So if Kanye decrees that it’s Lil Wayne’s Year, does that make it so? Apparently it does, as Wayne picks up a crowd-leading 8 nominations for work associated with “Tha Carter III”. Close behind at seven is Coldplay, whose “Viva La Vida” not only scored a number one album, but also nabbed the group their biggest single to date with the title cut. Kanye, Ne-Yo, and Jay-Z all picked up six nominations to make this a very hip-hop Grammy year.

One nice surprise for me was seeing Adele not only get a Best New Artist nod, but also a hat tip for “Chasing Pavements”, which a year later still feels like a fresh blast, compared to most of the cookie-cutter music on the radio right now. Duffy also got a Best New nom, and Lady Antebellum received some well-deserved recognition. Honestly, I don’t get the Jonas Brothers personally, but I’m not gonna hate on the notice. I WILL hate on Jazmine Sullivan’s FIVE nominations, though. The talk about her being compared to Lauryn Hill is galling enough, but after seeing her open for Maxwell in October, she doesn’t even deserve to be in the same time zone with most of these artists. How many favors did Clive have to pull in for this one? And how did she get the nod over Leona? I mean, “Spirit” isn’t revolutionary, but give the people what they want, ya know? It was all but a given that Leona Lewis would be up in that piece, but someone seems to have forgotten how many records her debut sold.