest success in the category, as Eminem's first album in five years, "Relapse," rounds out the field.
And the Grammy goes to: Book it for Eminem. Though some of the rapper's outrageous attacks at times felt a bit dated or obvious (Jessica Simpson? Hannah Montana?), the album still achieved the kind of sales success that voters won't pass up. To date, the spring release has sold more than 1.75 million copies, and whether making borderline violent videos or lashing out at Mariah Carey, Eminem proved to still be adept at garnering headlines. Q-Tip deserves it, but Eminem will get his fourth best rap album Grammy on Jan. 31.
--Todd Martens
Photo: Eminem accepts a Grammy at the 2001 ceremony. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
Ummm. The fact that the reviewer missed out "Only Built for Cuban Linx II" by Wu-Tang regular Raekwon only highlights the poor state of hip hop right now. Because the people covering it are oblivious to the legitimately good albums as well. As for Eminem winning it, he doesn't deserve it at all. Eminem is the greatest rapper alive. His first 3 albums, D12's Devil's Night and the 8 mile soundtrack see to that. Although Jay-Z is way more consistent, Eminem beats anyone alive.
BUT his album had 5 good tracks and 10 god awful tracks. Overall his album stunk. Which is why he postponed the release of Relapse 2. Relapse 2 will not feature him behaving more maturely with his real voice and not some nasal, accented, screwed up voice.
Posted by: Antra | January 19, 2010 at 09:14 PM
So Jay's joint will be up for best rap album at next years grammy's, and if Eminem releases relapse 2 those two records will go head to head. I'm excited to see how that goes, BP3 has obviously made quite the impact, but Relapse 2 is looking like it might also have a big impact on pop culture. As for this year, Eminem will probably win based on popularity alone, Relapse in my opinion was in the OK-Good range. The way he crafted his rhymed and his flows were great, the voices he chose to use and some of his subject matter were questionable. That's why I think relapse 2 is looking good, because Eminem said the songs are more emotionally-driven. i.e: less 'medicine ball', more 'beautiful'.
Posted by: finty | January 19, 2010 at 10:02 PM
Lets be honest...Relapse is better than any album up there if you actually listen to R-A-P and not some pop sounds..exceptions for we made you....everything else on the album is pure rap....the people hating are the ones either the ones who hate shady even for MMLP..or the people who like commercial eminem who makes songs like my name is
Posted by: ASID | January 19, 2010 at 10:33 PM
before the release of "RELAPSE" lots of people think that this album will be flop but once again eminem prove that is capability he know is capability,i know and i think they should know this...! Now "RELAPSE" is of the most best album of eminem...."RELAPSE" is the hit album......good job..em..!
Posted by: priyank aka priminem | January 20, 2010 at 12:43 AM
Eminem should definitely take this award hands down, qtip's album was great no doubt but it wasnt as successful as em's..congrats on thr 4th homey
Posted by: dejuan l lynch | January 20, 2010 at 05:06 AM
I hope Eminem wins, he deserves the grammy.
Posted by: Jose | January 20, 2010 at 12:41 PM
EMINEM IS GONNA WIN, CUZ HE IS THE BEST RAPPER ALIVE
Posted by: ERIK AKA EVM | January 20, 2010 at 01:16 PM
Grammy is always for the major one, so yes, Eminem is a locked-in for this. But me personally, Q-Tip.
Posted by: gagah | January 20, 2010 at 05:31 PM
I just wanted to note to Antra that while 'Only Built for Cuban Linx II' certainly was a great album, it was released on September 8, 2009 (just as 'The Blueprint 3'), so it was not eligible for the upcoming Grammy's.
Posted by: Robert | January 20, 2010 at 08:18 PM
Eminem will definitely win this category in a landslide. However, it won't be because it's the best rap album in the category; it'd be because of his name recognition. Let's be real. None of those other artists are big enough to win this category over a 9x Grammy winner (3x winner in this category). The voters probably didn't listen to any of the other albums to make a final verdict. I bet they said, "Oh, well Em's back! Let me vote for him since he's the only recognizable name on the list." Mos Def or Q-Tip should win this category PERIOD! Common and Flo Rida didn't really put out any good material. This sucks because an artist will be rewarded yet another Grammy for mediocre material. Blah!
Posted by: REAL Hip Hop | January 20, 2010 at 11:09 PM
em.....love u man u gonna win grammy ur my rap god!!
Posted by: abhishek | January 21, 2010 at 05:24 AM
of course da grammy is goin 2 em. everybody has been waitin 4 this master mind mc 2 drop somethin for 4 years. there is no mc that can touch this dude. every time u put him on a track wit other great mcs, he kills it! he comes da hardest when that happens. i think he will be marked down 4 da greatest mc of all time. kinda like a michael jordan. he is dominate. 4 all da people who don t agree, u r just a hater.
Posted by: parshall | January 21, 2010 at 11:50 AM
I think Eminem deserves to win, he sold well and the album was good. It wasn't a great album, but rap-wise it was genius. If he stopped using that god damned accent it would be an awsome album. The songs are good lyrically, good beats, good everything accept the accent he uses literally takes songs that could be awsome, and makes them absolutely unlistenable. Like i said, lyrically i think hes good, but i really hope he can his ish together and make some better music for relapse 2.
Posted by: Jacob | January 21, 2010 at 07:27 PM
ANTRA this is to you. Eminem's Relapse is one of his best albums. Encore was a his only weak album. Relapse has 1 bad song and that is we made you. with songs like underground staywide awake and de ja vu eminem shows that he truly is back. and eminem aims to act more mature on his next album actually. and everyone says relapse isn't good cause his accent but it is actually used less as the album develops and what hes saying is actually as good as some of his old albums its just the way hes saying it. and if you didnt notice if BP3 is not eligible only built for cuban linx II wouldnt be elgible since they came out on the same day. Eminem is back and his album was awesome. Listen to underground and tell me he is not back.
Posted by: eminem fan | January 24, 2010 at 10:41 AM
I would vote for Eminem to just to see the guy on stage and what he would say. Relapse was genius the person who wrote this can go die.Relapse was good, it beat any other album, I mean Jay-Z "used" to be really good but Blueprint 3 was a joke it was so bad, I don't even consider it Hip-Hop yet Rap. Eminem should win even though Mos Def and Q-Tip are on the list I'm actually a bit surprised to see their album on their but are they serious about Flo Rida what a joke and Eminem should have been in more categories like "Forever' was a great Collab actually the best one all year Y IS IT NOT ON THE LIST
Posted by: Hip-HopHead | January 25, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Relapse was an amazing album. Eminem is the greatest rapper alive today PERIOD. The only less then excellent songs (still lyrically excellent) on the album are "We Made You" and "Crack a Bottle". Thats understandable though considering that the rest of the album would not and could not garner much radio play. If Em didnt put out a couple songs for the kids what would he use to win his Mtv awards haha. They are there for a reason, it is a business after all. What didn't Em do well this year. First relapse. Then he goes out on "Forever" and KILLED Drake, Kanye, and Weezy. Then ontop of it all he went out again and KILLED Weezy again on "Drop the World" (Which is the only good song on "Rebirth"). Em runs wild on everyone, the papers need to start listening to rap a little bit more honestly. Jay calls himself No. 1, Marshall dont need to he knows and he knows everyone else knows. Em beat the Beatles with a three year break for artist of the decade, give the man his grammy, stop pretending he doesn't deserve it.
Posted by: T | January 26, 2010 at 10:18 PM
T said:
"Then ontop of it all he went out again and KILLED Weezy again on "Drop the World" (Which is the only good song on "Rebirth")"
I agree that he fucked weezy up on that song.. haha but rebirth has a few more good songs. listen to the song "Runnin" its a pretty good song rock n roll wise. I am a huge Rap fan and a Huge old school rock fan, and i think that waynes Rebirth was pretty Good... I thought it was going to suck though, and i was wrong. Anyways Eminem Won and he diserved to win... He is the Best rapper alive and everyone knows it, (in my mind) people just dont want to say that he is the best ever just becuase he is white. just my 2cents
Posted by: Daegan Carey | February 01, 2010 at 10:06 AM
eminem is the best rapper.
Posted by: jonathan | March 08, 2010 at 07:14 PM
I personally would certainly have to go along with the show BET had on pertaining to the best artists of the past Ten years. I think that Eminem and Lil Wayne are leading the pack. They are each close to or at the top with the amount of money they earned and the multitude of hit the produced.
Posted by: Making Beat guy | January 10, 2011 at 12:21 PM