Kendrick Lamar, Clipse & Doechii Show Rap Can Shine in Every Style With 2026 Grammy Noms

Top Dawg Entertainment is knocking on the door of history with its emphatic run as one of rap’s most enduring dynasties. Former TDE signee Kendrick Lamar leads the charge once again with nine nominations, including three in the coveted Big Four categories. But it’s his TDE teammates Doechii and SZA who are skating right behind him, racking up six nominations apiece and reinforcing the label’s stranglehold on hip-hop and R&B.

After winning best rap album last year with Alligator Bites Never Heal, the Florida polymath is back for more. Her Hot 100 top 10 hit “Anxiety” landed in both song and record of the year, standing toe-to-toe with Kendrick and SZA’s inescapable smash “Luther.” As for SZA, she’s far from riding coattails — her own hits, “30 for 30” (featuring Kendrick) and “Crybaby,” both earned Grammy love this year, further cementing her reign as R&B’s lead stakeholder.

Together, the TDE trifecta has turned this year’s nominations into a family affair — and perhaps the clearest sign yet that the label is inching further towards rap immortality.

It all started at the top of 2024, when GloRilla rang the alarm with her comeback anthem “Yeah Glo!” From there, Glo rocketed back into mainstream dominance, flooding airwaves with a trifecta of bangers: “TGIF,” “Wanna Be” and “Whatchu Know About Me.” Glo’s hellacious 2024 was punctuated by the release of her debut album Glorious, which stymied any doubt of her being flash-in-the-pan artist and solidified her as a contender. With her sights set on best rap song (for “TGIF”) and best rap album (Glorious) at the upcoming Grammys, Glo’s 2024 stands as a blueprint for artists fighting their way back to the top.

Lyricism reigns supreme in this year’s Grammy race. Hip-hop savants Clipse, Kendrick Lamar, and Tyler, The Creator are all in prime position to play spoiler across the ceremony’s top categories, including song of the year and album of the year. The latter boasts all three rap behemoths, each vying to disrupt the field and potentially become the first hip-hop act to take home the award since Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004. If voters are swayed by bars and brilliance over pop polish, the genre could reclaim its throne in grand fashion.

Absence and cocaine-dusted bars truly makes the heart grow fonder. After a 15-year hiatus, the Thornton brothers have re-emerged with Let God Sort ’Em Out, a fiery comeback that’s earned five Grammy nominations, including album of the year and best rap album. It’s a long-overdue victory lap for one of rap’s most revered duos, whose sharp-tongued luxury raps and chilling realism continue to age like Ace of Spades champagne. For the Clipse, the wait was worth it — now, the duo is eyeing the Grammys that eluded them the first time around.

For those pining for “real rap” to get its shine at the Grammys, look no further than JID, who notched pivotal wins off his 2025 opus God Does Like Ugly. The Atlanta wordsmith silenced doubters who once questioned whether he could truly cross over and thrive beyond J. Cole’s orbit. Lo and behold, JID now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with rap’s elite, earning nods in best rap album and best melodic rap performance — a fitting payoff for one of the genre’s most technically gifted emcees finally basking in his well-deserved spotlight.

The man who titled his album MUSIC will, ironically, be absent from music’s biggest night next year. After debuting with blockbuster numbers — 300,000 equivalent album units and a No. 1 bow on the Billboard 200 — Playboi Carti’s name is nowhere to be found on the Grammy nominations list. Even with Kendrick Lamar’s fingerprints scattered across his supersized 30-track project, that star-power boost wasn’t enough to sway voters. For all of Carti’s chaos, charisma, and cultural gravity, the Recording Academy chose to look the other way, leaving one of rap’s most polarizing figures watching from the sidelines this February.