Schoolboy Q Has a Shot at Winning the Best Rap Album Grammy. Will Eminem Play Spoiler?
Leading up to the Grammy nominations on Nov. 8, Rolling Stone is breaking down 13 different categories. For each, we’re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night.
This year’s Best Rap Album race is poised to be a duel between Atlanta trap and traditionalist rap with an L.A. flair. But a dormant rap legend may end up playing a spoiler — even if he’s supposedly dead and buried.
More from Rolling Stone
Best Rap Album — Our Predictions
21 Savage, American Dream
Eminem, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)
Future & Metro Boomin, We Don’t Trust You
Megan Thee Stallion, Megan
Schoolboy Q, Blue Lips
Who Will Win?
Future & Metro Boomin, We Don’t Trust You
Future & Metro Boomin just feel primed to win Best Rap Album for We Don’t Trust You. Metro has been nominated three times but hasn’t taken home a Grammy, while Future has 11 nominations and three wins; a victory in this category would be his biggest. Buoyed by the titanic “Like That,” their March album is a display of two modern rap icons in symbiosis. The Playboi Carti and Travis Scott collab “Type Shit” is a winner among the Rolling Loud lot, while “Everyday Hustle” showed off their traditionalist chops. While we feel like this could be their breakthrough Grammy moment, Carl Chery, Spotify’s Head of Urban Music and Creative Director, says he could see their meager Grammy track record “working against them.”
Who Should Win?
Schoolboy Q’s Blue Lips
Blue Lips would be the best choice among likely nominees. The March project is another dose of the L.A. rhymer’s mesh of colorful, vivid lyricism, and fun production. Songs like “Blueslides” and “THank god 4 me” flesh out another great album from an artist with a sparse output but a considerable Grammy history. Two of his three previous solo albums have been nominated for Best Rap Album (Oxymoron and Blankface), and he has two nominations for “Studio” and “That Part” with Kendrick Lamar (as well as a Best Rap Album nomination for being a part of Macklemore’s The Heist). Chery thinks that Schoolboy’s affiliation with the Top Dawg Entertainment label could help him: “Schoolboy hasn’t won,” he says, “but TDE has such a great track record at the Grammys, so I think he’ll benefit from that.”
Forecasting the Field
Chery says this year’s Best Rap Album category is going to come down to what kind of rap Grammy voters listen to. “If you like more of the trap variety, you’re going to lean in Future and Metro’s direction. If you’re a little bit more traditional, you’re going to lean in Q’s direction,” he says. And Chery cautions against forgetting about Eminem’s Death of Slim Shady. The rap icon hasn’t been nominated since 2019; Chery says that seems too long. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Eminem takes it,” he says. “This album does feel like the best reception we’ve seen from an Eminem album in years and it performed well commercially. We even saw it on [Spotify]. For someone who’s now in his 50s, Eminem is going in a different direction. You’ve been around for a while, your numbers are supposed to drop. But the way he’s performing on platform, at least on playlist, is getting better. His audience is getting younger.” Chery says we should also watch out for Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s first Vultures album to sneak in with a nomination.
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.