{"id":122184,"date":"2025-10-14T21:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/122184\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T21:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:00:07","slug":"grammys-2026-predictions-best-rap-album-nominees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/122184\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammys 2026 Predictions: Best Rap Album Nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLeading up to\u00a0the Grammy nominations on Nov. 7, Rolling Stone is breaking down 10 different categories<\/a>. For each, we\u2019re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s Best Rap Album race should come down to Kendrick or Clipse, even if the other three nominees are all worthy in their own right. Lamar and Clipse, however, are lyrical titans. And while you can\u2019t go wrong, we think the Academy will favor the project from a Grammy darling, which also made more of a commercial splash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tBest Rap Album \u00a0\u2013 Our Predictions\t<\/p>\n

\n\tClipse, Let God Sort Em Out
J.I.D, God Does Like Ugly
Kendrick Lamar, GNX
Playboi Carti, I Am Music
Tyler, The Creator, CHROMAKOPIA<\/p>\n

\t\tWho Will Win?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tKendrick Lamar, GNX<\/strong>
How long does the aftermath of a tidal wave last? We\u2019ll find out this year, as Kendrick Lamar\u2019s work on GNX will likely be up for several awards, including Best Rap Album and Album of the Year. The album came as somewhat of a surprise after an already banner year for the Compton rhymer, vanquishing Drake with \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d a song that won a whopping five awards during the last Grammy ceremony. But GNX showed Kendrick delving deeper on who \u201cus\u201d is with what veteran journalist and Genius VP of Music and Content Rob Markman says is an \u201cunapologetically west coast\u201d sound on his latest project.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHaving to appeal to everybody is something that hip-hop has suffered from the past several years,\u201d he says, lauding that Kendrick \u201cwas on his shit and if you liked it, great, and if you didn\u2019t, he didn\u2019t give a fuck. I think that is important.\u201d As great as the album is, it dropped in November 2024, and it\u2019s worth wondering if that momentum will carry into February 2026 \u2014 we think it will, and Markman ponders if we\u2019ll get a new music video or new music as a subtle campaign gesture to the Grammy committee. Either way, he says GNX is his close runner-up in the Best Rap Album category, but he hopes for a hip-hop first: \u201cI think Clipse are going to win. My hope is that they split, GNX gets that Album of the Year and hip-hop returns to Album of the Year stature.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tWho Should Win?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tClipse, Let God Sort Em Out<\/strong>
Clipse have been having a banner year before and after releasing their highly anticipated Let God Sort Em Out. After a 15-year absence, the Virginia duo delivered a masterclass buoyed by Pharrell production that embodied their classic sound for a new era. Markman says he thinks Clipse should and will win, citing the album\u2019s heavy familial themes. Obviously, the Thornton brothers are reunited, but he feels the album has several other moments that defy the reductive \u201cthey only rap about coke\u201d jab: the poignant, John Legend-assisted \u201cBirds Don\u2019t Sing,\u201d about losing their parents, Pusha\u2019s reflections on losing a child on \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d and their reflections on their grandmother\u2019s history in the drug game. Markman says the sophisticated, well-written project is a testament to aging and growth in rap that deserves to be applauded. \u201cThey tell us hip-hop is a young man\u2019s game. They trick us out of our position\u2026I think it\u2019s a dope story for hip-hop, and it lets others who are coming behind Clipse [know], \u2018Oh, I can grow in this.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\tForecasting the Field\t<\/p>\n

\n\tMarkman says, for him, the past 12 months in rap have been \u201cthe year of intention,\u201d full of albums that \u201creally had a story to share. They really had some pain that they wanted to give, some hope that they wanted to give.\u201d That\u2019s the case with Kendrick, Clipse, as well as JID\u2019s God Does Like Ugly album. J.I.D has long been a respected lyricist who, for many fans, is poised to achieve a new level of stardom. An album like God Does Like Ugly will accelerate that ascendance.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tMarkman is also impressed with the growth Tyler, the Creator\u2019s shown on CHROMAKOPIA, which once again reflects the best of his lush, layered production chops, as well as thematic growth. On \u201cHey Jane,\u201d he explored the permutations of having a baby, while on \u201cMomma\u201d he juxtaposes his mother\u2019s lessons with the lack of insight from his father. \u201cTyler gives a dope blueprint, especially with this album, to still be yourself, but to grow the fuck up,\u201d Markman says. And while Playboi Carti isn\u2019t regarded as the same caliber of lyricist as the others, his I Am Music project is too momentous to ignore. Carti doesn\u2019t have much Grammy history as a soloist, with his only nominations being on Kanye\u2019s \u201cCarnival\u201d and Weeknd\u2019s \u201cTimeless\u201d, but that should change with I Am Music. The Grammys aren\u2019t just an award body, they\u2019re a document of history, and it makes sense that Carti\u2019s maximalist effort, with moments like \u201cCocaine Nose,\u201d \u201cLike Weezy,\u201d and \u201cGood Credit\u201d with Kendrick Lamar, will be nominated. It feels odd not to have a woman in the category, but as Markman says of this current Grammy selection period, \u201cWhen we talk about the force that women have been in hip-hop and continue to be, it was tough to find something that rose to the occasion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tWhoever wins or doesn\u2019t win, Markman is adamant that trophies don\u2019t define us. \u201cWhile I think it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s a dope celebration, I want to be careful about how much stock we put into it because people get really bent out of shape about the Grammys. Phife Dawg said, \u2018I never let a statue tell me how nice I am.\u2019 I feel like we got to get back to not giving a fuck about what the mainstream thinks about us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leading up to\u00a0the Grammy nominations on Nov. 7, Rolling Stone is breaking down 10 different categories. For each,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,62287,19,17,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-122184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-grammys-2026","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-music"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}