| How to entertain yourself this weekend. |
Post Malone’s road to an EGOT begins here. —Alex Pappademas, culture editor |
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It’s Friday; only two more sleeps until the 2025 Grammy Awards. While you’re getting ready for Music’s Biggest Night (vacuuming the couch, Brotox appointment, baking peanut-butter cookies to leave out for John Legend on Grammy Eve, etc.), why not catch up on GQ’s coverage of this year’s nominees?
A little-known Southeast Texas singer-songwriter named Beyoncé Knowles leads the Grammy pack this year with eleven nominations, including Record of the Year (for “Texas Hold ‘Em”) and Album of the Year (for Cowboy Carter.) That’s an achievement on its own, and brings Queen Bey’s lifetime Grammy-nom total to 99. But when Frazier Tharpe talked to Beyoncé for a GQ cover story back in October, her focus was not on industry accolades. “In the end,” she said, “the biggest reward is personal joy. Has what I created pushed others to think freely and believe in the impossible? If the answer to that question is yes, then that is the gift.” (Spoken like someone who already has a well-deserved 32 Grammys on the shelf at home, but never mind.)
Beyoncé will face stiff competition in the Record of the Year category—“Texas Hold ‘Em” is up against Chappell Roan’s unstoppable breakup anthem “Good Luck, Babe,” the AI-assisted “new” Beatles single “Now and Then,” “360” from Charli XCX’s summer-dominating sixth album brat, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” habitual award-recipients Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift, and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” a volcanic eruption of boiling vitriol that became an inescapable pop hit. We’ve covered pretty much every moment of the Kendrick-Drake beef that led to “Not Like Us,” from the initial glove-slap of Kendrick’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” (from the Grammy-nominated We Don’t Trust You) to the months of bitter recrimination, lawsuits, self-owns, and other whop-whop-whop-whop-whopping that followed.
Kendrick’s first post-beef album GNX—which we’ve covered from discographical, historical and belt-ological angles—was released outside this year’s nomination window; Grammy voters could still give Drake reason to go kick a rock in frustration by awarding Best Rap Album to Future and Metro, unless they decide to throw it to onetime Kendrick-beef participant turned conscientious objector J. Cole, whose nommed album Might Delete Later featured a Kendrick diss track that Cole, true to his weird word, later deleted. Things being what they are in this category, we’re pulling for Doechii, who made a true breakthrough album this year (and was far and away the people’s champ in our 2024 State of Rap survey.)
Other categories we’re keeping an eye on include Best Alternative Music Album, where Clairo (a first-time nominee—read our just-published profile here) is up against Nick Cave’s Wild God (read our published-a-while-ago Q&A here) and an otherwise female-dominated roster of nominees, including Kim Gordon, Brittany Howard, and St. Vincent, who’s already won this award twice—for her self-titled fourth album in 2015 and then again in 2022 for Daddy’s Home—and may be St. Invincible.
At the end of the day, though, everyone’s a winner. Except Drake, who may have to watch Kendrick collect an award for writing the song that taught the world to sing about hating Drake. For anyone who’s not the sore subject of an incredibly catchy diss track, the Grammys air live on CBS this Sunday night at 8PM eastern time. —AP
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Fellas who hate working really love work pants. |
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How to wear a tie, according to the celebs at the Saint Laurent menswear show. |
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