Grammy Nominations Land Monday — and the Rap Field Is Wide Open
The rap map could look different by Monday afternoon. The Recording Academy announces the nominations for the 69th Grammy Awards on Monday, November 16, 2026, with the ceremony set for February 7, 2027 — and this year there is no Kendrick Lamar album cycle towering over the field, no single rap blockbuster that makes the big categories feel decided before the envelopes are even printed. What is left is something rarer and more interesting: a genuinely wide-open race.
Start with Best Rap Album, where Rolling Stone’s predictions sketch a field that mixes eras and lanes. The magazine’s predicted five are Cardi B with “Am I the Drama?”, J. Cole with “The Fall-Off”, Nas and DJ Premier with “Light-Years”, Don Toliver with “Octane”, and A$AP Rocky with “Don’t Be Dumb” — three former winners alongside artists still chasing their first gramophone in the category. Rolling Stone predicts Cardi B wins it, reasoning that in a year with no runaway rap blockbuster, the long-awaited follow-up to her Grammy-winning “Invasion of Privacy” carries the day. These are predictions, not nominations — nobody is on the list until the Academy says so on Monday.
Then there is Ye, who has made the loudest submission push of the season. As reported by HotNewHipHop via the NFR Podcast, Ye entered “BULLY (DELUXE)” for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, along with Best Album Cover and Best Engineered Album. “FATHER”, his collaboration with Travis Scott, was submitted for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Rap Song; “I CAN’T WAIT” with Ms. Lauryn Hill went in for Best Melodic Rap Performance; “ALL THE LOVE” with André Troutman for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance; and “KING” for Best Rap Performance. To be plain about it: submissions are not nominations. Every artist in music can enter their work — Monday is when we find out whether voters bit.
The song categories may be where the map really redraws. The forecast names circulating ahead of Monday include Doechii and SZA’s “Girl, Get Up”, Cardi B’s “ErrTime”, Don Toliver’s “E85” and Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” — a mix that leans newer, louder and less predictable than the usual veterans’ row. The sentimental storyline belongs to T.I.: “Let ‘Em Know” is in the conversation, and a nomination would be his first since 2010, a full-circle moment for an Atlanta architect who helped build the house these categories live in.
That is the real story of this Grammy season. With the usual giants quiet in the song categories and no consensus rap album of the year, Monday’s list is a chance for the Academy to either crown the new order or reach back for the familiar names — and either answer says something true about where hip hop is right now. HipHopStories will publish the full, real nominations list on Monday as soon as it lands, and we will be watching the rap categories closest of all.