The biggest 2016 Grammy nomination snubs

The nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, highlighting the best and brightest talents in the music industry, were released Monday morning and, as always, caused a bit of controversy. Though the committee recognized many deserving artists, many more musicians were not recognized, and my job is to right those wrongs. Without further ado, here are your biggest 2016 Grammy snubs.

If you are an avid reader of the column, you may have noticed my unabashed love for Fetty Wap and Drake, both of whom were snubbed Monday morning. Fetty managed just two nominations for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “Trap Queen” (2015). However, the infectious hit song was left off the Record and Song of the Year lists. Fetty himself couldn’t even manage a Best New Artist nomination after coming out of nowhere to completely dominate the charts in 2015.

Drake has five nominations: Best Rap Performance for “Back to Back” (2015), Best Rap Song for “Energy” (2015), Best Rap Album for “If You're Reading This It's Too Late” (2015) and two collaborations. However, he should have earned more. Not only was the Canadian phenomenon shut out of all the major umbrella categories, his popular joint album with Future, “What A Time to Be Alive” (2015), and the ubiquitous “Hotline Bling” (2015) earned a grand total of zero combined nods. After the monster year that Drizzy had, consider this columnist very surprised.

Carly Rae Jepsen also has a legitimate bone to pick with the committee. Her third album, “Emotion” (2015), earned rave reviews from critics but amassed no Grammy nominations. Jepsen is more than just a one-hit wonder; she is more than just “Call Me Maybe” (2012). The fact that she wasn’t recognized for creating one of the best pop albums of the year is ludicrous.

2015 saw the releases of many impressive rap albums, but the fact that only five can be chosen for Best Rap Album always leads to a slew of snubs. Big Sean’s “Dark Sky Paradise" (2015), Lupe Fiasco’s “Tetsuo & Youth” (2015), Wale’s “The Album About Nothing” (2015), Rae Sremmurd’s “SremmLife” (2015), Future’s “DS2” (2015), Fetty Wap’s “Fetty Wap” (2015), Vince Staples’ “Summertime ’06” (2015) and A$AP Rocky’s “At.Long.Last.A$AP” (2015) highlight the long list of deserving nominees. 

As for the other major snubs, Luke Bryan’s number one album “Kill the Lights” (2015) was a critical and public success, yet it was passed over for both Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The country superstar received an unforgivable zero nominations.

Justin Bieber had a remarkable comeback year, but the committee didn’t recognize “Where Are Ü Now” (2015) or “What Do You Mean?” (2015) for Song or Record of The Year. “Shut Up and Dance” (2014) by Walk the Moon, “Good for You” (2015) by Selena Gomez and A$AP Rocky, “Cool for the Summer” (2015) by Demi Lovato and “FourFiveSeconds” (2015) by the superstar trio of Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney were similarly snubbed for those two categories.

While the Grammys did make some good choices, these snubs bugged me and many other music fans as well.