With the nominees for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards recently announced, Busta Rhymes fielded questions and offered his opinion on the nominations in an interview with The Rickey Smiley Morning Show earlier today.
Busta began with a congratulations to one of the younger nominees. “I’m happy for Kendrick, I really think Kendrick deserves his seven nominations man,” he said. “I’m happy for Jay Z, I think he deserves his nine nominations.” Both Kendrick Lamar and Jay Z are nominated for Best Rap Album for Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City and Magna Carta Holy Grail respectively.
Busta Rhymes continued with his thoughts on two other nominees and eventually commented that the “overall nominations for the Grammy’s was powerful.” “I think Drake should have got more nominations,” he said. “And I think Kanye should have got more nominations because, I think especially Kanye, he made a brave album. I’m a fan of the dude I think he could really rap.”
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While West’s Yeezus album is up for Best Rap Album next to albums from Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Drake, the Chicago rapper’s only other nomination comes in the form of Best Rap Song for “New Slaves.” Despite his relatively small number of nominations this year, Kanye West has garnered 53 nominations and 21 Grammy awards throughout his career. Earlier this week, Kanye commented on his nominations with frustrations over his track record against white nominees. “They try to trivialize my words and try to make it seem like my importance as a musician is less important than what it is,” he said. “I mean, we can even take a look at some recent nominations that came out. Now I’m 36-years-old and I have 21 Grammys. That’s the most Grammys of any 36-year-old. Out of all those 21 Grammys, I’ve never won a Grammy against a white artist.”
Announced on the night of December 6, the list of Grammy nominees is topped by Jay Z with his nine nominations. The Reasonable Doubt rapper is followed closely by other Hip Hop and R&B acts Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Pharrell Williams, and Justin Timberlake with their seven nominations each. Toronto rapper Drake received five nominations including a chance at the Best Rap Album.
While on the show, the Busta also commented on his latest collaborative mixtape with A Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip. “It’s a beautiful project,” he said of the mixtape called The Abstract And The Dragon which is now streaming. “It’s just a body of work, the first to come, ‘cause we really been rocking for over twenty plus years man.”
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He also commented on his recent single, encouraging listeners to support another Q-Tip featuring release on iTunes. “In addition to that, ya’ll might as well just go right on iTunes and download the official first single of my new album coming early 2014, Extinction Level Event 2,” he said. The song, “Thank You,” was released early last month and features Lil Wayne and Kanye West alongside Q-Tip.
