Could Kendrick Lamar (‘Not Like Us’) win Grammys for mercilessly dissing another Grammy winner?
It was the feud heard round the world — still is, really. Kendrick Lamar and Drake have traded diss tracks back and forth, and they went beyond petty beefs. Drake accused Lamar of domestic abuse, while Lamar called Drake a “certified pedophile.” In the end Lamar was considered the winner of the war according to Andre Gee of Rolling Stone and Joseph Patterson of Complex UK and TRENCH Magazine, among others, and their relative commercial performances bear that out, with Lamar’s “Not Like Us” topping the Billboard Hot 100. But could Grammy darling Lamar win more Grammys for so directly calling out another Grammy winner?
The Grammys have previously awarded artists for addressing their grievances in song. After a savage backlash against The Chicks for criticizing then-President George W. Bush, the trio doubled down and declared that they were “Not Ready to Make Nice,” ultimately winning Record of the Year and Song of the Year for that effort. Taylor Swift is known for her sometimes-blatant, sometimes-veiled references to past lovers, and she has won a record four Grammys for Album of the Year. Swift and Lamar even won a Grammy together for the music video for their collab “Bad Blood,” which has been interpreted as addressing Swift’s beef with Katy Perry.
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It would be unusual, though, for the Grammys to weigh in on this kind of back-and-forth diss war, and we don’t know for sure that either artist will enter their insults and allegations for Grammy consideration. But if the recording academy does take sides, they’d probably end up on Lamar’s. After all, Lamar has won 17 trophies to Drake’s five, and Drake has been so displeased by the Grammys as an institution that he has declined to submit his music for nominations on multiple occasions.
Despite his own controversial losses in top categories (he has been denied Album of the Year six times), Lamar has stayed in the Grammy game, and from the looks of things he might want to make an awards play with “Not Like Us.” It has been rising in our odds for Record of the Year; it currently ranks 13th with 37/1 odds, putting him just a few slots away from the top eight likely nominees. He has been nominated three times for Record of the Year already, for “Humble,” “All the Stars” and “The Heart Part 5,” only one of which (“Humble”) was a number-one hit, so “Not Like Us” will surely be on voters’ radar, and this feud may yet spill over onto music’s biggest stage.
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