On this date in 1972, Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., the rapper, actor, and poet also known as Common was born in Chicago, Illinois. The Grammy and Academy Award-winning artist is not only an icon of Windy City’s Hip Hop scene, but he has also helped to blaze a trail for Golden Era rappers into other aspects of entertainment as he has with his roles in blockbuster movies such as American Gangster, John Wick 2 and Glory just to name a few. The newly signed HBO producer has come a long way since he was known as Common Sense asking Can I Borrow A Dollar?
As we salute Common on his born day, let us send him a keen reminder of his first love that brought him into our living rooms, literally making him a household name.
On this date at the beginning of Hip Hop’s “Golden Era”, Philly natives DJ Jazzy Jeff and his partner The Fresh Prince Dropped their landmark single “Parents Just Don’t Understand” on Jive Records.
With the song’s signature tune from the 60s hit sitcom I Dream Of Jeannie, the Fresh Prince, who is better known today as Emmy Award winning actor Will Smith describes his very relatable, parental circumstances. From the clothes chosen by his mother for the first day of school to borrowing the family car and crashing it, the Prince humorously gets into what it’s like having to listen to your parents…and them not listen to you.
Commercially the song was a hit as well, winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance at the 1989 Grammy Awards, was ranked number 96 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop, and featured in movies such as The Parent Trap, Malibu’s Most Wanted and Jersey Girl.
Salute to these two icons for making this song a piece of Hip Hop history!
The stars returned to the GRAMMYs resulting in a spike in ratings. The Grammy Awards reached a three-year viewership high on CBS, but still, register below pandemic levels.
Returning to February for the first time in three years, The GRAMMYs was watched by 12.4 million people in numbers that include Paramount+ and CBS. According to The Hollywood Reporter, final ratings will be available late Tuesday (Feb. 7) morning.
The event drew the most viewers on CBS since 2020, the last time it was hosted before the COVID-19 epidemic began. Sunday’s show trailed 2020 by 34% in total viewers.
This year’s GRAMMYs featured a special celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and tapped the legendary roots drummer as the producer.
Performers for the celebration of Hip-Hop include Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, Spliff Star, De la Soul, DJ Drama, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Future, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Furious 5, Ice T, Lil Baby, The Lox, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Run DMC, Salt N Pepa, DJ Spinderella, Scarface, and Too Short.
LL COOL J introduced the section, performed, and dedicated himself to hip-hop. Black Thought gave the narration.
“For five decades, hip-hop has not only been a defining force in music, but a major influence on our culture,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “Its contributions to art, fashion, sport, politics, and society cannot be overstated. I’m so proud that we are honoring it in such a spectacular way on the GRAMMY stage. It is just the beginning of our year-long celebration of this essential genre of music.”
As amazing as the GRAMMYs 50th-anniversary tribute to Hip-Hop was, it was set to be even bigger. Questlove spoke to Variety and revealed that Will Smith was originally supposed to be in the performance.
“I’ll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was apart of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week,” Questlove said. “There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
Despite not having The Fresh Prince, Questlove did that. The GRAMMYs hosted a special celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and tapped the legendary roots drummer as the producer.
Performers for the celebration of Hip-Hop include Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, Spliff Star, De la Soul, DJ Drama, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Future, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Furious 5, Ice T, Lil Baby, The Lox, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Run DMC, Salt N Pepa, DJ Spinderella, Scarface, and Too Short.
LL COOL J introduced the section, performed, and dedicated himself to hip-hop. Black Thought gave the narration.
“For five decades, hip-hop has not only been a defining force in music, but a major influence on our culture,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “Its contributions to art, fashion, sport, politics, and society cannot be overstated. I’m so proud that we are honoring it in such a spectacular way on the GRAMMY stage. It is just the beginning of our year-long celebration of this essential genre of music.”
It’s been a while since Will Smith has been on a stage at an awards show, but allegedly, he was scheduled to make a surprise appearance at the Grammy’s this past Sunday night. However, his comeback performance was derailed due to conflicts with filming Bad Boys 4.
In the weeks leading up to the Grammy’s, host Trevor Noah had hinted that there would be surprise guest appearances, but had kept quiet about specifics. However, Questlove, who produced a 10-minute 50th anniversary of hip-hop tribute performance for the ceremony, let one no-show surprise guest name slip on the red carpet.
Questlove told a Variety reporter that he was going to give the spoiler alert away. “Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week. There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
The show did, however, go on without Smith. Missy Elliott, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, The Roots, Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, GloRilla, Rakim, Ice-T, Lil Baby, GloRilla, Lil Uzi Vert, and more showcased their talents in a commemorative tribute to the genre.
Before the performance, Dr. Dre was honored with the inaugural Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. He spoke about the impact that hip-hop had on him while saying that he was happy to be influencing the next generation of artists. The full performance can be seen below.
Questlove said that pulling off the show took a lot of hard work, telling the New York Times that “it was a lot of mountains to move to make this happen,” noting that Will Smith was not the only celebrity who couldn’t make it. Future and Lil’ Wayne also had toco cancel due to other commitments.
It’s been almost a year since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in March of 2022.
The Grammys: They sure are long! Shout out to my fellow East Coasters who watched the 2023 Grammys until midnight yesterday and got 45 quality minutes of sleep before getting ready for work this morning.
Within all the length of last night’s show, a lot of things happened. Some awards went to their expected recipients, others went to nominees viewers probably forgot were even up for consideration. Some artists put on spectacular performances, others were certainly at least on stage performing music. Some people got their flowers, others would have settled for just a glimpse of a dried-out petal.
With the dust settling now, all of these events can be generally placed into three categories: winners, losers, and surprises. In fact, the highlights of these goings-on have been categorized thusly… by me… below.
Beyoncé took a slight L when she got stuck in traffic and consequently showed up late to the Grammys. That was profoundly overshadowed, though, by one of the biggest moments of Bey’s career: Renaissance won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album. In a vacuum, that’s kind of neat, but zoom out: That Grammy was the 32nd of Beyoncé’s career, which is the new all-time Grammy record. The ever-composed Beyoncé was clearly emotional while accepting the award, which goes to show how major the win was not just in music history, but to her personally.
Surprise: Bonnie Raitt/Samara Joy
Bonnie Raitt’s reaction to winning Song of the Year is everyone’s reaction to her winning Song of the Year #Grammyspic.twitter.com/HYcMZK00hc
Beyoncé’s big win wasn’t a shock. You know what was, though? Half of the Grammys in the “big four” categories.
The Best New Artist field was strong and the winner ended up being Samara Joy, a jazz singer who’s a relative unknown when compared to competitors like Anitta, Latto, and Wet Leg.
Then came Song Of The Year.
Up for consideration were songs by Adele, Beyoncé, Bonnie Raitt, DJ Khaled, Gayle, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Steve Lacy, and Taylor Swift. Looking at that list, clearly, there’s one artist that stands out, and not favorably in terms of contemporary acclaim and pop culture relevance: Raitt. Just like that, though, “Just Like That” won.
Raitt is a legend and a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, but even she was left scratching her head: When her name was called, she gave an open-mouthed look around the room like she just won $100K on a gas station scratcher. That was a fair reaction: “Just Like That” currently has under half a million streams on Spotify. Last year, around 9.5 million people watched the Grammys. So, if those numbers remain similar for this year’s broadcast, that means about 20 times as many people watched “Just Like That” win the award than had actually heard the song before (and that’s being generous by assuming every Spotify listener has only played the song one time).
The Grammys aren’t supposed to be a popularity contest, but cultural relevance should have been a bigger consideration here.
Loser: In Memoriam segment
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Every year, the Recording Academy honors esteemed deceased musicians with its In Memoriam portion of the show. Also every year, they find a way to piss people off. Fans were quick to notice that artists like Gangsta Boo and Aaron Carter weren’t mentioned during the broadcast, which rubbed some viewers the wrong way.
To the Recording Academy’s credit, in a post shared ahead of the show, they shared an In Memoriam list featuring more names than made it onto the broadcast, noting that “some” of them would be included in the video tribute. Carter was on that list, but not the broadcast. They also note that the people on the list all died between January 1, 2022 and December 6, 2022; Boo died on January 1, 2023.
So, the Recording Academy technically has some plausible deniability here, but maybe policies that exclude people who should obviously be named could use some reconsidering.
Winner: Wet Leg
Wet Leg – Alternative Music Album, Alternative Music Performance
Previously, leg was dry. At the Grammys, though, leg was wet: Emerging rock favorites Wet Leg was up for five awards and they took home two of them: Best Alternative Music Performance for “Chaise Longue” and Best Alternative Music Album for Wet Leg.
Harry was one of the evening’s most-nominated artist with seven total nods. He ended the night with a strong winning percentage, too, taking home three awards, most notably picking up Album Of The Year for Harry’s House. That said…
…boy was his performance during the show dull and weird.
He started his rendition of “As It Was” with some backing dancers, all spinning slowly on a rotating platform, like the song’s music video. It was an extremely low-energy environment for a minute or so, all while the relentlessly upbeat song charged on in defiant tonal contrast. It looked as though Styles and company had the stage set up to perform an Adele ballad before switching to “As It Was” seconds before going on. Things didn’t really improve after the intro, either. Styles’ current tour has obviously gone well, as the banner he has hanging in Madison Square Garden indicates, but the watermelon sugar high appears to have worn off since his last arena show.
Winner: Viola Davis
Viola Davis has achieved EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) status. “It has been such a journey, I just EGOT!” pic.twitter.com/YYj4MMJvRg
Congratulations are in order for Viola Davis: She e-got her EGOT! She’s now one of only 18 people to ever do it and it’s thanks in part to last night’s win in the Best Audio Book, Narration, And Storytelling Recording category, for her Finding Me memoir.
Beyoncé was the evening’s leading nominee with nine total nods, but Lamar was right behind her with eight of his own. Despite getting shut out of the main categories, Lamar did well in the hip-hop categories, winning in Best Rap Performance (“The Heart Part 5”), Best Rap Song (“The Heart Part 5”), and Best Rap Album (Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers). Furthermore, he did it all while dressed like Goodwill Kid, M.A.A.D. City.
In the Best R&B Song category, Beyoncé came out on top with “Cuff It.” Another Renaissance track, “Virgo’s Groove,” was up for Best R&B Performance, and while that may have felt like an obvious pick there, Muni Long actually pulled off the upset with “Hrs & Hrs.”
That’s not to say, of course, that Long’s win (her first Grammy victory) is inexcusable. “Hrs & Hrs” is an accomplished track, as it was only the second song by an independent artist to top the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, it’s certified platinum, and it achieved a No. 16 peak on the Hot 100. Beating Beyoncé for a Grammy is a tall mountain to scale, so congrats to Long!
Winner: 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Tribute Performance
The Recording Academy put a major focus on honoring hip-hop in 2023, since this year marks the half-century anniversary of the genre’s inception. They went all out with a gargantuan 10-minute performance that spanned eras, featuring stage time from Grandmaster Flash, Rakim, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Future, GloRilla, Lil Baby, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, Missy Elliott, Method Man, Nelly, and Too Short, among others. If you’re looking for a hip-hop history lesson, the setlist is a terrific starting point.
To her name, Brandi Carlile has racked up 24 Grammy nominations in her lifetime. She’s usually firmly in the Americana and country categories, but this year, she earned her first rock nominations. She actually dominated on that front, with “Broken Horses” winning Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. While on the surface, Carlile getting rock Grammys might read as off, she performed the track during the broadcast and it was very clearly a rock song, and a pretty good one, too.
Last night, a lot of songs did, but “God Did” was not among them. The DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, and Fridayy song was nominated for Song Of The Year, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song. It won none of those awards.
Then, Khaled and company had to close the show with a performance of the song, which featured Khaled spouting his classic substance-free motivational nuggets. His loud claims of “we the best” or whatever while actual musicians were performing around him fell especially flat, since the Recording Academy just finished declaring on national television that he is in fact not the best.
Loser: Benny Blanco
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Benny Blanco wore that to the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.
Questlove did that. The GRAMMYs hosted a special celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and tapped the legendary roots drummer as the producer.
Performers for the celebration of Hip-Hop include Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, Spliff Star, De la Soul, DJ Drama, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Future, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Furious 5, Ice T, Lil Baby, The Lox, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Run DMC, Salt N Pepa, DJ Spinderella, Scarface, and Too Short.
LL COOL J introduced the section, performed, and dedicated himself to hip-hop. Black Thought gave the narration.
“For five decades, hip-hop has not only been a defining force in music, but a major influence on our culture,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “Its contributions to art, fashion, sport, politics, and society cannot be overstated. I’m so proud that we are honoring it in such a spectacular way on the GRAMMY stage. It is just the beginning of our year-long celebration of this essential genre of music.”
The 2023 Grammy Awards are happening now, and the winner of Best New Artist was just revealed. Anitta, Domi & JD Beck, Latto, Måneskin, Molly Tuttle, Muni Long, Omar Apollo, Samara Joy, Tobe Nwigwe, and Wet Leg were nominated for the award, but it was Joy who came away with the win.
Joy had two nominations this year and won them both: Before Best New Artist, her album Linger Awhile won Best Jazz Vocal Album.
While Joy ended up winning, all of the nominees had strong cases. Joy already has a Best New Artist award under her belt, as Jazz Times gave her that honor in 2021. Anitta’s “Envolver” was a global hit that was the first song by a Brazilian artist to rank No. 1 on the daily Spotify Global Chart. Domi & JD Beck signed to Anderson .Paak’s label Apesh*t Inc. and quickly announced Not Tight, a debut album that featured .Paak, Thundercat, Mac DeMarco, Herbie Hancock, Snoop Dogg, and others. Latto had a major hit with “Big Energy” in 2021 and has only upped her clout since then.
Måneskin got a Eurovision Song Contest 2021 victory and rode the momentum to international stardom. Molly Tuttle released Crooked Tree, her first album on Nonesuch, and it earned a Best Bluegrass Album nomination at this year’s Grammys. Omar Apollo had a TikTok hit with “Evergreen,” from the well-received debut album Ivory. Tobe Nwigwe has been consistently productive in recent years and found himself performing on The Tonight Show earlier this year. Finally, we have Wet Leg, “Chaise Longue” is one of the most beloved rock songs in recent years, and it’s found a fan in Dave Grohl.
Find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.
Aside from the handing out of awards, the other major reason to watch the Grammys is for the performances, as the Recording Academy routinely recruits the brightest stars in music to take the stage. They nailed it this year, with performers including Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras, Sam Smith, Brandi Carlile, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Chris Stapleton, DJ Khaled, and Luke Combs. There’s also a terrific cross-generational performance that just went down: Stevie Wonder took the stage with a number of guests.
“Thank you, but stop,” Wonder said to start his time on stage as the audience applauded. He then introduced his band and kicked off with a rendition of The Temptations’ “The Way You Do The Things You Do.” Smokey Robinson then joined in for his own “Tears Of A Clown” before Chris Stapleton joined in on “Higher Ground.”
Neither Wonder nor Stapleton are nominated for any Grammys this year, but both artists certainly have a history with the show. Wonder is one of the most decorated winners in Grammy history, in fact: He’s been nominated an amazing 75 times and has won 25 of them, first in 1973 with “Superstition” and “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” winning awards in 1973, and most recently in 2006, when his and Tony Bennett’s “For Once In My Life” won the Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.
Stapleton, meanwhile, has a strong Grammys winning percentage, as he’s won eight of the 17 awards for which he’s been nominated. He won three awards last year, all for material from his 2020 album Starting Over.
Find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Last night (February 2) was the Recording Academy Honors Presented by the Black Music Collective at Hollywood Palladium, where Wayne and Missy Elliott were given the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Drake honored Wayne with a video message, which he started, “Good evening, Grammys. Well, I haven’t gotten to say that since 2016.”
He continued, “Lil Wayne… I love you so much. I know I probably get annoying with saying how much you mean to me and my family, but I think I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that our careers, our cadences, our melodies, maybe our face tats or our outfits or our decisions in general would not have been the same without your natural gift to just be yourself.”
Wayne gave a touching speech of his own, saying in part, “I want you all to know that I don’t get honored. Where I’m from, New Orleans, you’re not supposed to do this. I walked into my mama’s room when I was 14. She asked me for a kid because my dad was killed. And her son had just blown up and went on his first tour. When I came home she said, ‘Son, I can’t live in this house by myself. We’re going to have to figure something out.’ “I’d like to thank Antonia Johnson [his first child’s mother] for reasoning with me and my mom, and my life. I’d like to thank every single one of my kids and every single one of their mothers.”
Deion Sanders also honored Wayne with a video message and 2 Chainz, Swizz Beatz, and Tyga closed the show by performing some Wayne songs.
– TikTok – theaccidentalcougar 
GRAMMYs 
