The 2018 Grammy Nomimees List (Finally) Has Good Black Representation!

The 60th Annual Grammy Awards nominees were announced Tuesday and the top all-around categories aren’t just partial to white artists.

This year, there has been a good representation of female artists and those of colour too.

Rappers Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar lead the Grammys with 8 and 7 nominations, respectively.

The night’s biggest category, Album of the Year, not only has majority black nominees, but also has no white male nominees for the first time in 19 years.

The nominees are Jay Z for 4:44, Lamar for DAMN, Childish Gambino for Awaken, My Love!, Bruno Mars for 24K Magic, and Lorde for Melodrama.

A black artist hasn’t won a Grammy under this category in 10 years. The last person to do so was jazz pianist Herbie Hancock for his tribute album to Joni Mitchell. Having two hip-hop albums nominated for the prestigious category is also a big deal.

While the obvious Grammy prediction would be Bruno Mars, it would be a shame not to see a rap album win the award.

It’s been 14 years since Outkast took home the award for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

Lamar has been nominated twice before and lost both times and Jay Z, whose two-decade career has produced 14 number one albums, has also never won the award.

This is also the first year the Record of the Year category is only people of color (with the exception of Justin Bieber, who is featured on Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito”).

Other songs nominated this year include: “The Story Of O.J.” by Jay Z, “HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar, “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars, and “Redbone” by Childish Gambino. Bruno Mars is one of two men of color who have taken the award home in the past decade, the other is Pharrell. If Mars wins again, he’ll join the small list of artists who have received the award twice.

The Best New Artist category is also majority black this year with SZA, Khalid, and Lil Uzi Vert all gaining nominations. SZA is also this year’s most Grammy-nominated woman.

Other Best New Artist nominees include Alessia Cara and Julia Michaels, making it the second top category not to include any white male nominees in a very long time.