Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift among nominees for 58th Grammy Awards

This morning, the complete list of 2016 Grammy nominations was released. That 14-year wait really was worth it.

Best rap song: “All Day“, Kanye West Featuring Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom and Paul McCartney; “Alright”, Kendrick Lamar; “Energy”, Drake; “Glory”, Common and John Legend; “Trap Queen”, Fetty Wap. “This has been just the most incredible year”.

The 28-year-old hip hop artist from Compton left Taylor Swift trailing with seven nods for the biggest awards in the music industry.

Our third headliner, Kendrick Lamar is representing the rap world with “To Pimp A Butterfly” leading nominations for Album Of The Year and Best Rap Album. Alongside Swift, Kendrick, and the Weeknd are strong titles from Alabama Shakes and Chris Stapleton, and considering the Academy’s biases, none of them seems like a total longshot.

Competing for record of the year are Swift’s blockbuster “Blank Space”; the ubiquitous dance smash “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars; Ed Sheeran’s No. 1 pop hit “Thinking Out Loud”; the Weeknd’s huge “Can’t Feel My Face”, and, surprisingly, R&B star D’Angelo’s “Really Love”. Going up against “Blank Space” in both categories is Ed Sheeran for “Thinking Out Loud”. You can bet she’ll be all over the 2017 Grammys.

Tori Kelly, on the other hand, made the cut for a slot in the Best New Artist category. Will Australia’s future poet laureate go on to become the next Bonnie Bear?

“I am beyond humbled with these nominations”.

Chris Stapleton, a country artist who long worked in the shadows as a songwriter for Nashville’s big stars, was nominated for Album of the Year for his first full-length work, “Traveller”.

Nicki Minaj earned four nominations, including Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“Only”), Best Rap Performance (“Truffle Butter”), and Best Rap Album for The Pinkprint. “Hamilton” did pick up a nomination for best musical theater album.

Following Lamar, Swift and Weeknd as nominations leaders are songwriter is producer Max Martin with six noms.

Saxophonist Jimmy Greene, the father of one of the children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting, earned two nominations for an album inspired by his late daughter Ana Márquez-Greene.

Death Cab for Cutie are up for Best Rock Album (against Muse, Highly Suspect, James Bay, and Slipknot). Nor did Grammy love for Sufjan Stevens, but we can dream. Not to be counted out is the Weeknd, who is nominated for seven Grammys. The Grammy committee seems to always be a bit behind when it comes to this category.

Another notable nominee is the is the rock band Alabama Shakes. The band has four nominations this this year.