Episode 57: Cazzie David & Grammy Nominees
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Transcript
Time Crisis Grammy nomination edition.
But we'll also be talking to Gigi Son about Net Neutrality
and Kazzy David about Thanksgiving.
All this, plus Jake and I dig in
to the music being honored at Music's Biggest Night.
This is a very special...
Time Crisis with Ezra King.
B-B-B-B-B-B-Beasts.
One.
They passed me by
All of those great romances
They were a fellow I believed
All my rightful chances
My picture clear
Everything seemed so easy
And so I dealt to the blow
One of us had to go
Now it's different, I want you to know
One of us is crying
One of us is lying
Leave it on me, babe
Time Crisis, back in action.
First Time Crisis of December.
It's nice to be in the holiday season, I think.
LA's been too hot. It's finally cooled off a bit.
Was it 90 last week? 'Cause that was gone.
Yeah, it hit 90 the week of Thanksgiving.
That's annoying.
The world is toast, man.
Very pessimistic about the future of this world.
Even if we fix half this stuff, it's...
It's just too hot.
What did your dad think? 'Cause this was his first trip to California?
Right. My family came out to LA for Thanksgiving,
and this was my dad's first time in California.
Yeah, a lot of people have asked me, "Oh, did your family have a good time?"
Like, "What'd your dad think of LA?"
And it's hard for me to describe it, but we kind of have a family trait.
Of course everybody had a good time.
Got the whole family together.
So that's always nice, getting together and everybody hanging.
So of course we enjoyed that.
But it's not that he liked or didn't like LA.
It's just that we just don't, like, talk like that.
Like, kind of stoic?
Yeah, I guess it's kind of like just more of an "it is what it is."
Right.
Like, a lot of people were saying, "Oh, you gotta take your dad to the beach."
And I was like, "He doesn't care."
It's not that he's, like, pro or anti-beach.
It's just kind of like--I don't know.
I feel like we're just kind of the family where it's like,
they could sit at my sister's house in Silver Lake, have a cup of coffee.
They could also schlep over to the beach.
Either--what's the difference, kind of?
Sit in the car for 75 minutes.
Yeah.
Get to the beach.
You know what's funny?
My sister took my parents on a hike in Griffith Park.
Okay, yeah.
And I think they made it up to the observatory.
I wasn't there, but I could also picture them being like,
"Yeah, we made it up here."
Yeah.
It sounds so negative, but it's truly neutral.
We were down there, now we're up here.
Got some steps in, that's good.
And now we're going to go back down.
I guess it's also a thing where people are just calibrated differently
in terms of the type of language they use.
And I've tried to be cognizant of that in my life
because there's times when people say, like,
"Oh, I thought you didn't like me at first,"
or "I thought you didn't like this thing that I showed you,"
when my memory of it is that I said, "Wow, that's really cool."
And you know what I mean?
This is a classic thing about communication.
So flat.
Or like, "Well, it depends how well you know somebody."
Right.
I've always, my whole life--and you know, you and I are not that different.
I've been very wary of people who I find to be enthusiastic in a phony way.
Sure.
So if I showed somebody--let's say I'm working on a song, as I do,
if I play it for somebody and they're just like,
"Man, this is unbelievable! I love it!"
"This is the best."
"This is the best."
"This is your best song you've ever written."
"Yeah, it's great."
I'm going to be a little bit like, "Okay."
Well, he looked down at my silver chain.
He said, "I'll give you one dollar."
I said, "You've got to be joking, man."
It was a present from me mother.
He said, "I like it. I want it.
I'll take it off your hands and you'll be sorry.
You cross me.
You better understand that you're alone.
Alone with the bone."
And I say, "I don't like reggae.
No, no.
I love it.
I don't like reggae.
I love it.
Don't you grab me, style.
Don't you queer me, bitch.
Don't you walk through my words
'cause you ain't heard me talk yet."
If I remember growing up as a kid,
my parents would talk about a movie being a great movie.
Whereas I can't remember too many times where
they would ever talk about a city being like--
Great?
Yeah, or like a view.
Well, here's a question.
I'd ask him this.
Yeah.
How does the reality of LA correspond to your mental vision of it?
'Cause you've now had 60-something years--
Right.
--to create a imaginary LA in your head
and you've seen tons of movies and blah, blah, blah.
What is it like in real life?
Yeah, see, that's the type of question he might find more interesting
because that actually makes you think about--
It's not some kind of random judgment, good or bad.
It's kind of like, "You know what?
Yeah, did you see anything in LA that surprised you?"
Right.
"Is there anything that you noticed that you found funny?"
Yeah, those are kind of a more nuanced conversation.
But even with you, Jake, have you ever been like--
You ever get back from a trip and just be like, "How was the trip?"
And you're just like, "Boston was unbelievable."
When was the last time you just were super jazzed on something
and you were telling somebody about it and you were--
Like at a place?
Well, I saw you saw the--
Oh, the Hockney Show.
Yeah, so I saw on Instagram that you were in New York
and you went to the David Hockney Show.
Retrospective.
So I think you wrote on Instagram--
What did you say?
I said it's a knockout.
It's a knockout.
The first four rooms, a total knockout.
But that's Instagram language.
No, no, no.
But you know me.
I don't go hard on Instagram with like, "You guys,
"The Deuce is the greatest show.
"You have to watch it."
Well, it's on this picture.
I mean, I like The Deuce, don't get me wrong.
Let's pretend that you didn't write about it on Instagram.
It was like, "Oh, Jake, I saw you went to New York,"
and you say, "Yeah," and then I say, "You catch any cool art?
"You're an artist, you like to go see art when you're nerdy?
"You see anything cool?"
Yeah.
What was it?
The David Hockney retrospective.
How was it?
Pretty amazing.
Okay, so you're not that excited.
You did use the word "amazing."
You even said "pretty amazing."
"Pretty amazing" is kind of funny because you're qualifying.
Yeah, pretty amazing.
But what would you say to me?
Pretty stupendous.
It was a knockout.
I wouldn't say that in person.
No, I know what you mean.
I actually was very excited about that Hockney show,
I have to tell you.
Like, I was unusually excited.
Was there a pep in your step when you left the museum?
Were you walking on air?
I was walking on air for maybe about five minutes.
The problem was that the second half of the show really fell off.
Oh.
And I almost wanted to leave the show and leave the museum altogether
just to retain the feeling I had from the first, like, five rooms of the show.
You know, that's interesting, too.
I want to just keep the impression.
It's also about how honest you want to be sometimes
because, like, sometimes it's easy just to describe something as amazing
just because you're not trying to have, like, a deep nuance conversation.
Right.
Just kind of like we all make that mistake sometimes.
You see somebody, you vaguely know, "How you doing?"
Like, "Well, you know, it's been up and down."
They don't care.
They just want you to be like, "It's been great."
And it's the same thing sometimes when you see something.
I feel like--let me see if I can thread this together.
I was thinking about--there's something really funny about how--
I feel like in the '80s and '90s when there would be movie reviews,
there would always be one of the dumb movie reviews
that they would stick in the trailer or something.
Be like, "Amazing, incredible, Tom Cruise's finest work."
And there's always that one person be like,
"You'll be walking on air when you leave the theater."
There's always something that would describe how happy you'll be when you leave.
It's just like this weird cliche of movie reviews.
And then, of course, the movie marketers love that
because they're telling the people--
It's also similar to, like, with toothpaste.
You want that fresh from the dentist clean.
You want that feeling that you have after you just did something.
No, I don't.
You want to be--it's like your regular life sucks.
So you have these brief windows, such as when you left a great film
or you left the--
Twice a year when you go to the dentist.
Or you left the dentist where for those three hours
where your mouth actually felt clean
before you just started wailing on bags of Cheetos again.
But there used to be this promise that you'd go do something
and you'll have a good feeling that'll linger with you.
Whereas in the Internet era, it's a really hard promise to make.
So it's like, "Go see Lady Bird.
You'll feel so good when you leave the theater."
It's like, no, you won't.
Even if you love Lady Bird, you leave the theater,
you look at your phone, you'll be depressed in 30 seconds.
Right? Like, yeah.
So that's why it's funny if you saw somebody a week after they saw--
You have to be a very optimistic person for a week after you saw a movie
or saw a Hockney exhibition to be like, "Oh my God."
Even just thinking about it now, I'm still so excited about it.
I was walking on air a little bit when I left Lady Bird.
For how long?
Um, 30.
That's solid, man.
It also was very nostalgic for me
because Greta and I went to Columbia at the same time.
Oh, wow.
This is one of those weird things where I still can't remember
if I ever met her on campus.
I definitely remember meeting her a few years ago
and just being like, "Hey, what's up?"
You know, like, she's one of these people that you just see
and then there's somebody there in movies and you can't remember.
Like, "Did I know you?"
But I did find it moving to think about, you know,
somebody exactly my age.
It made me nostalgic for a lot of things.
Yeah, that movie's powerful.
Yeah, because you know it's about her life
and you really get that sense of, like, a major fork in the road in life.
Like, if she had not applied to college in New York
and had the help from her dad to apply for college in New York
and she had just gone to Davis, she wouldn't be Greta Gerwig.
DJ Shadow went to UC Davis and he became a very famous trip-hop DJ.
So...
All right, Jake, but we could wax poetic about films and David Hockney forever,
but we got to kick it into high gear because today's show--
are you as excited as I am?
I'm very enthusiastic about today's show because we got Kazzy David coming in,
friend of the show.
We're going to talk about Thanksgiving and the Grammy nominations.
We got all sorts of stuff to talk about.
But first, time crisis, we've made a commitment to our listeners,
our very poorly informed listeners who rely on us as a news source
to give them at least a little bit of hard news,
and everybody's been talking about net neutrality.
There's a big vote coming up,
going to decide whether or not America still has net neutrality.
Man, we barely even know what net neutrality is.
So we're going to talk to Gigi Son.
Gigi Son is a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute
for Technology, Law, and Policy.
Previously, she held the position of counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler.
So we got someone who used to work at the FCC, so she knows her stuff.
In a previous statement, Mr. Wheeler singled out Gigi Son
as the conscience of the chairman's office for her tireless advocacy
on behalf of American consumers and competition
and was named one of 2015's Heroes Who Saved the Internet
in recognition of her role in the FCC's adoption
of the strongest ever net neutrality rules.
We're going to talk to an internet hero.
She's going to explain to us what net neutrality is and why we should care.
So let's get her on the phone.
Now, let's go to the time crisis hotline.
[phone ringing]
Hi, Gigi.
Hi.
Hi, you're on with Ezra and Jake.
Welcome to Time Crisis.
Hi, delighted to be here.
So we know you're very overqualified to talk about the basics of net neutrality,
but a lot of Time Crisis listeners don't read the news,
and they only check in every two weeks through our show.
Right.
And frankly, Jake and I are a little uneducated on the topic ourselves.
So the first question is, what is net neutrality,
and why is everybody freaking out about it?
So net neutrality is the principle that the company that provides internet access--
companies like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Charter--
it's a principle that they shouldn't pick winners and losers on the internet,
that they shouldn't be able to favor or discriminate against certain online services.
So let me give you an example.
Have you ever heard of the craft company Etsy?
Sure.
They sell wonderful crafts online.
Well, eBay is a competitor, right?
Everybody's heard of eBay.
Imagine if eBay paid Comcast to get to you, the consumer, faster,
and Etsy couldn't afford to.
What would that mean for Etsy?
It would probably mean Etsy would be in a whole lot of trouble
because people don't have a lot of patience for when websites load slowly.
I think the studies have shown that three seconds and people are, like, out.
So imagine that all the biggest online companies--Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay--
could pay to get to the customer faster, and all the small startups could not.
What does that mean for innovation?
What does that mean for startup culture?
So net neutrality prohibits that kind of favoritism.
It also prohibits an internet service provider from blocking or throttling--
basically making a website come up in a lousy fashion or slowly.
So net neutrality really protects the internet as it was intended to be.
And it was intended to be a place where you and I control our internet experience
without somebody in the middle doing so instead.
It's kind of like if we compare--a lot of these services are internet and cable companies,
and anybody who's ever had cable can think of times when you get those weird commercials
that's just like, "Comcast doesn't want you to have Comedy Central.
In 30 days, they'll be getting rid of Comedy Central. Call up Comcast."
Or sometimes people who are into sports might randomly, unexpectedly not have access to a game
because their cable company is in a dispute with the team or something like that.
So that stuff already happens with TV is the idea that could it actually get that bad?
Let's talk about if there's no net neutrality besides speed,
could it get as crazy as being like Time Warner got in a dispute with Twitter.
Twitter wouldn't pay up, so all Time Warner users in California and Oregon
will not have access to Twitter for the next seven months
until Twitter can work out a payment program. Could it be that bad?
It could be that bad. And actually, something like that happened a number of years ago.
And I may be confusing the companies, but bear with me.
There was a dispute, I believe it was between Charter and one of the big broadcast networks.
I don't remember if it was ABC, NBC. I think it was CBS. But bear with me here.
What happened was not only did CBS pull its programming from Charter's cable service,
it blocked its content from Charter's internet customers.
So yes, something like that could very well happen where there's a dispute on the cable side
or even a dispute about something else.
And the internet service provider could block content from a content provider.
Yes, net neutrality protects against that.
But look, your analogy is perfect. Without net neutrality,
internet service is likely to become a lot more like cable,
where the cable operator picks and chooses who gets on the best tiers,
who gets the best channel, and frankly, who gets on it all.
So that could be on some vigilante justice.
James Dolan or somebody who owns one of these big communications companies
could maybe even just make personal calls.
That's kind of like, "You know what? Everybody who voted for Bernie Sanders,
you're not using Comcast anymore.
We've seen what you're Googling. We don't need any more of that third-party fake Democrat nonsense.
You're out of here."
Well, the fact that your internet service provider sees every single thing you do online,
that's a whole other kettle of fish.
When I was at the FCC, we passed really strong broadband privacy rules
that gave the consumer the ability to tell its internet service provider
that it could not collect sensitive information.
And you know what happened?
What?
CMS repealed it last March, and people are still infuriated about it.
So not only is these internet companies, with no net neutrality,
potentially going to be able to change the speed, pick winners, pick losers,
affect our ability to be free on the internet,
they're already compromising our privacy.
Yep. And this is important.
Let me just tell you why I raised the privacy issue.
Because the net neutrality debate that's going on right now is about much more than blocking
and throttling and fast lanes, fast and slow lanes.
It's also about whether there will be any government entity protecting consumers
in competition when it comes to access to the most important network of our time.
Now, the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, which I worked for for a number of years,
was set up in 1934 to do just that, right?
To oversee broadcast networks and cable networks and telephone networks and broadband networks.
But as he is moving to repeal net neutrality,
the FCC chair, Rajit Pai, also wants to strip the FCC of any and all power
to protect consumers and competition.
So what do I mean?
Well, let's say--so where are you located? Are you in New York?
We're in L.A. right now.
We're in L.A., okay. So you have Charter, right?
Isn't that your main Internet service provider?
Time Warner.
Yeah, Time Warner's big out here.
Well, Charter owns Time Warner.
Oh, okay, got it.
It's gotten very consolidated. That's a whole 'nother conversation.
Brutal. Nice, good for them.
Yeah, so let's say one day Charter decides to double its prices.
Just because. Because it's a regional monopoly. It doesn't have a whole lot of competition.
If the FCC is stripped of oversight of broadband, they can't do a darn thing about it.
Imagine that.
So what's the philosophy behind the current administration's vision?
Like, what are they thinking in terms of their best-case scenario?
They think less regulation is better, and the bigger should get bigger and more powerful.
That's really what it is.
I mean, I'm not going to bore your listeners with every single thing
that this chairman has done over the past 10 months.
But pretty much every single thing has allowed large, powerful media companies
to get more large and more powerful.
So in your opinion, bad news?
Yeah, well, look, I'm invested in it.
I was at the FCC under Tom Wheeler. I worked for him.
We passed the strongest-ever net neutrality rules.
We passed the strongest-ever privacy rules.
We made sure that poor people and people in rural areas got more broadband.
We raised the standard for broadband so consumers weren't left with slow, crummy broadband.
And he's reversing pretty much every single one of those things.
Good Lord.
If I could tell your listeners, there are things you can do.
I think it's highly unlikely that we're going to stop this vote,
although I still think it's important for people to let their members of Congress know that they're unhappy.
There's a website called Battle for the Net, where you just put in your name and your address, and voila.
You can contact your senator and members of Congress and let them know how unhappy you are.
I highly recommend doing that.
But I think even more importantly is people have to go out and vote in 2018.
And this ought to be one of the issues that you ask people who are running for office where you live.
Do you support strong net neutrality?
And if they don't, you shouldn't vote for them.
I hope and actually believe, because broadband is so darn important to people's lives now,
that they will vote on these kind of issues.
Well, yeah, let's hope the Democrats can figure out how to turn it into a simple issue.
Yeah, well, it's hard, right?
I mean, that's why I think it's important to compare it to cable.
Do you like your cable operator?
If you like your cable operator and your cable service, then you're going to love life without net neutrality.
It's really that simple.
If you like controlling what you do on the Internet and don't want anybody coming in between you and that choice,
then you're pro net neutrality.
Well, thanks so much, Gigi. It's been great talking to you, and you really elucidated these topics for us.
And again, we appreciate you fighting the good fight.
Well, any time. I'm happy to come on.
I know a lot more than just about net neutrality.
Anything having to do with networks, I'd love to come back and talk about them again.
Love to talk to you again. Have a good one.
Take care now.
All right, bye.
Bye.
Big thanks to Gigi Son for taking the time to educate us on net neutrality.
So what do you think, Jake? Are you pro net neutrality or anti?
I'm pro.
Really?
Is that a contentious statement?
No, that seems like the right thing. I mean, if you're going to have--
I was hoping that Gigi Son would be like, "You know what? I worked at the FCC for a long time."
It's all BS.
We got to destroy the internet.
I was hoping she'd say-- I'd be like, "I could get behind that."
But it's one of those things. It's like if there's going to be the internet, it might as well be free and open.
Seems like a no-brainer.
I would be into destroying the internet, but yeah, this doesn't work.
Going back to the mid-90s? Sounds good to me.
Anyway, we're now joined by a friend of the show, Kazzy David.
Welcome back.
Thank you for having me.
Glad to have you back.
You know, it's been a long time, and we've been criticized for this, since Time Crisis has had a female voice on the show.
Today we have two.
Was I the first? There's no way.
Oh, ever on the show? No, no.
And here's the thing. Maybe this is a cop-out, but I feel like generally Time Crisis has had less and less guests.
Yep.
And so boiled down with no guests--
It's real one-on-one.
It's de facto two cis men.
That is what the show--
Middle-aged.
Wow, actually, when does middle-age start?
I'm middle-aged at this point.
Once you hit 40?
38.
Oh, really?
I don't know.
I guess it depends on how long you live.
Yeah.
Oh, right.
Well, if you lived to about 76, 38 would be smack dab in the mid.
Okay, so I'm approaching middle-age now.
But anyway, it's important to have more female voices on the show because we don't talk about gendered things really on the show.
They shouldn't be at least.
Tasteful palette of 70s rock, Home Depot.
I guess those things are a little bit gendered.
We're trying to stop that.
Yeah, no one's going to argue with that.
Anyway, we got to talk about Thanksgiving, guys.
Yeah.
We talked a little bit about how my family was in town for Thanksgiving, but what did you do, Kazzy?
I went with my dad and we visited his brother and his family who we haven't seen in a long time.
Like years?
I haven't seen them in like, yeah, five, six years.
Where do they live?
They live in San Diego.
Really?
We just popped down for like three hours and got out of there pretty much as quick as we could.
Shots fired.
That would be a bummer.
So it's like a three-hour drive down there.
Yeah.
Then you're there for three.
Have they been watching the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Like no one's said anything, so maybe not.
This is like an episode of Curb-- it didn't come up?
It did not come up.
That's amazing.
No showbiz talk whatsoever?
There was like, "Did you see that movie?"
"Yeah, what'd you think?"
Like, "Good, yeah, what'd you think?"
Had they seen your web series?
No.
Did they ask about it?
No.
What did they at least say?
"So what have you been up to?"
Yeah, they did.
And I said, "You know."
Wait, so when they're catching up with your dad,
there's not some conversation that's like,
"So what have you been up to, Larry?"
And he's like, "Well, the new season of my show has been on TV."
Yeah, that's exactly how it happened, and then I don't--
there's no responses.
No, I mean, yeah.
We were asking most of the questions.
Maybe they don't want to have all the showbiz talk.
They want to get into the real stuff.
Yeah, that's probably it.
And this is a traditional Thanksgiving dinner?
I mean, it was at 2.30, so I don't--
You know, that's another question that I've had.
Yeah, that's weird.
I did not like the 2.30 dinner.
When did your family have Thanksgiving?
Usually more of like a four.
Okay, so still afternoon.
This year we did noon.
Whoa.
So it was fully a lunch.
It was a lunch.
Okay.
That's like a breakfast almost.
We ate at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
we were out there with Hannah, and we were with her parents
and her aunt and uncle, six of us in total,
and we were late in booking a reservation at the Red Lion,
so all that was left was a noon seating.
Oh.
Because people book out, you know, eight, ten months in advance.
Maybe it's better that way.
I liked it.
Yeah, eat early.
We got up, half a bagel, coffee at like 8 o'clock.
Yeah.
Then by noon--
Thanksgiving.
--sat down, had like a small glass of wine at noon,
a little early in the day, but went for it.
Great meal, and then went and saw Lady Bird at like 4.
And then you're walking on air.
Walking on air the rest of the day.
You saw a great film.
Yeah.
Best ever Rotten Tomatoes review.
You're just walking on air.
Yeah.
Late dinner.
Yeah.
Late dinner, hit the sack?
Yep.
Love it.
Noon.
2.30 is awkward.
Well, and also it was so warm in Southern California.
Heard that.
Yeah, being at kind of like a slow 2.30 p.m. Thanksgiving lunch.
Then driving back three hours?
Just that San Diego sun burning through the shades.
It's not what the pilgrims intended.
What time did you eat, Ezra?
It was a straight-up dinner.
Probably 8 p.m.
Wow.
Yeah.
Strong.
It was a real dinner.
So we were here.
My parents came out here, and we did Thanksgiving with Rashida's family.
And they do more of a proper dinner.
I think it was like us on the East Coast.
We'd be doing it at 3 p.m.
Right.
But it was like a real dinner.
You know, we were at somebody else's house, so it was like a big one.
There were a lot of people there.
But it was a nice vibe.
And did you cook at all?
No.
You make some like Brussels sprouts or anything?
No.
Nothing.
This was like a huge Thanksgiving dinner, so it was like buffet style.
Not the type of thing you're just going to roll up with Brussels sprouts to.
Did everyone help make it, or it was like catered?
Yeah, it was like more or less catered.
More or less.
I think, you know what?
Maybe like low-key, the thing to do with Thanksgiving is you have to be involved in the cooking.
It does give it more meaning.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
Next year.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
I'm going to tell you a story.
I'm going to tell you a story.
I'm going to tell you a story.
I'm going to tell you a story.
I'm going to tell you a story.
Lorde and Bruno Mars.
I hate to be a contrarian, but maybe just because I'm a music industry insider,
the first thing that I thought of was like, "You know what?
There's a lot of white men producers on some of those albums."
Is it?
Yeah, well--
Can you name the producers of all those records just off the top of your head, going down?
Well, now I'm looking at it.
No, but I know that--
Then we're getting really picky.
No, no, because I know Ludwig, who works with Donald on Childish Gambino.
Okay.
I know the Jay-Z album's produced by No I.D.
Kendrick Lamar, I know DJ Da, he worked on that, among others.
I know the Lorde album's produced by Jack Antonoff.
The Bruno Mars album, I didn't know who produced it, but it was basically him.
Oh, Bruno self-produced.
Well, it's credited to Shampoo, Press, and Curl.
Which I think is really just him, and maybe some other people.
So anyway, what do we think?
Is that a healthy haul?
Have you heard any of these albums?
I've heard the Bruno record.
You've heard the whole Bruno record?
Yep, in a rental car.
Who listens to a full Bruno record?
What was the situation?
My wife and I did.
Because it had just come out?
We were in D.C. for a wedding.
Yeah.
And we were driving around.
I don't know how it came up, we just threw it on.
I would say we probably got to track eight or nine.
Interesting.
Some of the deep cuts hold up.
I got a confession to make.
Yeah?
This is the first year that I voted for the Grammy nominations.
Oh, I blew it!
Oh, you forgot to register.
Remember? I was supposed to register.
Ah, yeah, see, that's the thing.
So, every year the Grammys come up, and there's always a conversation that's about race and who's voting.
Right.
And the truth is, with the Grammys, the Grammys can truly be baffling sometimes.
Obviously, there are a lot of old white dudes voting for the Grammys, but it's like, it doesn't always shake out the way that you think it's going to.
Well, how does it work with nominations?
So, with nominations...
Who did you vote for is the better question.
Thanks for asking, I want to talk about this.
We're building to that.
So, with nominations, I'd never voted in nominations before, sometimes because I would just miss the registration.
It's so annoying that you have to register.
You would think that if you're somebody who's got a few album credits, you could just be on the rolls for a while.
Right.
It's hard enough to register for the election.
Yeah, seriously.
I can't imagine.
So, I think it should just be easy.
And I guess they're trying to make it easy.
You have to pay $100, which I think is kind of lame, too.
Yep.
Like, they're taking in...
Is that every year?
I don't want to time it.
Every year, you have to pay $100.
And I think they have something that, like, for the younger people, that maybe they waive the fee.
Anyway, so you basically, you log on to a website, it's a little convoluted, and then you vote.
And just so everybody knows, before...
So, this is when music industry insiders like me get to throw our hat into the ring and say who we think should be nominated.
But there was a process before this that I was not privy to.
So, like, for instance, and some Grammy person might get mad and say that I'm describing this incorrectly, but this is my take.
This is what I understand it to be.
There's committees for each category.
I know people who serve on various committees.
Like, I got a friend who served on the electronic committee.
That committee decides who's even eligible to be nominated, because obviously this is somewhat subjective about what can be nominated for this and that.
So, like, infamously, there was a year, I've heard these stories, that the committee that's in charge of who can be nominated for best alternative album gets together.
So, it's a lot of guys who work at record labels, maybe a few musicians.
I think it's predominantly, like, people who work at labels.
And somebody that year was saying, "Well, the Shins should be eligible for best alternative."
And somebody else said, "I don't think so."
This is, like, on their third or fourth album.
They're like, "Shins are too big now. They're not alternative anymore."
And the guy's like, "Well, clearly they're still alternative. They're no bigger than Radiohead or these bands, and their music still is, even if it's gotten a little
poppier, still in the lineage of alternative rock."
The genre is, yeah.
And somebody's like, "No, they should either be in pop or rock."
And they put their foot down.
So, keep in mind, these are people who have vested interests in terms of who should be.
So, for instance, let's imagine there's a dude from Vampire Weekends record label serving on the committee.
And he knows it's a big year for Vampire Weekend.
We got that great alternative sound.
But he's a little nervous.
He doesn't want too much competition in the category.
So, he comes in and says, "Can we agree Vampire Weekend's alternative?"
Everybody says, "Yes."
And then another guy comes and says, "Can we agree that Dirty Projectors is alternative?"
And my guy says, "You know what? Dirty Projectors is hip-hop."
It's their ninth album.
Hear me out.
Hear me.
Dave Longstreth, he's out there producing Solange.
It's R&B or hip-hop.
And then imagine a few other guys are like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree."
Next thing you know, Dave can't be nominated for best alternative album.
He's screwed.
And then he's not going to get the best R&B album nomination either.
Well...
Okay. So, anyway, just that's how it works.
A group of people get together and make these decisions.
So, by the time I'm logging on to the Grammy's portal, there have already been some strings pulled.
So, it's slightly corrupt.
It's a little corrupt.
It's like the DNC.
But it's like all those award ceremonies, like you have to kiss their ass too.
Like it's not actually...
Well, it can be.
That's why sometimes I get confused because sometimes I talk to people who get nominated for something
and they're just like, "Were you like campaigning for it?"
And they're like, "No. It's random."
So, you don't know.
But one thing I noticed is that the way the website loads,
you have to click the four or five things that you want to pick to be nominated for a category.
But in some of these categories, it's like a thousand things are in there.
So, I also had this feeling like if your song or your name is going to be down towards the bottom,
you might just miss out on a few clicks just because this thing loads so slowly.
Like you would think that you'd be able to log in and just type in who you want to vote for,
but instead you have to like let this whole thing load and like scroll down and click.
I don't remember everything.
I hate this.
Yeah, it's annoying.
But whatever.
I'm sure--I don't know what it used to be like.
I'm sure some people would say that this is a way better way of doing things,
that you can log on online and whatever.
So, you're working on the nominating process.
There was like a thousand records.
Well, for some categories, like you click on best new artist and there might be 500 people.
You click on album of the year.
There might be a thousand things.
And I'm going through clicking and like something catches my eye, you know.
So, then you can click five different nominees or you can click 20 or--
You can click five different nominees from the pre-approved mega list.
Sheermag?
Oh, no.
I forgot to vote for Sheermag.
Dude.
Okay, here's what I remember.
I definitely remember that I put Kendrick for album of the year and that's who I intend to vote for in the general election.
Stating it publicly.
I wonder if that's against the rules.
It's so hilarious.
I've said this before.
Pitchfork story.
Kendrick Haneg disqualified.
Ban from the Grammys.
It's so hilarious that--
White man as for K-Dig.
Right.
One less white man on that.
Okay, well, at least there's that.
I just think that the Kendrick album--
I think all those--
There's a lot of strong contenders in the album of the year, but Kendrick has lost before.
They don't give album of the year enough to hip-hop, which is crazy.
They got a real bad track record when it comes to hip-hop.
And it's Kendrick's time.
Who did he lose to before?
Was it Mumford?
Oh, that's rough.
Can we get a fact check?
Wait, sorry.
Who are the nominees again?
Kendrick, Bruno, Lorde, Childish Gambino.
Who won last year?
Last year was Adele.
Oh, right.
Adele versus Beyonce.
Yeah, I would have won that Beyonce Grammy.
I lost it.
Remember when Adele was doing that George Michael song and he started in the wrong key?
That was so crazy.
And then she's like, "We got to start over."
Good for her.
I know.
I felt terrible for her.
I was like, "That'd be so hard to be like, 'Guys, guys, guys.'"
She got praised for that.
Yeah.
I remember that.
Oh, no.
Okay.
Sorry.
Kendrick lost to Daft Punk.
Oh, okay.
So you're voting for Kendrick.
Is that your prediction?
You know what?
I am a little nervous, and other people have said this, that the hip-hop vote may get split.
Oh.
Because-
It's like green.
Those damn green party people.
Yeah, exactly.
In this instance, Kendrick is Hillary, the person that the coastal elites think deserves
it.
Jay-Z is Trump.
No, no, no.
Actually, I don't want to call anybody Trump.
Let's just say that the two major parties here would probably be ... Well, see, here's
the thing.
As much as some people are excited that there's no white men in the album of the year, sometimes
a dopey white guy can serve as a good buffer.
Just a non-entity.
Just norm from Cheers.
Right.
You know what I mean?
So you're not splitting the vote.
So this year, I think a lot of people want to see Kendrick win, and no disrespect to
Lorde, but if we're really talking about righting a historical wrong, which is the way in which
white people have profited off black music in this country time and time again, we want
to honor black music, which is very important in this country, it would be a shame if in
the year that finally you got rid of ... The white guys had a year where they took a back
seat.
If it goes to the one white person out of the five, I don't know.
No woman points for her.
Well, what do you think?
You're a Caucasian female.
I mean, I just think her album's so ... It was so good.
Oh, it was.
I love melodrama.
I thought it was like ... To me, it was the best album of the year.
You thought it was better than Kendrick?
Yeah.
Well, it's so subjective anyway, but I'm just talking in terms of a feel-good story.
I mean, I think they can both be feel-good.
I mean, she'll have many more chances, that's true.
She's so young, but I don't know.
I just think that's also a feel-good story.
I would have to judge them all based on just the work alone and not the story.
Not based on the color of their skin.
Jay-Z admitted to cheating.
On the Grammys?
Yeah, on his album.
Oh.
Cheating on his album?
What do you mean?
Well, it was the whole thing about how he revealed that he cheated on Beyonce, and that was the
big-
Oh, cheated on his wife.
I thought you meant ... Sorry, I missed that completely.
Maybe that was part of Jay-Z's Grammy campaign.
Start up some drama.
It's just like when you're running for office, sometimes you gotta get some shit out of the
way.
Well, I'm pushing for Bruno.
Pushing for ... Oh my God.
I thought there was gonna be mass consensus that this is Kendrick's year.
Kendrick 100% above Bruno.
Okay, here's what I'm saying.
I mean-
I'm not saying that I have the same glee that there's no white men in album of the year.
I'm with it, though.
There should be some-
I mean, I can't think of a white guy that's like, should be on that list.
Okay, but I'm just trying to go-
Besides Sheermag.
I think it's all-
Which is fronted by a woman.
Okay, look, I think all of this is nonsense.
That's my favorite band.
Okay, look, I think all the Grammys are nonsense, although it feels good to win one as a Grammy
winner, but it also feels bad to lose one as a Grammy loser.
That'd be a cool speech.
Grammys are nonsense.
No, the Bon Iver kind of did that once, and everybody was like, "Oh, shut up.
Stay home, then."
Right.
And they're kind of right.
It's kind of like the Jonathan Franzen gone, like on Oprah being like, "I don't want to
be part of your book club."
Honestly, your book club sucks.
Yeah, no, it's like if you show up, be like a polite guest at least.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
But I saw on the internet that people were excited that there were no white men nominated
this year.
Got bad white men in the White House.
I understand why people feel that way.
They want to see, you know, for once-
Yeah, but okay.
Okay, I don't want-
That's ridiculous.
Okay.
I don't want to be the White House.
Here's what I like.
It's like-
I like intellectual consistency.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So, if you think white guys are whack and shouldn't be winning so many albums of the
year-
Across the board.
Yeah.
Okay, but I'm just saying that the Kendrick and the Jay-Z album have the least number
of white guys working on the album.
So, I'm just saying, if you really want to be-
I don't like politics.
I don't like when somebody says something like, "Finally, no white male artists."
And then don't look under the hood and say, "We got some white guys hiding in there, too."
So, I'm just saying, again, I'm not toying the anti-white male line.
You know I love Van Morrison, Bob Dylan.
Bruce Springsteen.
All I'm saying, though, is like-
I hear you.
If this is- And look, there's got to be themes every year.
If this is the year that's like, "White guys take a back seat," that's fine.
Come on.
White guys are taking the front seat so much.
But I'm just saying, let's do it right then.
Go all the way.
Because here's the thing.
If some of these albums win- I actually wrestled with this last time with the Beyonce album,
a very powerful album about Beyonce's experiences as a black woman in America.
Me and Diplo were talking about up to the last minute.
Oh, yeah.
Our R2.
Do me and Diplo really want to be standing behind her when she-
Do you bum rush the stage?
Yeah, I'm glad we didn't bum rush the stage.
But anyway, if this is the year that people are excited that it's about recognizing talent,
that white guys don't have to be a part of every little thing,
if that's how some people feel, then let's do it right.
Bruno.
If the theme of the prom is "Enchantment Under the Sea," let's have shrimp cocktail.
Don't order pizza because it's tasty.
You know what I'm saying?
Let's say it is about the pure talent of each artist.
No such thing.
There's like 10 producers on every single one of those artists' lists,
except for Lorde, which is just two people, herself included.
There's a lot of people who worked on that album, though.
Is there?
We're getting into the weeds here, folks.
Yes, we're getting into the weeds, but there's a lot of-
If you look at the Lorde album credits, it's a lot of people.
All of these albums- Bruno is probably the artist who single-handedly did the most
in that he produces and performs, but whatever.
All these people- I'm not saying to take anything away from any of these people.
I'm just saying to the Grammy world, if the theme of this year's prom is
"No White Guys on Stage at the End," choose wisely, my friend,
because when they do that wide shot-
And there's 40 people on stage.
You might see a whole bunch of Caucasian males.
Now, we should also point out, as we talk about Album of the Year,
there was one white guy who was a real shocker not to see in the Album of the Year list.
Who's that?
Mmm...
Babe Groll.
Nope.
The big shocker is because he put out maybe one of the most commercially successful albums of the year.
Ed Sheeran.
Interesting.
Friend of the show.
Snubbed.
Shut out of every category.
Really?
I think he got some random nomination.
Bedsheets wasn't-
No bedsheets.
Okay, well here's the thing.
Wow.
There's four categories that are called the Big Four.
Album of the Year, which we've discussed at length.
40 minutes in on Album of the Year.
Best New Artist, which is going to be different every year.
Right.
And then the last two are Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
So you're saying, "What's the difference between Record of the Year and Song of the Year?"
Record of the Year is awarded to the artists and the producers,
and the recording engineers and the mixers and blah blah blah,
because Record of the Year is about the recording.
Song of the Year, this one's for the songwriters.
So, for instance, if Sinead O'Connor was nominated for Nothing Compares to You,
she could be nominated for Record of the Year, because that's the recording.
Yeah.
But if Nothing Compares to You wins Song of the Year, you're going to see Prince up there,
because he wrote that song.
Sinead did not write that song.
That one's for the songwriters.
Sometimes it's the same.
We're going back to 1990 now.
We're going back to '90.
So anyway, so those are the two biggest categories for songs,
and Bed Sheets, Shape of You, major song this year, was Shut Out.
It's been seven hours and 13 days
Since you took your love away
I go out every night and sleep all day
Since you took your love away
Since you've been gone I can do whatever I want
I can see whoever I choose
I eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant
But nothing, nothing can take away this feeling
Nothing compares
Nothing compares to you
It's been so lonely without you here
I'm like a bird without a song
Nothing can stop this lonely rain
Tell me baby, where did I go wrong?
Oh baby, I can put my arms around everybody I see
But they only remind me of you
All my days with my new YouTube girl
I went to the doctor, guess what he told me
Guess what he told me
He said, "Rosie, you're gonna have fun no matter what you do"
He's a fool
Nothing compares
Nothing compares to you
Oh baby, tell me there's nothing in this world
Time Crisis on Beat 1
In lieu of the top 5, we're gonna go through the other 3 categories of the big 3.
We talked about album of the year, that's a really thorny one, it's very political.
So instead of the top 5, we're gonna go through the 5 songs in each of these categories.
So we're gonna start with...
Top 15.
So it's kind of the top 15.
This is turning into a real Grammy special.
When is the Grammys?
Or is it, when are the Grammys?
I have a question for you about Bruno Mars.
It's January 28th.
Yeah.
So I never feel like I'm in a place of like such happiness where I can listen to him and it not feel weird.
Like he's so cheery.
Yeah.
It makes me uncomfortable.
Yeah, I can see that.
You gotta be floating on air.
Yeah.
What does he say to you about your life?
Okay, a little bit about me.
I don't listen to any of his music voluntarily in my own time.
Okay.
When I'm here in the studio at work, then I'll listen to it.
And Bruno's fun.
But he might be too fun.
Yeah, no, I mean, all joking aside, I totally hear you.
He is infectious, I'll say that.
The names of this year's albums, not the nominees for this year's albums, in quotation marks.
Awaken, my love.
Has punctuation and everything.
Serious.
444, kind of mysterious, kind of artsy.
444.
Then all caps.
It's like John Cage.
Damn.
And then, Melodrama.
And then coming in at number five, 24-karat magic, baby.
Hey!
That's the one where he's like, "I got a brownstone in Manhattan."
Or whatever it is.
Condo.
"I got a brownstone in Cobble Hill."
I mean, those other albums have moments of joy, but they are very serious.
They're also all very personal.
Yeah.
They're very much about the individual artist, and Bruno really is kind of like just a very
general good time.
Yeah.
I think I have a nice and humorous association with Bruno because of the show and the ongoing
fantasy we had about Bruno and Tom York getting in some sort of beef.
Yeah, that was fun.
I mean, it would be cool if--
That's why I'm into Bruno.
I do like the absurdity.
You know, and that is something that's cool about the Grammys because, I'd say the Oscars,
they never nominate comedies.
They never nominate big, fun, dumb movies.
Right.
So it's like you get a race like La La Land versus Moonlight, both movies that take themselves
very seriously, as they should.
But you never get to see something fun like a historical drama about something really
serious lose to dumb and dumber.
Old school.
Or like old school.
Yeah.
24K Magic is the big, dumb, fun movie of the Grammys.
Yeah, exactly.
Like, that'd be tight.
Throw it on.
I want to see serious work--
I mean, this song rules.
Come on.
Ugh.
I want to see serious work rewarded, but I also want to see fun, dumb stuff rewarded,
too.
Yeah, let's not--
This is dope.
Right now.
Album of the year.
Like, I love Lady Bird, but if I got to see it lose to anything, I want to see it lose
to like this.
This would be so funny.
Well, it's also like-- I like that idea, like, you know, I try to make like serious work
about like the drama of my own life and stuff.
But there is something funny, too, about just like one year just being like, you know, little
works of art that explore what it means to be a human being with like deep emotions and
stuff.
And then it's just like, man, f--- that s---.
Just like, let's have some fun.
And the winner is Bruno Mars.
Because this is part of life, too, you know?
Like, if it's not going to be Kendrick, it'd be hilarious for Bruno just to like moonwalk
out there.
He's got his whole crew of guys.
Everybody's having so much fun.
And like maybe for once, it's just like, sorry, guys.
I wrote fun songs.
It's been a rough year.
Because the truth is, sometimes you're depressed and you want to listen to somebody who's going
through the same drama as you.
And sometimes you want to just listen to a good time person.
At my absolute happiest, like, it still could not match that song.
Right.
Yeah, because you're not Bruno.
It inspires you a little bit, right?
I know.
I wouldn't say so.
OK, let's get into some of these top fives.
We're doing three top fives.
Best new artist.
It's time for the top five on iTunes.
These are the best new artists this year.
Alessia Cara.
Do you know who that is?
Heard of her.
Are you familiar with Alessia Cara?
Yeah.
You're kind of the target demo.
Does she speak to you in the way that Saylor does?
No.
Why not?
I don't know.
I guess just like--
Wait, you're talking about how Bruno's too happy.
That sounds like something you would say.
Yeah, I think that's--
I'd really rather be at home in my room by myself.
That might be the problem.
Like, it's too obvious.
Oh.
Fair.
I don't really want to know exactly what they're saying.
Like, I want it to be a little bit subliminal.
So I don't feel stupid singing along to it.
You would feel stupid if you were like in the car driving,
like, I wish I was home in my room by myself.
Why?
It's just my nature.
I don't know.
Why are we as human beings just so scared to just say what we feel?
Hide behind layers of artifice?
I got a condo in Manhattan.
I think the Suicide Hotline song she's on also got nominated.
I would love to have a conversation about that.
It's a big year.
We'll be talking about that song.
Oh, the Suicide Hotline song?
We'll be talking about that song shortly.
So it's been a big year for Alessia Cara.
OK.
But what does she mean to you as an artist?
How old are you, Kazzy?
She's 23.
She's got to be like Portishead or something.
Oh, yeah.
Well, she's in the same sample.
Oh, is it?
Yeah.
So, wait, how old are you, Kazzy?
23.
All right.
So she's 21.
So you guys are from more or less the same birth cohort.
Mm-hmm.
You know, but even when you're the same age,
it doesn't necessarily mean you'd be friends, you know?
Of course.
Not that I wouldn't be friends with her if she wanted to be,
because I probably would.
I guess I don't like the whole "you're beautiful" thing.
You know, that's one of her other big singles.
Like, that's just not my thing.
Like, taking off the makeup and being like,
"You're so beautiful the way you are,"
it's just like a little bit--
Like the Christina Aguilera song?
Yeah, but that's Christina Aguilera.
Every generation has a song--
♪ You are beautiful ♪
Bruno Mars.
Yeah, Bruno.
There's never been a song written by a guy
that's, like, saying the same message to guys.
Would the argument be that because we live in, like,
a [bleep] up patriarchal society
where men are always telling women
that they gotta wear makeup,
that women need to be told by wealthy pop stars?
No, you don't.
Here's a song instead.
Is it useful?
No, I don't think so.
Also, I don't think--
Are men telling women to wear makeup?
I feel like men--
This is just another conversation.
No, no, go there.
I don't know. I feel like--
I'm not a makeup fan.
It's just like, I think men also need songs
that raise their confidence.
Like, why is it just girls that are the only ones
that need songs about being insecure?
We all wake up feeling [bleep]
You're beautiful.
But you know what?
I also think that guys are very insecure
about their looks, too.
And so maybe there should be more songs for guys.
I bet there are-- I'm sure there's somewhere--
there's, like, some random, like,
Brad Paisley, like, country song.
♪ You are jacked, bro ♪
If you were gonna write a song for me
about how great I look, what would it be?
It would be-- well, okay, here's--
I can picture these songs.
I bet they exist.
But you're right in the sense, Kazzy,
that they wouldn't be that same kind of sisterhood,
woman telling another woman,
"You're great just how you are."
It wouldn't be a guy telling another guy,
but a guy might sing a song
about how his wife doesn't care what he looks like.
I could picture, like, a country song
where he's like, ♪ When I met her, I was ♪
♪ Hittin' Equinox most every day ♪
♪ Now I'm big and fat since I ♪
♪ Blew out my knee playing basketball ♪
♪ Put on 40 pounds in the last three years ♪
♪ I put on 40 LBs ♪
I used to-- like, yeah,
I could picture a country song that's like,
she used to be the hot cheerleader,
and I was the star of the football team.
Then I blew out my knee playing some weekend touch football,
and now I'm, like, got real fat.
But in that song, the point would be,
♪ But she still loves me ♪
♪ I may not be that quarterback ♪
♪ That she used to cheer for ♪
♪ But the homecoming king ♪
[laughs]
♪ I used to be ♪
♪ I'm fat and bald ♪
♪ I put on 40 LBs ♪
♪ And that woman, she still loves me ♪
So that's not-- okay, but that's not--
I mean, "Dude to Dude."
Yeah, actually, you know what's hilarious?
"Dude to Dude."
That's just a regular song.
Also, even in this instance, I'm still picturing a man--
The worst song.
It's a man talking about how he can look like [bleep]
Yeah.
And the woman-- so that's actually a terrible example.
I apologize that-- yeah, all right, so you're talking about a song--
"The Most Girls Hailee Steinfeld Equivalent."
What's that song about?
Like, you should play it.
"Most Girls."
What?
I'm not gonna, like, sing it on this mic.
Hailee Steinfeld has a song called "Most Girls."
And this, you'd say, is in that category of song.
Yeah.
Of "You Are Beautiful"?
Yeah.
♪
♪ Some girls feel blessed in their tiny dresses ♪
♪ Some girls none of us wear pants looking like a princess ♪
♪ Some girls kiss new lips every single night ♪
♪ They're staying up late 'cause they just celebrating life ♪
♪ Now some days you feel so good in your own skin ♪
♪ But it's okay if you wanna change the body that you're gaming ♪
♪ 'Cause you look great when you feel like a damn queen ♪
♪ We're all just playing a game in a way trying to win their life ♪
♪ Most girls are all smart and strong and beautiful ♪
♪ Most girls are about the fact we are unstoppable ♪
♪ Most girls are fighting like every day ♪
♪ Not two are the same ♪
♪ I wanna be like, I wanna be like ♪
♪ Most girls I wanna be like, I wanna be like ♪
I don't wanna be like most girls?
No.
She wants to be like most girls.
Oh, I wanna be like most girls.
She wants to be average.
Yeah, 'cause they're strong and smart and beautiful.
Most girls.
♪ I wanna be like most girls ♪
That's a messed up song.
That song is crazy.
Well, I don't know.
Actually, I don't wanna--
Do you find that empowering?
No, I dislike that genre.
No, it's a very empty affirmation.
That song was also very confusing because
as near as I could tell just listening to it once,
the structure of the song was like, the verses are like,
some girls are like this, some girls are like that.
That's all fine.
Some girls wanna wear sweatpants,
some girls wanna wear a dress.
But here's what I'm here to say.
Most girls are strong and smart and beautiful and great.
So it's really like, you would think like the logic of the song
would be like, some girls wear short skirts,
some girls wear long skirts.
All girls.
Some girls have, yeah, long hair, some girls have short hair.
But you know what, all girls are worthwhile human beings.
That would be like the thing that's like,
you can pick and choose.
So this song, there's like definitely--
Well, it's more realistic, most.
Somebody who's really insecure is like--
She's being honest.
It's like 30% of people suck.
Right.
Regardless of the gender.
So she's like, yeah, if you broke this down to numbers,
20% of women look great in sweatpants.
Another 20% look great in a short skirt.
I'm here to tell you that 85% of women are smart.
And that's a big number.
And then like somebody's like--
There is 15% of women who don't look good in sweatpants,
dresses, and they're not even smart.
But I'm focusing on the positive here, 85%.
That's just a biological reality.
Most girls--
Nothing we can do about it.
Most girls--
It's lame.
Well, all right, so you're not rooting for--
I like that we went down a little Hailey Steinfeld tangent.
You should write a song called "Most Girls."
For all girls.
That's a tight title.
Yeah, it seems kind of out of sync
with like the kind of modern feminism that's like all women.
Where are we with our top 15?
Well, we're still on Best New Artist.
So Kazzy doesn't like Alessia Cara.
I do not like her.
She's just not my favorite.
What about Khalid?
Love.
Young, dumb, and broke.
So dope.
Jake, do you remember Khalid is from El Paso?
Oh, yeah.
So that's pretty cool.
That is dope.
So you're still thinking of me just like I know you should.
I cannot give you everything.
You know I wish I could.
I'm so high at the moment.
I'm so caught up in this.
Yeah, we're just young, dumb, and broke.
But we still got love to give.
Why we're young, dumb, young, young, dumb, and broke.
Young, dumb, young, young, dumb, and broke.
Young, dumb, young, young, dumb, and broke.
Young, dumb, broke, high school kids.
[vocalizing]
Young, dumb, broke, high school kids.
Do you feel like Khalid is the voice of your generation?
I feel like he's the best new artist.
Khalid's cool, but I've heard from friends with kids and stuff
that tweens love it, teens love it.
From age 10 to 25, people love Khalid.
A song featuring Khalid is a hit immediately.
You like a song that features Khalid even more?
Any song that features Khalid, immediate hit.
So you're--
But also just-- yeah, I'm totally on the Khalid train.
So he's brand new.
This is his first album.
He's super young.
So do you feel like when you first heard Khalid,
you were like, this is an important new artist?
Yeah, I think he's sick.
Okay, so Khalid versus Alessia Cara, no contest.
No contest.
All right, what about Lil Uzi Vert?
I mean, it's just, like, so silly.
Silly?
Yeah.
This is probably the most--
Wait, what's the dude's name?
It's so silly.
Lil Uzi Vert.
V-E-R-T?
Yeah.
Remember, this is all my "Friends Are Dead" song.
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "FRIENDS ARE DEAD"]
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "FRIENDS ARE DEAD"]
This is a huge song.
I voted for this song a lot in my Grammy bout.
I remember that.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, because this song's called "XO Tour Life."
Oh, yeah, this one's tight.
I was like, oh, it's not going to get a lot of votes
because it's so far down on the list because it's X.
Oh.
And I was right.
This is one of the biggest songs of the year.
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "XO TOUR LIFE"]
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "XO TOUR LIFE"]
That part is so sick.
It's like the first 10 seconds, and then the rest is not this.
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "XO TOUR LIFE"]
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "XO TOUR LIFE"]
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "XO TOUR LIFE"]
The next song nominated is another Jay-Z song.
I love Jay-Z, but he's like a little slightly overrepresented
this year, I would say.
But this is another cool song from his album.
This is the title track, "444."
[MUSIC - LIL UZI VERT, "444"]
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