For the second year in a row, South-Side-resident-turned-hip-hop-mogul Kanye West found himself leading the charge toward the Grammy Awards with eight nominations Thursday.
West also dominated last year’s nominations with 10, eventually winning three. This year, West aims to raise the ante at the music industry’s most prestigious awards program, which will be nationally broadcast Feb. 8. Among his nominations for the 48th annual event are album of the year for “Late Registration,” and record of the year for “Gold Digger.”
The quadruple-threat rapper-songwriter-producer-label owner is known nearly as much for his bravado as his talent. In an interview with MTV this week he said, “If I don’t win album of the year, I’m gonna really have a problem with that.”
He’s clearly a front-runner for the award; “Late Registration” has been one of the year’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums, and West was recently described in a Time magazine cover story as “the smartest man in pop music.”
But he is expected to be challenged in key Grammy categories by singer Mariah Carey, who also received eight nominations, including album of the year for “The Emancipation of Mimi.” It is sweet vindication for Carey, whose career appeared to be in deep trouble in 2002 when her former label, EMI, bought out her contract. She was coming off a series of flopped projects and eventually checked herself into a hospital suffering from exhaustion. But “Mimi” has restored her luster as a pop diva, and her hit single “We Belong Together” is nominated for both song and record of the year.
Even if West doesn’t sweep his individual awards, he is sure to be a presence at the Grammys because he played a major role in other albums by multiple nominees. One of the Chicago native’s songwriting partners, John Legend, also spun off eight nominations from his West-produced debut album, “Get Lifted.” Rapper and South Side native Common, a.k.a Lonnie Rashid Lynn, received four nominations, including best hip-hop album for the West-produced “Be.”
Carey, West, Legend and Common are all performers who combine elements of hip-hop and rhythm and blues into pop songs that appeal to a broad cross-section of listeners and radio formats. That rap and R&B have become the dominant forms of pop music in the last decade was affirmed by nominations tilted heavily toward non-rock performers. Six nominations were handed to 50 Cent, Beyonce Knowles, the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder. Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys and Gwen Stefani received five nominations each, while Destiny’s Child, Gorillaz and the Neptunes collected four.
The only rock performers who received five nominations are old pros U2 and Bruce Springsteen. The Foo Fighters received four, as did country artists Brad Paisley and Gretchen Wilson (an Illinois native), and recording engineer Phil Tan.
Album of the year nominees besides West and Carey include U2 (“How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”), Stefani (“Love.Angel.Music.Baby”) and Paul McCartney (“Chaos and Creation in the Backyard”).
Also nominated for song of the year, which honors songwriting, besides Carey are the Rascal Flatts hit “Bless the Broken Road,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Devils & Dust,” Legend’s “Ordinary People,” and U2’s “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own.”
Named for record of the year, which honors performance and production, are Carey, West, Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.,” Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
Among local artists singled out for nominations are north-suburban pop-punk band Fall Out Boy, in the running with Ciara, Keane, SugarLand and Legend for best new artist. Longtime Chicago blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin is nominated for best traditional blues album (“About Them Shoes”) and Buddy Guy for best contemporary blues album (“Bring `Em In”). Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones got a nod for best polka album (“Under the Influence”). Ralph Covert was named for best children’s album (Ralph’s World’s “Green Gorilla, Monster & Me”). R. Kelly’s epic “Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-5)” is tapped for best long-form music video.
In jazz, a Chicago label that released its first CD this year snared a nomination for best contemporary jazz album. Trumpeter Dave Douglas, who owns the Greenleaf Music label with Chicagoan Mike Friedman, was cited for “Keystone,” a CD that Greenleaf sold in the United States only online and at Douglas’ engagements–not in U.S. record stores.
THE FULL LIST Is posted online at chicagotribune.com/grammylist
———-
gregkot@aol.com
