Ten 2012 Grammy Awards Observations From a Hip Hop/Electronic Head

By Chris Mills | February 13, 2012 at 1:31 am | One comment | News, Op-Eds/Misc.

I haven’t watched the Grammys in at least a few years, so here it goes.

1. After Jay-Z and Kanye won best hip hop something, neither of them were in the house to accept their award. Do hip hop artists still boycott the Grammy’s in 2012? After presenting the award, Marc Anthony just held onto it on behalf of the two rap stars, then awkwardly said, “Check it out,” right before the show dipped into a commercial break.

2. Somewhere, Tyler, The Creator was laughing at Bruno Mars for looking like an oompa loompa/male Janelle Monae/The Weeknd look alike.

3. Some country singer appeared to be experiencing some sound issues at the tail end of his performance. At best, I could only hope that they cut his mic off on purpose.

4. When no more than three awards were presented in about an hour’s time, I knew it was going to be a long night…

5. Stevie Wonder made an appearance and did a quick harmonica bit. Then the crowd began clapping along. This is usually a bad idea when that many white people are under one roof. I always liken the sound of a DJ failing in a beat-matching attempt to the sound of a room full of white people trying to clap on beat. Considering the Staples Center was full of musicians that night, that’s exactly what it sounded like, unfortunately.

6. Another presenter, alongside Common, preached something to the effect of why people like Gil Scott-Heron have actually made artists today able to make the revolution “televised”. I don’t know about you, but with pop music reigning supreme in the music industry right now, hearing lyrics about what’s going on in the world seem rather rare (maybe I’m just not looking in the right places). I guess that’s an idea to build upon for another day.

7. Glen Campbell’s performance of “Rhinestone Cowboy” instantly had me fishing for beats in my head as to what track DJ P threw under it on his legendary mix CD with Z-Trip, Uneasy Listening.

8. David Guetta was supposed to be doing something behind the mixer when he, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown performed over a track that he produced, but he just smiled at the camera on cue, pretending to flick his hands around on some knobs. Faking the funk is never funny.

9. The Nicki Minaj/Exorcist thing was nothing short of dreadful.

10. Lastly, a lot of people on my timeline were asking why Etta James was omitted from the memorial segment honoring deceased musicians, which included the guy who “invented album cover”.