Hey! Welcome back for another edition of the SoundCentric newsletter!

The Grammys were last night. Did you know that? Well, I didn’t realize it until midway through Sunday. The Grammys does as well at marketing their show as the NHL does with their star players. Who even is Conner McDavid? I thought that was an MMA fighter.

But, to their credit, nothing besides Luka Doncic was on my timeline since Saturday night. Thanks, Nico Harrison!

Below is my recap of the major categories, obviously with a focus on the hip-hop and R&B awards. I honestly couldn’t tell you if Brat was better than Tortured Poet. Funny, a tortured poet is how I’m going to feel Sunday when Patrick Mahomes uses his black magic against my Birds.

Reminder, there is now a Google Form below to submit your music, and in the future I will be picking my favorites and giving them a review. So, submit away!

You could be reading anything in the world right now, and you're here with me. So, I appreciate it.

Let’s get to it!

Deep Dive

2025 Grammys Recap

No matter how ridiculed it may be—and trust me, I’ll be doing some ridiculing below—the Grammys is always an amazing night. There are plenty of internal issues with what gets nominated and what ultimately wins, but watching artists achieve their dreams will never not be cool.

Kendrick Lamar is now officially a 22-time Grammy winner, trailing only Kanye and Jay-Z for hip-hop artists, after “Not Like Us” swept every category it was nominated for. Not enough people give Drake credit for one of the most accurate predictions of the year: he told us that as soon as Kendrick opened his mouth, a Grammy would follow. And sure enough, it did.

Kanye West showed up with his naked wife and was promptly escorted out of the Grammys. Surprisingly, I don’t think that was a dress-code issue—apparently, he just wasn’t invited.

So, the question remains: can you show up naked to the Grammys and not be kicked out?

Now, time for some quick ridicule. I have no idea why the Grammys announces so many major awards—like Best R&B Song, Best R&B Album, Best Rap Song, and more—before the actual show even starts. Like I said in the beginning, they have a marketing problem. At this point, the show is mostly just live performances anyway.

So, let’s quickly chat about those…

Who stood out?

Sabrina Carpenter was born to be a superstar. I don’t even know if I’ve ever actually heard “Espresso” in full, but somehow I know every word. She killed her performance, even if her mic was a little messed up. She’s also great at adding her sense of humor into her performances, which I feel as though we don’t see a lot of in pop music. Shout out to her.

Doechii had probably the coolest performance I’ve ever seen. Maybe I’m biased and just a Stan, which, true. But did you see it? That breath control with the choreography was insane. I was on my feet going bar for bar with her.

Chappell Roan destroyed her performance of “Pink Pony Club.” I saw her perform this on Saturday Night Live, but this was even crazier. Hearing the crowd sing the chorus gave me chills. And her speech about labels needing to offer their artists health insurance after winning Best New Artist? Just incredible.

Now, let’s get to the winners and my thoughts on those.

Best Rap Album

Winner: Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal

Who I wanted to win: Doechii Alligator Bites Never Heal or J. Cole Might Delete Later

Thoughts: THE MOTHERFUCKIN’ SWAMP PRINCESS

Seeing Doechii win nearly brought me to tears. As she said in her speech, she is just the third women to ever win the award, joining Lauryn Hill and Cardi B. This album was more than deserving of this honor.

Top Dawg Entertainment is officially the San Antonio Spurs and went from Tim Duncan (Kendrick) right to Wemby (Doechii).

She also dropped a new amazing track in honor of the win.

Best Rap Song

Winner: Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us

Who I wanted to win: Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us

Thoughts: This song is so interesting. It obviously took the world by storm and is definitely on repeat for me. That being said, I’m surprised by how much mainstream popularity a song that accuses another major artist of being a pedophile has gained. It doesn’t seem like the kind of track a prestigious award would endorse or put its name behind. But its cultural impact was undeniable, and it will go down as a historic record.

And hearing a whole crowd yell “A minorrrrr?” Priceless.

CLEAN SWEEP 🧹🧹🧹

Best New Artist

Winner: Chappell Roan

Who I wanted to win: Doechii

Thoughts: Not even mad at this one. Chappell had an incredible year, and I’m now on my way to purchase a pink pony in honor of her making that amazing speech calling out the labels to give their artists health insurance. Her performance also made my mom ask me to make a playlist for her of Chappell songs to walk to.

Song of the Year

Winner: Kendrick Lamar - “Not Like Us”

Who I wanted to win: Kendrick Lamar - “Not Like Us”

Thoughts: My thoughts are the same as my other ones above, but even more shocked. I was laughing as they announced this winner. There’s no way. Someone please do a welfare check on Drake.

As big as the what?

Album of the Year

Winner: Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter

Who I wanted to win: Screw these options, but I guess Beyoncé

Thoughts: The queen finally got her first Album of the Year win. I would’ve given it to her for Renaissance, but better late than never.

One day they’ll nominate hip-hop album for this award and let it win.

Record of the Year

Winner: Kendrick Lamar - “Not Like Us”

Who I wanted to win: Kendrick Lamar - “Not Like Us”

Thoughts: lol

Best Melodic Rap Performance

Winner: Rapsody ft. Erykah Badu - “3:AM”

Who I wanted to win: Rapsody ft. Erykah Badu - “3:AM”

Thoughts: I wasn’t too invested in the nominations for this category, nor do I really know what qualifies as a melodic rap performance. But hey, let’s go, Rapsody!

I always love seeing amazing artists get their flowers, and her album Please Don’t Cry was beautiful and deserving of praise. So, no complaints over here on this one!

Best Rap Performance

Winner: Kendrick Lamar - “Not Like Us”

Who I wanted to win: Doechii - “Nissan Altima”

Thoughts: My thoughts on this are similar to what I said about Kendrick’s other win—I have no real complaints. “Not Like Us” is a historic track. That said, I love “Nissan Altima” and would have loved to see Doechii take this one.

“PUT THE MOTHERFUCKIN’ MONEY IN THE MOTHERFUCKIN’ BAG!”

Best Progressive R&B Album

Winner: NXWORRIES - Why Lawd?

Who I wanted to win: NXWORRIES - Why Lawd?

HELL YEAH! NXWORRIES, the duo consisting of Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge, is one of my favorite duos ever. Their first album, Yes Lawd, is in my top ten of all time, so my expectations for this one were sky-high. I’m happy to report that they did not disappoint.

This album has a darker tone compared to their debut, presumably influenced by .Paak’s public divorce. The choruses were incredible, the features delivered, and as expected, .Paak was sangin’ sangin’.

YES LAWD!

Best R&B Album

Winner: Chris Brown - 11:11 (Deluxe)

Who I wanted to win: Lucky Daye - Algorithm

Truthfully, none of these nominations got me too excited. I also have no idea what the difference is between this award and Progressive R&B. I would’ve loved to see Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge take this one for Why Lawd?, but they already got their win above, so I guess it’s a moot point.

Best R&B Song

Winner: SZA - “Saturn”

Who I wanted to win: SZA - “Saturn”

SZA had an incredible 2024. She followed up her Grammy-sweeping 2022 classic, SOS, with Lana in 2024—technically labeled a deluxe album, though it’s realistically a whole new project. “Saturn” wasn’t my favorite SZA track of the year, but I’m always happy to see the queen rack up more wins.

Bar of the Week

Rankings

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Playlist of the Week

SoundCentric Podcast

Episode 100: Dru Kelly and Stix

Till Next Time

Thank you for tuning in to newsletter number 3! And in case I don see ya’, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!