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Grammy Awards 2016: Kendrick Lamar dominates the nominations

Grammy Awards 2016: Kendrick Lamar dominates the nominations

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Taylor Swift and The Weeknd are in hot pursuit

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Kendrick Lamar has a stranglehold on music's biggest night. CBS announced the nominations for the 58th annual Grammy Awards this morning, and the LA rapper is leading the pack with 11 nominations, including nods for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rap Album. His closest competitors, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, have seven nominations each. Lamar's no stranger to the Grammy game: he earned seven nominations in 2014 for good kid, m.A.A.d city before going home without a single win, and picked up two trophies last year for To Pimp a Butterfly's lead single, "i."

In some ways To Pimp a Butterfly is tailor-made for oft-conservative, staid Grammy voters. It's musically and thematically complex; it's socially conscious; it was released by an established Grammy presence, one who many thought was unfairly snubbed two years ago when his last album was nominated. After cracking through the Grammy ceiling last year, Lamar's poised to pick up more awards than he can carry.

Best Rock Album is still a morass

A quick glance at the rest of the year's major categories suggests the Grammys are sneaking closer to contemporary critical consensus after being lampooned for decades. Lamar, Swift, and The Weeknd all released albums that married commercial performance and decent critical responses. If you were forced to pick three #1 albums for Grammy recognition, you could do much worse. There are a few category-level races without a single head-scratching inclusion, a rarity in recent years; I'd be happy with any of the nominees in the dance / electronic, country, and rap categories winning. (I'm sad to report Best Rock Album is still a morass.) The eligibility period for this group of Grammy Awards ran from October 1st, 2014 to September 30th, 2015, meaning new albums from people like Janet Jackson and Justin Bieber just missed the cut.

Here are the nominees for some of the night's biggest awards:

Record of the Year

D'Angelo and the Vanguard, "Really Love"

Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars, "Uptown Funk"

Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud"

Taylor Swift, "Blank Space"

The Weeknd, "Can't Feel My Face"

Album of the Year

Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color

Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly

Chris Stapleton, Traveller

Taylor Swift, 1989

The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness

Song of the Year

Kendrick Lamar, "Alright"

Taylor Swift, "Blank Space"

Little Big Town, "Girl Crush"

Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth, "See You Again"

Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud"

Best New Artist

Courtney Barnett

James Bay

Sam Hunt

Tori Kelly

Meghan Trainor

Best Pop Vocal Album

Kelly Clarkson, Piece by Piece

Florence + the Machine, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Mark Ronson, Uptown Special

Taylor Swift, 1989

James Taylor, Before This World

Best Dance / Electronic Album

Caribou, Our Love

The Chemical Brothers, Born in the Echoes

Disclosure, Caracal

Jamie xx, In Colour

Skrillex & Diplo, Skrillex & Diplo Present Jack Ü

Best Rock Album

James Bay, Chaos in the Calm

Death Cab for Cutie, Kintsugi

Highly Suspect, Mister Asylum

Muse, Drones

Slipknot, .5: The Gray Chapter

Best Alternative Album

Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color

Björk, Vulnicura

My Morning Jacket, The Waterfall

Tame Impala, Currents

Wilco, Star Wars

Best Urban Contemporary Album

The Internet, Ego Death

Kehlani, You Should Be Here

Lianne La Havas, Blood

Miguel, Wildheart

The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness

Best R&B Album

Leon Bridges, Coming Home

D'Angelo and the Vanguard, Black Messiah

Andra Day, Cheers to the Fall

Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show

Charlie Wilson, Forever Charlie

Best Rap Album

J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive

Dr. Dre, Compton

Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late

Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly

Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint

Best Country Album

Sam Hunt, Montevallo

Little Big Town, Pain Killer

Ashley Monroe, The Blade

Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material

Chris Stapleton, Traveller

Best Music Video

A$AP Rocky, "LSD"

The Dead Weather, "I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)"

Kendrick Lamar, "Alright"

Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Bad Blood"

Pharrell Williams, "Freedom"

Best Music Film

Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown

Sonic Highways

What Happened, Miss Simone?

The Wall

Amy

This year's Grammys will air on CBS on February 15th, 2016.