Sound CheckGrammy Awards 2013: Why Drake has a slim chance of winning an award
At the 55th annual Grammy Awards, Canadian rapper Drake is nominated in the categories of Best Rap Song for "The Motto," Best Rap Performance for "HYFR" and Best Rap Album for "Take Care."
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The 26-year-old artist has been nominated nine times in the past, bringing his current tally to 12 (but never winning) and we fear that this year might again leave Drake out in the cold.
Music insiders have begun to predict how Drake will fare on Feb. 10, and so far the odds aren’t looking good.
When it comes to the Best Rap Song category, Drake's “The Motto” is nominated against tunes like “Lotus Flower Bomb” by Wale, “Mercy” by Kanye West, “N****s In Paris” by Jay-Z and KanyeWest, “Young, Wild and Free” by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa and “Daughters” by Nas.
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Assistant program manager of Toronto’s hip hop and R&B radio station Flow 93.5 Scott Morello has noticed that Drake hast lost most of his Grammy chances to either Jay-Z, Kanye West or Eminem.
Since the “Watch The Throne” album artists are nominated in this category and “N****s In Paris” had a big year, we believe that it’s likely that there will be a repeat of the Canadian musician losing to Jay and ‘Ye.
As for Best Rap Performance, the tune "HYFR" featuring Lil' Wayne will have to beat out contenders like Young Jeezy featuring Jay-Z and André 3000’s “I Do” and the previously mentioned Rap Song category competitors: “N****s In Paris,” “Mercy” and “Daughters.”
Drake actually took home the MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video for “HYFR,” becoming the only Canadian winner of the evening, and out of all of his nominations, we think that he has the best chance in this Grammy category.
In the category of Best Rap Album, “Take Care” will face off against Lupe Fiasco’s “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1,” The Roots’ “Undun,” Rick Ross’ “God Forgives, I Don't,” 2 Chainz’s “Based On A T.R.U. Story” and Nas’ “Life Is Good.”
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Given that “Take Care” was released in Nov. 2011, the Associated Press’ music writer Chris Talbott makes the point that a more recent album is likely it is to win in this category.
He said, “Remember back to the halcyon days of late 2011 when ‘Take Care’ ruled with its blend of world-beating swagger and knowing self-awareness? Probably not, and there's a good chance voters won't either (only three nominations? Really?). Newer albums always have the advantage, so we're going to predict Nas wins here.”
We really hope that the Grammys surprise us on Feb. 10 and Drake takes home the gramophone for each of his nominations. But if not, there’s always next year and after the release of his latest single, we can bet that he’ll be back again.
