Last week, the Grammy Nominations were released, with many Hip hop and R&B performers with the most nominations. Jay-Z has the most, with eight, followed by Kendrick Lamar, with seven, and Childish Gambino, SZA, Bruno Mars, and Khalid close behind.

For the first time in over a decade, there isn’t a rock or country nominee for Best New Artist, and instead has a hip hop and pop dominated group of artists. This category is a toss-up, with Alessia Cara, Khalid, Lil Uzi Vert, Julia Michaels and SZA competing for the title. Khalid previously won a fan-voting based Billboard Music Award, with his debut album, American Teen, going platinum at the young age of 18. Alessia Cara, who has been in the music game for awhile now, her hit song Here was released in 2015, has continued to gain popularity and release songs that have been successful. Lil Uzi Vert, a rapper, gained popularity this year with his song XO Tour Life, but also has had successful albums in the past. Julia Michaels a pop artist, had a hit song, Issues, and as she released more and more music she gained recognition. Her distinct voice and style makes her an equal contender if not giving her a slight edge, although she is the only purely pop artist. Finally SZA, an R&B Artist who incorporates elements of soul and hip hop into her music, is the last but by no means least person to be nominated for this award.  Her hit song, Love Galore, has over 132 million streams and counting on spotify.

Kendrick Lamar, who has been nominated seven times for his album DAMN. is expected to take home awards on Jan. 28. He has been previously nominated for To Pimp a Butterfly and good kid m.A.A.d city, but did not receive best album for either of them. He is in the running for record of the year, album of the year, rap album of the year and four more awards. While his fans have been disappointed in 2014 and 2016 with his losses, they may not be disappointed in 2018.

As for the nominations as a whole, critics are relatively happy with the diversity and group of people that have been nominated, 2018 being one of the better years of nominations. But, this is only relative, and this years pool of nominations is male-dominated in all of the major categories, and pop and hip hop dominates most of the categories(except for the genre related ones). While some fans are angry about this, the music industry has turned towards this kind of music, and they are only recognizing the music that the public has been listening to.