Meet The Nominees Vol. 3

Missy Elliott

With the backlog of deserving artists it is extremely difficult just to nab a nomination. It’s a doubly impressive achievement to earn that recognition in one’s first year of eligibility. Hitting that target is a true testament to an artist’s talent and impact. And that is why Missy Elliott earns this rare honor, simultaneously becoming the first female rapper to make it to the shortlist.

I often talk about checking boxes and she has certainly done so. She had a very distinctive sound, with a flow more conversational than the norm, and her beats provided a wide and vibrant sonic palette. This was particularly true in the portion of her career in which she collaborated with Timbaland. There have few instances in which a performer and a producer meshed as wonderfully as they did. And she also earns bonus points for the outside production work she did for other artists. Finally, her videos were consistently visually spectacular and groundbreaking in their own right. This all combines to make her one of the most memorable artists of her time.

The crucial component for any artist’s worthiness is obviously the quality of their songs, and Elliott had at least 2 hits that have become modern standards and are certain to stand the test of time. It’s tough to accurately gauge because the response to the overall performance was so strong, but it appeared to my ears at least that she had one of the most enthusiastic responses from the audience during the all-star hip-hop performance at last week’s Grammys. That speaks to how much goodwill she has accumulated and could bode well for her once the votes start coming in.

If there is one obstacle she may face it’s the fact that her recorded output is relatively sparse. She only released 6 albums, none since 2005. Now, there are plenty of inducted artists with smaller catalogues than that, but it’s usually for 1 of 2 reasons. It’s either a band that broke up rather quickly, or a solo artist who died tragically young. I can’t think of a precedence for inducting an act that essentially stopped releasing new music relatively early in their career. Time will tell us what the large voting block thinks.

If elected, will she perform at the ceremony? Yes. Even though she doesn’t record much, she does appear and perform at events fairly regularly. And I can also picture plenty of other artists eager to join her on stage and trade verses with her.

Her biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit: Work It

My personal favorite: Get Ur Freak On

Possible Side Category Inductee - Bernie Taupin

There was one aspect of Pat Benatar’s nomination/induction that never sat well with me and that is the fact that it was listed as Benatar/Neil Geraldo. While it’s true that he was the primary musician in her band as well as her chief collaborator (and longtime husband), not a single one of her major releases was credited to the duo. You would only know of his contributions from reading the liner notes. That’s not nothing, of course, I’m not downplaying his importance to her success. But there are countless musicians for whom the exact same thing can be said, none of whom piggybacked their way into the Hall in that manner. I fully acknowledge that this was done on her request, but it still created a really bad visual. It almost reads as if the preeminent female rock singer of her time couldn’t do it without the aid of a man. Not a good look.

All of which is a long winded way of saying that this whole series of events makes Bernie Taupin’s absence from the Hall that much more glaring. My only explanation is that the people who submit names for consideration in the side categories must all assume that he’s already in so no one thinks to bring him up. But as the lyricist who brought the words to Elton John’s music, he is the man behind many of the most beloved hit songs from the 70s.

He deserves to be at the top of the list for consideration for the Ertegun Award. I could also take it a step further and combine Taupin with the classic Elton John band lineup of Dee Murray, Davey Johnstone, and Nigel Olsson and collectively induct them in the Musical Excellence category. Murray passed away 30 years ago, but Johnstone and Olsson were crucial band members during John’s golden decade as well as in the past several years in which he has been one of the biggest touring acts on the planet.

Batters Up!

The completion of the season of that other sport means that the countdown to pitchers and catchers has reached single digits. Even better, the fact that this is a spring with a World Baseball Classic means that there will actually be competitive games in less than a month. With the release last week of the final rosters for each squad we’re almost there, and it’s long overdue. The WBC is intended to be a quadrennial event, but due to the pandemic and last year’s lockout, this will be the first one held since 2017 so fans of the event have really built up an appetite.

I really enjoy the tournament, while lamenting the fact that logistics prevent it from becoming the full-intensity, full-participation event that it should. The only time it can realistically be held is in this early portion of spring training. There is no way that MLB, or leagues from other nations for that matter, would be willing to shut down their seasons for a couple of weeks in order to play these games. Nor would any league play on as normal while asking teams to temporarily loan out many of their best players so that they could take part. What we have instead is this, with games taking place before pitchers have had a chance to ramp up, which means that they compete under strict pitch counts.

Interest among players has clearly grown. The first couple of times it almost felt like pulling teeth to get big names to commit. Now the large majority of star position players are eager to compete. Pitchers are still somewhat understandably reluctant, particularly those that are coming off injuries.

And the games are competitive and entertaining. I have to believe that the WBC is largely responsible for the “let the kids play” mentality that has grown in MLB. Players from Latin American and Asian nations are much more enthusiastic and fun-loving than their American counterparts and that spirit is increasingly permeating MLB culture for the better. I love seeing the comraderie and exuberance shown by Latin American teams and the flair and array of unusual batting stances shown by Asian teams. Personality makes the game more enjoyable to watch, and in recent years we’ve seen a lot less of that “know your place rook” mentality with veterans forcing young players to assimilate into the Borg while reminding them that resistance is futile. Flip those bats!

And of course I love the fact that one national team is referred to as Kingdom of the Netherlands. I always like to picture a monarch leading the team into the stadiums on horseback as they all wield swords and lances ready to go into battle. Bring on the honkbal!

Final Grammy Thoughts

There is one huge difference between the Grammys and the other major award shows. Few people make a big deal over the fact that high-rated, long-running series such as the various shows in the NCIS franchises rarely get Emmy recognition. Similarly, it’s been long acknowledged that there’s a difference between so-called “Oscar” films and crowd pleasers. Yet the Grammys hear huge criticism when big selling artists and albums fail to win the big trophies.

In recent years major artists such as Drake and The Weeknd have been so angry that they’ve stopped submitting their material for awards consideration. And even though Beyoncé made history this year by breaking the career victory record, it’s also true that only 1 of her awards has come in one of the Big Four categories, and that was a Record Of the Year win over a decade ago. It’s clearly not a simple matter of automatically awarding the biggest sellers, nor should it. It’s not the People’s Choice Awards after all. It’s a fine line awards show need to thread, balancing the mandate to celebrate artistic achievement with the reality that it’s good business sense to appease major players and it also juices TV ratings if big names are part of the show. It’s a tough call for the Grammy people. As I’ve previously said, the performances on the televised ceremony take precedence over the actual award winners, yet there is also a concern that big names may not bother showing up if they believe they have no chance at winning.

I mentioned the day after the awards aired that it seemed as if there were fewer performances than usual this year. I should have realized that since the hip-hop celebration lasted 13 minutes, of course that took up enough time that would normally go to an additional 2 or 3 performances. Looking back there’s one change I would have made that didn’t occur to me until I saw others mention it. Not one of the Best New Artist nominees appeared on the show. That’s a problem because even though I try my best to keep up with current music there were a couple of moments during the reading of the nominee list that I thought to myself “I don’t know who that is.” I’ll bet I wasn’t alone in that as there are plenty of viewers that don’t have time to sample much current music other than on Grammy evening. It was an opportunity lost to introduce newer acts to a large audience.

Rethinking Late Night

When James Corden announced that he would be leaving his post as host of The Late Late Show, there was plenty of speculation as to who would take his place. As it turns out, no one will as a revival of @Midnight will take over the time slot. In one sense, it’s easy to make the argument that 5 late night network talk shows are more than enough, but I’d still say that CBS fumbled an opportunity to add a different face to the late night tapestry.

The host chairs are filled with white guys in suits, although Seth Meyers has stuck with the casual look post-COVID. It would have been wonderful if someone outside the usual population of suspects had gotten a shot at hosting the show. We’ll see who eventually takes over as host of The Daily Show, but as far as the broadcast networks are concerned, the current hosts are all mid-contract, so status quo will prevail for the foreseeable future. To be fair, there are clear differences among the ways in which each host presents their individual shows, but it would have been nice to have a new voice in the mix.

As far as Corden goes, ho hum to his departure. I generally don’t watch the late night talk shows. If I hear that something good happened I’ll check out the clip on YouTube. If there’s a musical act that I’m interested in seeing I’ll DVR it and watch the performance. Because of that I wind up subjecting myself to Corden’s most irritating habit. He introduces virtually every appearance the same way. “Their BRILLIANT new album is out now!” Stop. If you describe everything as brilliant, then nothing is brilliant. Words should mean something. I know it’s trendy to crap on James Corden, and he’s earned a lot of that. But that overhyping tendency of his is particularly grating.

Trugoy

Word came yesterday that rapper Trugoy the Dove of De La Soul has passed away. This one hurts; 3 Feet High & Rising was one of my absolute favorite hip-hop albums of all time. It’s doubly sad because De La Soul themselves have been back in the spotlight lately; after years of battles over ownership their classic catalogue is scheduled to finally return to streaming services next month. And Posdnous was one of the many emcees on stage at last week’s Grammys. De La Soul would be an inspired choice once Hall Of Fame voters are ready to start nominating and inducting more than 1 hip-hop act per year. RIP Plug 2.

Closing Thoughts

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