Music

Here are your Grammy 2013 Nominees (plus a bonus video of LL Cool J trying to sing over Taylor Swift's beatboxing)

by Tyler Munro

The Grammys tried to spice things up last night by turning the usually dry nominations announcements into a concert of sorts. Hosted by Taylor Swift and LL Cool J, the show featured performances from Maroon 5, Luke Bryan, Ne-Yo and more. But the real highlight had to be when the hosts collaborated on a disastrous rendition of Swift’s “Mean.”

LL Cool J rightly says that he can’t sing, citing that as an excuse for Taylor Swift to try her hand at beatboxing, but after 20-torturous seconds of her spitting into the microphone we wish they’d both kept their mouths shut. There’s bad, and then there’s what Taylor Swift did. Honestly, is it too much to expect her to at least keep time? With her own song? Not that this is the first time Swift and Cool J did something like this. Remember this awful promo for last year’s Grammys?

Anyways, the real point of the concert was to announce the nominees for the 2013 Grammys, and whaddaya know, that also happened. But unlike Hunter Hayes (who?), we’re just going to type them out below. Trust us: we sing worse than LL Cool J (who we feel we should remind you is actually releasing an album called Authentic Hip-Hop in February).

fun. had some night (ha!) racking up six nominations (including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and best Duo/Group Performance for “We Are Young”). Frank Ocean did well, too, propelling the strongest 7/10 of 2012 to a whole whack of nominations. He’s up for Record of the Year (“Thinkin Bout You), Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Best Urban Contemporary Album. He also picked up nods for his collaboration with Jay-Z, Kanye West and The-Dream for “No Church in the Wild” off Watch the Throne, which got nods for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Short Form Music Video (also for No Church in the Wild).

But wait, there’s more!

Björk, Fiona Apple, M83, Gotye and Tom Waits will duke it out for Best Alternative Music Album. Florence & the Machine, Maroon 5, Pink and Kelly Clarkson will take on fun. for best Pop Vocal Album.

Toronto’s own Drake is up against Lupe Fiasco, Nas, the Roots, Rick Ross and 2 Chainz for Best Rap Album. Jack White, Coldplay, The Black Keys, Muse and Bruce Springsteen will duke it out for the best Rock album.

And for what it’s worth, the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category is yet again kind of awful, with Marilyn Manson going up against Lamb of God, Anthrax, Megadeth, Halestorm (who?) and a twelve-year-old song off Iron Maiden’s Spain-set live album En Vivo!.

If you want to see the full list of nominees without our run-on sentences and uninvited commentary, go here.