Winners of 'Best Rap Album' at The Grammys Since 1996

In 1995, a new category was listed among the few rap/hip-hop categories present in the Grammy Awards listings, and it was called 'Best Rap Album' category. The first rapper(s) to win that award was the legendary hip hop group, Naughty By Nature, with their Poverty's Paradise album in 1996. 



Check out the list of winners since that time till now- 1996-2014

1996: Naughty By Nature - Poverty's Paradise (500,000 Sold)

1997: Fugees - The Score (6 Million Sold)

1998: Puff Daddy & The Family - No Way Out (7 Million Sold)

1999: Jay Z - Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life (5 Million Sold)

2000: Eminem - The Slim Shady LP (4 Million Sold)

2001: Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (10 Million Sold)

2002: OutKast - Stankonia (4 Million Sold)

2003: Eminem - The Eminem Show (10 Million Sold)

2004: OutKast - Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (11 Million Sold)

2005: Kanye West - The College Dropout (2 Million Sold)

2006: Kanye West - Late Registration (3 Million Sold)

2007: Ludacris - Release Therapy (1 Million Sold)

2008: Kanye West - Graduation (2 Million Sold)

2009: Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III (3 Million Sold)

2010: Eminem - Relapse (2 Million Sold)

2011: Eminem - Recovery (4.5 Million Sold)

2012: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  (1 Million Sold)

2013: Drake- Take Care (2 Million Sold)

2014: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist (1.2 Million Sold)

Hmm! Let's see. Eminem has won the award 5 times, and Kanye West has won it 4 times. I don't think we can say The Grammy Award organizers are racists and would give the award to just any white rapper because of the color of his skin, irrespective of his achievements or skills on the mic...at least Kanye has won 4 times, and Vanilla Ice hasn't won any, neither has Bubba Sparxxx. I think what they look at is commercial success/achievement (all albums that have won the Grammys in this category have at least sold over 500,000 copies), and also if the artist and his music is loved among majority of Americans (and not just the black populace). According to the 2010 census statistics of America, white people make up 72.4 % of the population, and blacks make up just 12.6%- Think about that for a minute.

Naughty By Nature Break-Up

It hurts me to see all these legendary HipHop groups end long working relationships in a negative way. Wu Tang are just hanging from a thread right now, cos countless times, ghostface and Methodman have let the world know that they are no longer feeling RZA. Mobb Deep had their falling out in a messy way too last year. Although Prodigy and Havoc are working on getting back for business purposes, they can't take away the words that have been exchanged...the diss records that they put out going at each other. Now, Naughty By Nature just ended their legendary group.


Men! This is sad...cos when you hear what these people say to themselves after going separate ways, you wonder whether they were ever cool. I mean, Naughty By Nature have been dropping hits since I was in elemetary school (about 22 years ago), now they are taking jabs at  each other on twitter. It's that sad. In case you don't know, Treach is the main figure in the group, and Vinnie takes a few verses on a few songs...and then there Kay Gee is their DJ...or Treach's DJ.

Check out what Treach had to say about Vin below-

"We never wanted to be the group that goes though anything that we can’t resolve on our own, or anything else. Nobody—me being Treach, Kay Gee and Vin  being Vin – is larger than the group. We came in on some ego-free shit. Now, when somebody comes and gets larger than the group, it's gonna be a problem. If you see any of our albums, it says 'written and produced by Naughty By Nature.' Because, homie you, [Vinnie], was somebody that was over there beat-boxing and break-dancing and any lyrics you had anywhere, was written for you. Don’t never get larger than the group. The producer and the writer of the group are always like 'we, we, we,' not 'me, me, me.' Even if you don’t do shit, we gonna make sure you taken care of for the rest of your life."

How dare you ever play like you bigger than the group, or [call yourself] the owner? [You're] the boss or you the shot-caller. Or you're anything else other than what the fuck you are—which is a nigga that needs to be enjoying the fucking ride. Don’t never question who I am, what I do, how I am. Don’t stay in ya lane—play ya position. Dogs, you can be hired help at any time. You never wrote one hit. You never produced one hit song. You came on as a homie that was there…we threw you a lot of bones just to keep you up in there ’cause you was the homie, from the door, who was up in there. And we always fit you in when there wasn’t a spot for you to be in."

This is so sad! What Treach just put out there tells a lot...like they were never a group. Naughty By Nature was just a business venture. I am still waiting on Vinnie to speak on his earlier tweet, claiming to be the owner of Naughter By Nature (the music group). I know all their hits were carried by Treach's fast flow raps. I don't know, maybe Vin was the financial muscle or something. We will get to know what's up as days pass.