Jay Z Dominates Grammy Noms With 8...Kendrick Lamar & Bruno Mars Close Behind

It's a beautiful time in hip-hop! The 2018 Grammy nominations are in and HOV is leading the pack with 8 nominations!! That includes Album, Record, and Song of the year!

As a matter of fact, Rap and R&B are heavily dominating the Grammys this year in the four major categories. This includes: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist!

Following up Jay, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar has seven nominations, while Childish Gambino has five nominations and Bruno Mars is up for six! All the artists have been nominated in at least one of the major categories.

All that melanin dominating at such a prestigious awards show -- didn't we say it was a beautiful time in hip-hop?

Let's unpack this for y'all.

Record of the year nominees include Childish Gambino’s “Redbone”, which peaked at number 12 on the Hot 100; Jay Z’s “The Story of OJ”, Kendrick Lamar's No.1 hit “Humble”, Mars' “24K Magic”, and the year's biggest hit, “Despacito”, by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber.

Jay Z’s revealing album “4:44” is nominated for album of the year alongside Kendrick's hard hitting “Damn,” Bruno Mars' 90’s inspired “24K Magic,” Childish Gambino’s soulful “ Awaken My Love!” And Lorde’s pop album, “Melodrama.”

Jay's title track, "4:44", is nominated for song of the year along with Bruno Mars' No.1 hit, "That's What I Like"; rapper Logic's suicide prevention anthem, "1-800-273-8255"; Fonsi's "Despacito", and "Issues" by Julia Michaels, who is a pop singer that has previously written for the Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

Michaels is also nominated for best new artist, however this is another rap and R&B dominated category, so her competition includes Alessia Cara, SZA, Khalid, and Lil Uzi Vert.

This year's numerous rap and R&B  nominations come on the heels of the Grammys facing heavy scrutiny earlier this year. They were heavily criticized after Beyonce's "Lemonade" lost album of the year to Adele's "25". Fans and even Adele herself felt Beyonce should have won the award. 

So what does this mean that Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar have the possibility of winning album, record or song of the year? This means your favorite rappers could make history y'all!  If Jay or Kendrick win album of the year, it will be only the third rap album to win album of the year - ever. And so far, a rap song has never won record or song of the year, which could make either of them the FIRST!

Several other hip-hop artist are up for multiple awards including SZA, Khalid, Pharrell, and No I.D.

Cardi B has also earned her first grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance, going up against heavy weights, Jay Z, Kendrick, Big Sean, and Migos. You can see the full list of nominees, here.

Congrats to all of this year's nominees! 

Now all we have to do is wait until the big day to find out who will end up on top. And the Grammy goes to… tune in January 28,2018 on CBS to find out!

Did your faves get nominated? Tell us what you think fam.