Best Rap Album Grammy Nominations: Artists & Fans React

The 2021 Grammy Nominations have arrived in full, and naturally, the responses to the celebrated and the snubbed have been swift and passionate. As it stands, it was a big year for Beyonce with nine total nods, with Roddy Ricch, Taylor Swift, and Dua Lipa holding it down in second place with six apiece. Yet for many, the Best Rap Album category was the biggest surprise, with the Grammy board subverting expectations and opting to highlight some of the year’s most lyrically focused bodies of work.

We’re looking at Best Rap Album nominations for D Smoke’s Black Habits, Royce Da 5’9″‘s The Allegory, Freddie Gibbs’ Alfredo, Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony, and Nas’ King’s Disease. All spectacularly penned projects in their own right, this year’s batch of nominations was shocking if only due to how typically under-the-radar bar-heavy records tend to fly. And yet here we are, with several of the game’s best emcees officially receiving a new bouquet of flowers for the mantlepiece.

Naturally, many were thrilled to see such bodies of work receiving recognition on such a massive mainstream level. Yet some weren’t quite as impressed, with many lamenting the lack of recognition for Lil Baby and Roddy Ricch, both of whom enjoyed excellent runs of their own. No matter which camp you belong to, consider checking out some of the early reactions to the Best Rap Album nominations from artists and fans alike.