Another year, another chance at the Grammys’ top prize for Kanye West.
He goes into Sunday’s awards show with eight nominations, more than anybody else, including one for album of the year, a win that has eluded West twice before.
It’s tempting to believe Grammy voters will finally push him over the top and crown his CD, “Graduation.”
West, 30, has been a model of consistency with consumers and critics over the course of three albums. He outsold and, among reviewers, outpolled rapper 50 Cent in last fall’s much-hyped duel of new CDs. Rap is due for another album of the year, the last one having gone to OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” in 2004. And sympathy could influence West’s Grammy-voting peers, given the sudden death last year of his mother, who also was his manager and mentor.
In rap, West is so dominant as a nominee that he inevitably will pick up more Grammys: rap solo performance for “Stronger”; rap performance by a duo or group for “Southside,” a duet with Common; best rap song for “Good Life”; and, of course, rap album, for “Graduation.”
West has won the rap album honor every time he’s entered, for 2004’s “College Dropout” and 2005’s “Late Registration.”
