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The Hip Hop Week In Review: Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar & J. Cole Make Headlines

posted February 01, 2014 at 12:00PM EST

                       

Macklemore reacts to his Grammy win and says he had an unfair advantage at the Awards, while Kendrick Lamar sees a big bump even without a Grammy victory.

This week, Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole were among the artists involved in noteworthy news stories. Macklemore reacted to his Grammy win and said he had an unfair advantage at the Awards, while Kendrick Lamar enjoyed a spike despite not winning a single Grammy.

Macklemore Says He “Robbed" Kendrick Lamar At Grammys In Text Message 

Macklemore, who was the recipient of four Grammy Awards at this year's event, said Kendrick Lamar was robbed at the award show.

Mack released a screen shot of a text message he says he sent the TDE star after the award show.

"You got robbed," Macklemore said in the text message. "I wanted you to win. You should have. It's weird and sucks that I robbed you."

 

Macklemore Says He Had "An Unfair Advantage Due To Race" At The Grammys 

Macklemore said that his four Grammy wins Sunday (January 26) have both positive and negative aspects. 

“It’s the blessing and the curse, a little bit more the curse,” the Seattle rapper said during an interview with New York radio station Hot 97 that was published Monday (January 27). “First and foremost, Kendrick [Lamar] is a friend of mine. He’s somebody that I love his music and, in my opinion, had the best Rap album of the year. And knowing how the Grammys usually go, I knew that there would be a great chance that we’d win that award and, in essence, rob Kendrick. That’s what happened tonight. It kind of sucks. I think we made a great album. I think that Kendrick made a better Rap album.”

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won four Grammys Sunday, including Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song. Macklemore said he knows why he and Lewis were so successful at the award show. 

“In terms of the people that are voting on those ballots, filling out those bubbles, we have an unfair advantage due to race, due to the fact we had huge radio success, due to the fact that our name was circulating more in a pocket in the industry of people filling out that ballot,” he said. "This is not like aRap Radar poll, like a 2DopeBoyz poll. This is not a Hot 97 poll. This is the Grammys. This is many different types of people. All different age groups filling out a ballot where they might not necessarily know the genre.”

 

Kendrick Lamar Sees 99% Increase On Spotify Following Grammys

Kendrick Lamar's Spotify traffic increased 99 percent following the Grammys Sunday (January 26), according to a Spotify press release.

The Compton rapper performed “m.A.A.d city” and “Radioactive” with Imagine Dragons at the Grammys. Even though he did not win a Grammy, Kendrick Lamar posted the largest jump of any Rap act on Spotify.