Dahlia Kaufman, Grade 10, Staff Writer
The 66th Annual Grammy Awards show was filled with drama, featuring a whirlwind of emotional wins and devastating losses. Jon Bon Jovi was named Person of the Year, SZA won Best R&B Song, Taylor Swift broke the record for most wins for Album of the Year, and Killer Mike won Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album, and Rap Performance. However, Killer Mike and Taylor Swift's wins have sparked anger among young adult music listeners. But why?
In my opinion, Killer Mike has created masterpiece songs over 20 years throughout his career. His recent album titled “MICHAEL,” dedicated to his mother who recently passed away, held emotional and well-written lyrics with statements on race, police brutality, growing up Black in the deep south, and religious trauma.MICHEAL also had amazing features, bringing back artists from the 90s and 2000’s, such as Andre 3000 and CeeLo Green, and included newer rappers for instance Ty Dolla Sign and Future. Although “MICHEAL” was a great album which deserves the Best Rap Album award, “Scientists and Engineers” should not have won Best Rap Song.
With that said, opinions differ throughout the ages. According to 59-year- old Laurence Kretchemer, “Killer Mike speaks his truth unlike the trashy autotune tik tok mumble rappers.” 15-year-old Michael Grauer takes a different stance, explaining that “Travis was completely robbed and deserved the best rap album Grammy, who even is Killer Mike.”Now for the Taylor-Lana debate. As
a Taylor Swift hater, I believe that Lana Del Rey deserved Best Album and Taylor Swift did not need another award for her collection. Lana’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” connected with many listeners as a gorgeous americana gospel, showcasing thoughts on immortality. On the other hand, Taylor Swift created generic pop music easily found playing in a supermarket or in an abandoned trampoline park. While some of Taylor Swift’s albums weren’t so bad, like Reputation or her earliest semi-country albums, her new entrance into borderline folk-pop- rock-indie-slop is quite the disastrous flop.
With the controversial ideas aside, let's dive into the first time winners and up and coming artists to keep on our radar. Tyla, most known for her song featuring the lyrics “make me sway, make me water,” won best African music performance. Though this seems like a niche category, it means a lot considering it could foreshadow more African music entering the global music scene. Gracie Abrams, the love child of Phoebe Bridgers and Lana Del Rey (and a nepobaby, the actual child of two famous Hollywood directors)-knows the Hollywood scene and will most likely become a big name in the future. Ice Spice was listed by the Grammys as one of the best new in the industry nominees, an indisputable position. . This Bronx bombshell created continuously viral songs this year without any sign of her stopping. Starting off as a redhead meme, Ice Spice took advantage of what could have been a one hit wonder and made herself a platform.
As per usual, the Grammy's robbed a couple artists and didn’t listen to what the majority of listeners actually supported. But, congratulations to the winners, condolences to the losers, and let's hope that next year’s Grammys are slightly better!