Why Macklemore Won Every Hip Hop Grammy and Kendrick, Kanye and Drake Didn’t

56th GRAMMY Awards - Press Room

First listen to Macklemore explaining why he won 4 Grammys last night: Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album.

Well now that Mack took the wind out of my sails. I personally feel like Macklemore’s songs like Same Love, Thrift Shop, Wings, and Can’t Hold Us we’re much stronger singles than Kendrick’s singles: Swimming Pools, Poetic Justice, and Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe. Production, choruses and even the song writing was much better on all of Macklemore’s songs. Heck if we include the song writing alone on Wings, it just doesn’t compare.

Kendrick didn’t win a Grammy because more people enjoy Macklemore’s music. That’s a cold hard fact. Macklemore has sold more albums, more singles, more concert tickets than Kendrick. He also has more views than Kendrick.

This is where you say, “Sales don’t matter”.

Ah yes they do. People vote with their wallets. You don’t buy anything you don’t like, especially when it comes to music. No one pays to go to a concert of someone they don’t like or buy a song of iTunes of a song they don’t like.

More people like Macklemore’s music. Period.

“Oh but youtube views can be bought!”

Yes they can. But do you know how much it would cost to buy 500 millions views? Which is the current number of views for Thirft Shop on YouTube. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have nowhere near that kind of money. The reason why their videos have done so well is because they are really well done videos that resonate with millions of people.

You can’t watch Same Love and not feel some kind of type of way. None of Kendrick’s videos have the same effect. And what’s funny is Kendrick is signed to a major label, Interscope and has real industry players behind him such as Dr. Dre. Kendrick has all the resources and financial backing to make ground breaking beautifully shot videos. But what does he do? Basic shit. Macklemore has none of that. His videos were directed by himself and Ryan Lewis and their talented friends. That takes passion to pull of, not connections or finances.

“Yeah but everyone I know like’s Kendrick and hates Macklemore?”

How many people do you know that have said this to you? 10? 20? 100? Let’s be really generous and say 1000 people told you Kendrick is better than Macklemore. That still isn’t a big enough sample size to prove Kendrick is better. You would need to ask millions of people. But thanks to the capitalist system you don’t have to because PEOPLE VOTE WITH THEIR WALLETS. Millions more people choose Macklemore’s music over Kendrick’s music.

“But the Grammys are not based one sales, they’re based on artistic merit”.

Ah no they are not. The Grammys are voted on by fellow musicians and people in the music business such as A&Rs, sound engineers and whoever else can weezle their way in. So to think it’s some expert panel of judges is wrong, it’s the people in music that decide who wins. This isn’t American Idol. It’s one’s peers, so to speak, that judge them. And the majority of them happened to connect with Macklemore’s music more than Kendrick’s music.

“The Grammys are racist and choose a white person over a black person”.

We’re really going here? You guys are the same guys that believe in the Illuminati. The fact is more black people have won hip hop Grammys than white people. For a long time it was only Eminem taking home hardware and now Macklemore. That’s only 2 white boys ( not including the Beastie Boys who also won a Grammy in the 80’s).

“But more critics like Kendrick’s album. He’s critically acclaimed.”

So. How many critics are there? 100? 1000? How many critics are there that matter? 0. I reviewed GKMC. I gave it a 4/5. I liked it. Does that matter? No. More human beings in the world we all share liked Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ music more than Kendrick’s.

And that is all that matters.

**Bonus** Macklemore sent this text to Kendrick Lamar after he beat him out for Best Rap Album.

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**Update** Mack and Ryan hit up The Ellen Show to discuss their Grammy sweep.

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