Cardi B: She’s not ‘New’ to this.
According to a just-released report from the Associated Press, both Cardi B and Post Malone have been ruled ineligible for the Grammy’s ‘Best New Artist’ award.
Maybe this one isn’t such a shocker. After all, how ‘new’ are Cardi B and Post Malone, anyway?
Cardi B received two nominations last year for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, which disqualifies her for the Best New Artist nomination in 2019. According to sources, had Cardi B not released her new album around the same time as her success with ‘Bodak Yellow,’ she may have qualified as a ‘new artist’.
On to the next ineligibility…
Post Malone’s inclusion for Best New Artist was a topic of hot debate, according to one source. Malone’s lack of previous Grammy nominations meant he was eligible for the award, but some music industry insiders felt the success of his 2016 album Stoney made him ineligible for this award.
Again, few people have ‘just heard of’ Post Malone. And in internet/rap time, Malone’s practically a septuagenarian.
Indeed, Malone’s status as a new artist was immediately called into question after singles ‘White Iverson’, and ‘Congratulations’. The singles reached platinum status in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Neither Post Malone nor Cardi B have commented on their exclusion from this year’s Best New Artist award.
Then again, that assumes either artist cares. Last year, Drake famously dismissed the Grammys as irrelevant, perhaps indicative of a broader brush-off from the industry’s most popular genre.
Which raises the question: did Drake even submit his latest album, Scorpion, for a nomination consideration? That could easily become the bigger story here.
Interestingly enough, Post Malone’s 2018 LP beerbongs & bentleys will be submitted in the pop category rather than the rap category. Rap nominees must contain at least 51% or more actual rap music, and the Grammys rap committee felt as though the album leaned more towards pop than rap.
And how does one define ‘rap,’ exactly? It’s gonna be a long night, folks.
The first round of voting for nominations begins on October 17th, 2019.
Grammy nominees will be revealed on December 5th. The Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on February 10th, 2019.
The Grammys were expanded this year to allow for eight new contenders to be nominated under the Best New Artist category, instead of five.
In general, artists are ineligible for the ‘Best New Artist’ category if they’ve released three albums or 30 tracks.