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HER Absolutely Ripped A Rocking Medley In Her Star-Studded 2022 Grammys Performance With Lenny Kravitz

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HER, the multitalented R&B revivalist, has become a fixture at the Grammys over the past few years. In 2019, she played her song “Hard Place,” and then in 2020, she performed “Sometimes.” While she took 2021 off from performing, she still made an appearance to pick up her golden gramophone for “I Can’t Breathe.”

This year she returned to perform once again (as well as possibly also taking home more hardware), and with so much Grammys experience under her belt, just one song wouldn’t be enough. Her performance turned out to be a medley featuring “Damage,” “We Made It” and a cover of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” (a song she’s been playing on tour since last year). She was joined onstage by a who’s-who of heavy hitters that included Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Travis Barker, and Kravitz himself. Her elegant, stripped-down set saw her change wardrobe, take to her drum set, and of course, play a wailing solo on her guitar with Lenny accompanying her and Travis tripping out on drums.

This year, HER tied with Doja Cat and Justin Bieber for second-most Grammy nominations with eight apiece after Jon Batiste with 11. The 24-year-old singer is nominated for Album Of The Year for her debut album Back Of My Mind, Song Of The Year for her song “Fight For You” from the Judas And The Black Messiah soundtrack, Best R&B Performance for her Back Of My Mind single “Damage,” Best R&B Song for “Damage,” Best R&B Album, Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for “Hold Us Together” (Hope Mix) with Tauren Wells, and Best Song Written For Visual Media for “Fight For You.”

Last year, the formerly mysterious Bay Area singer secured Song Of The Year for her protest anthem “I Can’t Breathe,” as well as Best R&B Song alongside Robert Glasper for her appearance on “Better Than I Imagine” with Meshell Ndegeocello. The wins prompted her to proclaim her intention to eventually be an EGOT winner (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award). With her win at last year’s Oscars for “Fight For You,” she’s halfway there, and at just 24 years old, she’s still got plenty of time — and the talent — to grab the rest.

Watch HER’s 2022 Grammys performance above.

Tyler The Creator Trolls DJ Khaled (Again) On A Livestream From His Tour After Winning Best Rap Album

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Tyler The Creator is now a two-time Grammy Award winner for Best Rap Album after picking up his second award prior to this year’s ceremony for his 2021 album, Call Me If You Get Lost (and this time it was an actual… y’know… rap album). While he wasn’t at the ceremony to accept the award in person — due to the fact that he’s currently on the way to Portland, Oregon for his next Call Me If You Get Lost Tour stop — he did check in with fans to celebrate via Instagram Live. He also took the opportunity to once again troll his old rival DJ Khaled, flexing on him once again with both the Grammy win and the sold-out status of his current arena tour.

“First off, I’m hyped,” Tyler said. “Thank you to [Call Me If You Get Lost producer] DJ Drama. You are f*cking so important to rap music… Thank you to all of my friends for being my cheerleaders. Thank you to my whole team, the whole squad… and [thank you to DJ Khaled]. I know you’re seething and angry and [saying], ‘Ugh, no one listens to that album!’ These arena tours that are selling out say different, and if you put that much energy into something, maybe everyone will be proud of you too.”

Of course, the issue between the two stems from the shared release week of their albums in 2019. A rant that DJ Khaled gave on Snapchat defending his album from Twitter trolls was interpreted as a slanted attack on Tyler’s album Igor, prompting Tyler’s ongoing petty. With this win, it looks like he’s now up 4-0 on his rival, even if their rivalry is pretty one-sided. Lil Nas X may be the current reigning rap troll, but Tyler set the standard, and clearly, he hasn’t lost his touch.

Jon Batiste Was Full Of Life During His Vibrant Performance Of ‘Freedom’ At The 2022 Grammy Awards

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This year’s Grammys are a big one for Jon Batiste. The New Orleans star was nominated in eleven categories including Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Best R&B Album, and more. His total of eleven nominations for the 2022 Grammys makes for the second-most ever in the award show’s history and, in large part, Batiste’s recognition at the Grammys comes as a result of his eighth album We Are. He described the project as “a representation of genreless music that’s just about the story” and “a culmination of my life to this point.”

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Now we get to see a piece of We Are live on display through his performance of “Freedom” from the album. His performance of the song was quite the vibrant effort as the stage was flanked in bright colors and Batiste himself was also full of life during his set as he danced and pranced from every corner of the stage. Out of his eleven nominations, Batiste has won in four categories so far. He won in the Best Americana Roots Song Performance and Best American Roots Song categories for “Cry.” He was also honored with wins for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media and Best Music Video.

After the nominations for the Grammys were revealed, Batiste shared a very excited reaction to his eleven nominations. “WOW!! Thank you God!! I love EVERYBODY!” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m so grateful to my collaborators and to my ancestors [crying emojis] 11!”

You can watch Jon Batiste’s Grammy performance in the video above.

Jack Harlow’s Grammy Performance Made Up For Him Not Dancing In Lil Nas X’s ‘Industry Baby’ Video

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Aside from the chaos that the “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video caused, another big moment for Lil Nas X as he prepared for his Montero debut album came with the release of “Industry Baby.” He released the song with Jack Harlow and the song became his third chart-topping song after “Old Town Road” and “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Lil Nas’ collaboration with Harlow also came with a great music video that showed off some of Lil Nas’ dance moves during multiple scenes at the fictional Montero County Jail.

However, some people hoped to see Harlow show off some of his own moves in that video. After hearing from a good amount of disappointed fans, Harlow took to Twitter to clear the air. “Nas wrote the whole treatment for this video and I followed his lead every step of the way,” he wrote. ” If he had asked me to be in that shower scene I woulda been in that shower scene. I just let the mastermind cook. Honored to be apart of it.” Lil Nas himself jokingly chimed in and tweeted, “To the lgbtq+ community i sincerely apologize. i have failed you. i am embarrassed. i am ashamed. and i will learn from my mistakes.”

Well, it seems like Lil Nas did learn from his “mistakes” as he made sure to include Harlow in some portions of his dance routine during their 2022 Grammy performance of “Industry Baby.” Harlow leaned and swayed with Lil Nas and his backup dancers as he started performing his guest verse, and by the time he was done, Harlow got into the full swing of the routine before walking off the stage.

You can watch Lil Nas and Harlow’s performance of “Industry Baby” above and move up to 3:26 to see Harlow’s entrance.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Cardi B Once Again Deletes Her Twitter Account After Taking Fan Abuse For Skipping The Grammys

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Cardi B has deactivated her Twitter account again after some fans got a little too rambunctious in her mentions over skipping the Grammys. According to Rolling Stone, Cardi addressed the abuse before deleting her account. “I’m deleting my Twitter but on god I hate this f*ckin dumbass fan base,” she wrote. “You got the slow dumbasses dragging my kids all cause y’all [thought] I was going to the grammys and I didnt the f*ck ? When the f*ck I hinted I was going ? just f*vkin stupid I can’t I needs to protect myself.”

Rolling Stone listed some of the replies that made Cardi take her latest break. “I bet yo son wouldnt like for you to be on your ass while teasing us fans and not ever dropping music,” one read. When Cardi responded (and maybe overreacted) “I hope your moms die,” another person taunted, “do you kiss your @utistic child with that mouth?”

Cardi most recently disabled her account in the spring of 2021, which some speculated was for her to have time to finish her upcoming sophomore album. While that album still has yet to materialize, she has since had a second child, and her health and family should absolutely take priority over her work. Before that, she deleted the account when fans harassed her husband Offset in 2020. Cardi has spoken about the dark side of social media in the past, so it’s possible she could return but it certainly makes sense why she would want to take a break from it once in a while.

John Legend’s Moving Ukraine Tribute Performance Of ‘Free’ Was Introduced By Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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John Legend is a veteran at the Grammy awards. He’s taken home 12 awards and he’s been nominated on 33 occasions throughout his career. This year, Legend wasn’t nominated in any categories, but it hasn’t been too long since he was nominated at the show. In 2020 and 2021, he won in the Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best R&B Album categories respectively, and in 2019, he was nominated in the Best Musical Theater Album category. While Legend won’t leave with a trophy this year, he did make an appearance at this year’s Grammys, and with it came a Ukrainian tribute performance of his new song “Free.”

The track is one that Legend just released today, and it sees him pleading for freedom and an unrestricted life backed by the soft presence of the piano, stirring strings, and a powerful choir. His performance was introduced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the current president of Ukraine, who gave a speech about the country’s ongoing war with Russia. Legend was also accompanied by Ukrainian singer Mika Newtown and Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk for the performance.

Prior to his appearance at the Grammys, Legend became the latest artist to sell their music catalog. According to Bloomberg, Legend sold his copyrights and rights to royalties of his catalog to KKR & Co. and BMG, with each company getting a 50-percent stake. It was not revealed how much Legend made from the deal.

You can watch the Legend’s performance of “Free” and listen to Zelenskyy’s speech in the videos above.

Nas’ First-Ever Solo Grammys Performance Included ‘I Can,’ ‘One Mic,’ ‘Made You Look’ And ‘Rare’

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It may sound hard to believe, but Nas has never performed solo at the Grammys, despite being something of a fixture in its Best Rap Album category. Of course, he only recently won that award for the Hit-Boy joint album King’s Disease, so maybe the Grammys overlooking the rap elder statesman could also be considered a tradition — until now. Thanks to the Grammys’ ongoing initiative to actually honor hip-hop, Nas has now broken both streaks. He made up for the last 20 years in his 2022 Grammy performance, playing a medley of his hits including “I Can,” “One Mic,” “Made You Look,” and new song “Rare,” further cementing Nas’ status as the Grammys’ new golden child — even if he is closer to 50 now.

In the past few years, Nas and Hit-Boy have proven to be a winning team. In 2021, they won the Best Rap Album Grammy for their first collaborative project, King’s Disease — Nas’ first-ever win in the category in his 30-year career. Their follow-up, King’s Disease II, is also nominated for Best Rap Album this year. Finally, in December of 2021, the duo collaborated once again to make Magic — no pun intended — their third joint album to date. They have both stated that they plan to release a third installment of the King’s Disease series, as well. Given how things have been going on that front, don’t be surprised if that one gets nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy too.

Watch Nas’ 2022 Grammys performance of “I Can,” “One Mic,” “Made You Look,” and “Rare” above.

Olivia Rodrigo Lands The 2022 Grammy Award For Best New Artist

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Each year, there’s a new round of artists who make an impact, big or small, on the music industry. In that group, a select few are chosen to be recognized in the Best New Artist category at the Grammys every year. Winners in this category over the last few years have come from an array of genres. In 2017, Chance The Rapper took the award while pop singer Alessia Cara did so the following year. The award was given to Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and last year, Megan Thee Stallion was graced with the Best New Artist award.

This year, that honor has been given to Olivia Rodrigo. Fresh off her awesome performance of “Drivers License,” she was selected over the other Best New Artist nominees which were Arooj Aftab, Jimmie Allen, Baby Keem, Finneas, Glass Animals, Japanese Breakfast, The Kid Laroi, Arlo Parks, and Saweetie.

Over the past twelve months, many of the artists in this year’s Best New Artist category had highlight moments that certainly helped to boost their careers. Arlo Parks’ Collapsed In Sunbeams, which is also nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, won the Mercury Prize, which is awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. Olivia Rodrigo scored her first No. 1 album with Sour after tearing up the singles chart with “Drivers License.” The Kid Laroi also delivered a chart-topping album and single with F*ck Love and “Stay” with Justin Bieber. Lastly, Japanese Breakfast won the 2021 Uproxx Critics Poll thanks to their third album Jubilee, which is also nominated in this year’s Best Alternative Music Album category.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Anderson .Paak Narrowly Avoided A Wardrobe Malfunction As Silk Sonic Accepted Their Grammy Award

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30 minutes into the 2022 Grammy Awards, nothing so show-stopping as Will Smith’s slap has afflicted the show as yet — but Silk Sonic nearly became the talk of the show for all the wrong reasons as they accepted their award for Song Of The Year for “Leave The Door Open.” For a quick moment during their acceptance speech — which was mostly handled by producer/songwriter Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II, who dedicated the award to his recently deceased mother — the microphone cut off as Anderson .Paak turned his back on the cameras.

As it turns out, he had a decent enough reason for swearing on live TV: The fly on his 1970’s-inspired bellbottom pants was down, almost giving the world a glimpse of what .Paak is packing. Fortunately, he was able to keep everything aside from the curse words contained, keeping the Grammys from accumulating the number of FCC complaints that the Oscars got.

Anderson and his musical partner Bruno Mars got to celebrate winning Song Of The Year just minutes after performing their casino-themed cut “777” — appropriate, as the Grammys were held in Vegas this year. Incidentally, they performed the Song Of The Year for the first time at last year’s awards after mounting a campaign to lobby the show for the opportunity to play. They’re still nominated for Record Of The Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song.

Lil Nas X Taunts His Critics Performing ‘Montero’ And ‘Industry Baby’ With Jack Harlow At The 2022 Grammys

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Lil Nas X’s hit song “Industry Baby” has clearly become an industry favorite; he and guest rapper Jack Harlow graced the stage at the Grammys to once again perform their No. 1 hit as part of a stirring medley of tracks including “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and “Dead Right Now.” They previously shook up the world with their colorful rendition of “Industry Baby” at the 2021 VMAs. Nas changed costumes numerous times as news clips of pearl-clutching newscasters played behind him.

Nas and Jack’s juggernaut collaboration is nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, while Nas himself has also accumulated an impressive collection of nominations for his debut album Montero. Not only is Montero nominated for Album Of The Year, but the project’s lead single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” is also nominated for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Music Video.

That last nomination must certainly rankle Nas’ detractors, who immediately decried the video for its controversial concept. In the video, Nas descends to a plane resembling classic depictions of hell and gives a demonic ruler a lap dance before committing regicide and ascending the throne himself. However, those criticisms couldn’t stop “Call Me By Your Name” from becoming Nas’ second No. 1 record, receiving a Platinum RIAA certification just one month after its release, or receiving three Grammy nominations. Meanwhile, its follow-up, “Industry Baby,” achieved similar success, reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100 two months after its release and receiving the Best Melodic Rap Performance nomination.

Watch Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s 2022 Grammys performance of TK above.