The Grammys set Kendrick Lamar up to fall - we'll be lucky if he chooses to return

It was Kendrick Lamar’s year at the 60th Grammy Awards. Or, it was supposed to be. On music’s biggest night, it felt as though the hip hop star was finally about to be acknowledged by the industry for his work, after snubs for his two previous albums: Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and To Pimp A Butterfly (both in favour of white artists).

But yet again, the Grammys set one of the greatest artists of our time - a hip hop pioneer - up for one of the biggest falls.

At first things seemed promising. Lamar was picking up awards at a rapid rate, for Best Rap Album, Rap Performance, Rap Song and Rap/Sung Collaboration. As the evening drew closer, he struggled to hide his excitement as he accepted yet another prize. You could see it on his face as he cheekily quipped “Jay for President” at the end of a speech.

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But as Bruno Mars scooped up the awards for Song and Record of the Year, there was a palpable mood shift and Lamar’s cheerful demeanour appeared to cool down. By the time Mars was announced as winner of Album of the Year, the final and biggest prize of the night, Lamar looked blank for a moment before turning, with a small smile, to clap as Mars got back onto the stage.

Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA told The Independent in an interview last year: “We’re lucky hip hop has a Kendrick.”

Naming DAMN. as one of its top 10 albums of 2017, we wrote how the release of Lamar’s fourth studio record marked “another masterpiece for the rap canon; the master storyteller outstripping his closest competitors once again in a work that was impossible to second-guess.

“Where on To Pimp A Butterfly Lamar took a blisteringly scathing look at the world around him, on DAMN. he ventures deeper into his own mind, apparently exhausted by the pressure from fans, peers and critics to be this constant pioneer, offering up what most fans would identify as a “traditional” rap album to date, of course with his own, post-modern detours.

“Throughout the record he seems to tackle his own contradictory feelings about his status as an artist. When he screams “bitch, be humble” on “Humble”, you wonder if he’s talking to himself or to any foolish challengers. On “Pride” he quips, “I can’t fake humble just ‘cause your ass is insecure”, and on “Loyalty” his boasts are held up as weaknesses. Just as Untitled, Unmastered was a look at his creative process, DAMN. allows the listener to peer inside the mind of a true genius.”

When Adele won Album of the Year over Beyonce’s Lemonade at the 2017 Grammy Awards, many critics used the Recording Academy’s history of recording commercial success as its reason behind the controversial vote. So what’s the excuse for DAMN.? After Ed Sheeran’s Divide, which was snubbed at this year's ceremony, DAMN. was Nielsen Music’s top album of 2017, shifting more than 2.7m units in the US. It was also ranked No.1 in a “poll of polls” by the BBC as the critics’ favourite album of last year. Yet once again, one of the biggest-selling and critically acclaimed artists of a generation is relegated to the rap categories.

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Meanwhile the Recording Academy voters chose an album that is rooted in nostalgia, without any awkward discussion of the current tumultuous social and political climate, to take home its biggest prizes. Maybe Bruno Mars is the fun, carefree pop singer we all want, but Kendrick Lamar is the challenging, pioneering artist we all need - and apparently don't deserve. We’ll be lucky if he chooses to return to the Grammys again.

See all of our Grammys 2018 coverage here.