Contemplations of the Grammy Awards... a final thought..

And so this is the part of when the Grammy Awards media room experience gets a bit boring... The show is over but we are sitting here waiting to see if Kendrick Lamar or Taylor Swift will come back. So far, Earth Wind and Fire came back briefly. I was able to offer my condolences to my favorite group of all time...

Just saw the group Alabama Shakes who has a new fan in me... They are dope.. I thought they were being billed as a country band but they are actually a alternative, rock....

Neil Portnow is now explaining why Rihanna did not show... Apparently she has a flu bug and is on some antibiotics.. Doctors orders.. immediate bed rest.. she made rehearsals but fell sick and the doctor ordered her to bed rest..

He is now explaining Adele's lackluster performance.... a microphone inside the piano fell down and the performance suffered....

He is now explaining why Lauryn Hill was missing in action for the Weeknd's performance... She did not make the rehearsals earlier in the week, however, made this morning's rehearsals... Nonetheless she missed her call time .. after hearing that she was three minutes away, ten minutes away... minutes wwwwway until in the end, she missed her call time and there it is... Neil Portnow says and I agree, that he isn't responsible for how she handled her appointments but in the end, The Weeknd gets props for standing up and pushing through.... he killed it....

Neil Portnow answers these journalist questions about "warnings" that Kendrick Lamar's performance would be "controversial" and how did he plan to "handle it"... Mr. Portnow responds by saying I don't know how or where this word controversial came from and that he feels Kendrick delivered a "vignette" that is powerful, artistic...  a statement...

Mr. Portnow also speaks to the grumblings about who to posthumously honor.. He says that in his tenure this is the most we have lost. He has never seen anything like this. He says that if you look in the program book there are hundreds that we lost and it was quite hard to choose who to honor... But there are at least three pages of names of the ones who have transitioned in the last year....

Well, I think I a going to get out of here... pack it in.... In the end, it has been a great night for music.. This, in my opinion was a greatly improved Grammy Award Show..... Props to the Recording Academy.

Contemplations at the 58th Grammy Awards - Kendrick Lamar

So we are here live blogging backstage at the 58th Grammy Awards. The buzz going in has been the 11 nominations for Kendrick Lamar. Thus far, he has won five... four during the three hour preshow which is not televised. After winning the Rap Album of the year, a category which was televised, Kendrick proceeded to rip the stage with a tremendous and incredibly poignant, artistic, powerful live performance. Just so you know, it's taken me a full hour to come down to consciousness after this emotional presentation.

First I was amazed at the look of shock on the faces of my colleagues here in the media room of the Grammy Awards. I'm sure at first, their cross town perspective was assaulted by the imagery of the black men shackled together in a prison line as Kendrick spit lyrical about the hatred America seems to possess against the black man. I was touched deeply by Kendrick's lyricism and the imagery. I mean it hit me hard... 

Earlier today, as Angelique Kidjo came back to the media room after winning the best world music honor, she used the platform to promote world peace and to encouraged artists to use their creative platform to fight against hatred and racism. To build a message of peace and unity through music. It was a profound a great message in answer to a question posed by one of the journalists here who used Kendrick Lamar as an example of an artist who used violence and hatred in his music. Clearly this man did not know Kendrick Lamar.

I don't think anyone was prepared for what we saw in Kendrick's performance. For me, not only was it a powerful political statement, the performance was poignant because just two days ago, I was in attendance as the City of Compton presented Kendrick with a key to the City. I learned where Kenrick came from. I learned of his desire to give back to the community... I heard from his teachers, I saw his family, his folks from the hood. And now, I see him here, at music's biggest night.. leading the nominations, winning five thus far as I write this.

But the performance surely must go down as one of the best in Grammy History. It was powerful.

Ladies and Gentlemen... Kendrick Lamar is king tonight!!

Contemplations of the 58th Grammy Awards recap.. halfway through.... - 6:05pm

So after watching the Pre-show, we are now watching the live to the east coast telecast of the Grammy Awards... This gives me a good time to recap....

Taylor Swift opened the Grammy Awards and I suppose it was a nice number, I just didn't feel the energy...

Kendrick Lamar won his fifth Grammy of the day, as he received the best Rap Album nod for To Pimp a Butterfly.. I'm feeling proud of him because i was fortunate to be in attendance as Mayor Aja Brown presented him with the Key to the City at City Hall in Compton,CA. gave me an introspect as to his background nd humble begnnings.

The Lionel Richie tribute was pretty cool.. John Legend sang Easy, Hello was absolutely unequivocally royally sung by Demi Lovato, Penny Lover was performed by Luke Bryan, You are by Meghan Trainor and Brick House was brought to us by Tyrese - love Tyrese but it was an unimaginative placment and one must note that Brick House was sung by Walter Orange in the Commodores not Lionel.... The tribute was rounded out by All Night Long.. sung by everyone...

Ariana Grande introduced the Weeknd. And then she felt it necessary to imitate-sing The Weeknd.... It was awful and some in the crowd let her know it... She was booed.

I'm also hearing that Lauryn Hill had rehearsed with the Weeknd and was supposed to sing with him and for some reason she wasn't here...

Also, Rihanna is on our media rundown sheet as scheduled to perform "Kiss it Better" but she didn't.... No word where she is....

My boss Stevie Wonder hooked up with the awesome a capella group @pentatonix to perform an incredible a capella version of "That's the Way of the World" in tribute to Earth Wind and Fire and Maurice White.... it was infinitely dope....

ok. Kendrick Lamar....... that's all I got.

So I'm live blogging from the media room at the 58th Grammy Awards..more to come.....

Contemplations of the 58th Grammy Awards: - 3:03pm

I'm sitting here in the media room of the 58th Annual Grammy Awards watching the Pre-show.... Most folk don't know that there is a three hour preshow where a huge amount of Grammy categories are awarded including most of the black/urban categories. I really like to hear this because I get such a well rounded exposure to different music. For instance, I didn't know about the jazz vocalisms of Cecile McLorin Salvant. She's won the Grammy for Best Jazz album.. I am really loving her music....

The buzz is all about Kendrick Lamar with 11 nominations... well thus far in the pre-show, Kenrick has won 4 awards..... Pretty impressive.... Best Rap Performance, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar..... In the media room, Thundercat came back to speak to us as one of the singers on Kendrick Lamar's track which won the best rap/sung collaboration "these walls".. I asked him to reflect back on his beginnings and contrast with how he feels right this moment.. He took a deep breath and began to express his gratitude for Locke High School in Watts and Mr. Reggie Andrews... He was so grateful for Mr. Reggie Andrews that he kept saying his name.... So I called Reggie and put them on the phone together... priceless.....

In th gospel categories, Kirk Franklin won for Best Gospel Performance/Song for I just want to be Happy..... During his acceptance, he brought up several of those who he was up against.  Because they represented the future of gospel music. In the media room, I asked him what he thought about the future.. He expressed that it was an honor to be among these new young cats and being able to pour into them..... He also reinforced that Gospel Music is like a Mission Field as opposed to being about blowing up.. I felt this to be tremendously profound...especially with how I have been observing the gospel music field lately.

This has been a decent night so far... Live blogging from the 58th Annual Grammy Awards....East coast.. here they come!!!!