Grammy performance reminds us to pray for Nicki Minaj

Earlier in the evening Nicki's "priest" appeared to be her red carpet date and dressed as the Pope
- Photo via Billboard.com

I hesitate to post anything about the horrid performance piece by Nicki Minaj on last night's Grammy Awards telecast since it's simply giving her/it the publicity it so desperately attempted to capture.

Still, if anything needs to be said about the talented rapper's cheesy, offensive, and sad stage "exorcism" of Roman Zolanski (the gay male/demon alter ego subject of her upcoming album) it's that we need to remember to pray for entertainers like her.

In fact, Houston Christian rapper Bizzle reminded of this months ago when he penned "Plead With You (Letter to Nicki)" about the influence he saw her peddling to young children like his niece.

The Grammys drop Christian rap

The Good News:

The Grammys have dropped that weird, hybrid Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album category.

The Bad News:

They're no longer recognizing Christian hip hop AT ALL. As of today the only options are Best Contemporary Christian Music Album or Best Gospel Album.

In other words: "Here's another Grammy Mr. Mac. And one for you too Mr. Franklin."

This morning The Recording Academy announced a restructuring which dropped the total amount of categories from 109 to 78.

After Lecrae lost the Grammy to Switchfoot earlier this year, I said that a Christian rapper would never win one of those trophies. Now I look like a stinkin' prophet.

The glass-half-full-view:

Maybe this will continue to push our artists further into the mainstream market where they can compete in the four remaining Rap Field categories.

Hey, it worked for Shad last month when he beat Drake for the Rap Recording of the Year Juno award.

Good luck!

VIBE Magazine photographs Lecrae shopping and riding in elevators before the Grammys

Photograph shot exclusively for VIBE by Hiltron Bailey

VIBE Magazine sent a photographer to follow Lecrae around during his recent trip to LA for the Grammys.

The result is a slide show of him doing exciting things like shopping at the mall and riding both an elevator AND an escalator!

The expanded coverage of Christian hip hop is nice, but this is just straight up boring.

Even Lecrae agrees. Peep this recent Tweet back to fellow artist Jai.

At least they gave him a more in-depth interview piece earlier.

(Heads up that this is a mainstream rap site and there's a LOT of flesh in the sidebar ads. If that's an issue for you, feel free to pass. You're really not missing much.)

Parts I found cool though:

• Lecrae shows he's just a regular dude - sharing the moment with his wife and family
• He made it a point to show he was shopping a clearance rack ("You got money? You got paper? / So what? Who cares?)
• At Lids, my man looked to be seriously considering an Houston Astros cap to rep his hometown
  

Blogging the Grammys

I've been chilling in front of the TV with the laptop most of the night so thought I'd blog my thoughts Facebook-status style.

Here's what I've got so far. The rest will be posted as they come to me.

5:52 - Sketch is hoping Lil Wayne gets shut out of the Grammys.

7:22 - Sketch is thinking the Grammys have been pretty dope so far: U2, Al Green, Timberlake, and now Coldplay.

8:04 - Sketch wonders if Kanye will throw a hissy fit tonight. Please! It's become an award show tradition.

8:14 - Sketch is thinking he just heard a Jonas Brother's voice change mid-song.

8:36 - Sketch thinks the Jay/Kanye/TI/Wayne set will be cool but let's ease up on the "historic hip hop summit" hype shall we?

8:43 - Sketch is yelling "The British are winning! The British are winning!"

9:11 - Sketch was still "meh" about the "Swagga" set. All I could think was 1) Man, they're pushing the "Rap Pack" thing HARD and 2) Jay and Ye need to cut their hair to look younger.

9:20 - Sketch is feeling Radiohead with the marching band. I gotta buy "In Rainbows."

9:30 - I think T.I. started before his backing-track.