Eminem Named Rapper of the Year at the American Music Awards

The year 2024 has been over for almost 6 months, but we are still in that painful (and very long) period of award ceremonies. The Flame Awards, the Victoires de la Musique, the Grammy Awards, and now, the American Music Awards, which took place on the evening of May 26. A ceremony that went off without a hitch, crowning Billie Eilish as the standout artist of the previous year. However, in the rap category, the outcome is likely to spark discussion: Eminem (listen to him in the 2000s playlist by Allzic) was awarded ahead of Kendrick Lamar!

The small difference with the Grammys is that for the Grammy Awards, it is the members of the Recording Academy who vote and present the awards. For the American Music Awards, it is investors in the music world, financiers, who make decisions based on sales, internet views, and social media. So, slightly different criteria, which explains such a gap between the results. And for the 2025 ceremony, which honors artists for their 2024 performances, Eminem won more awards than Kendrick Lamar.

Kendrick was nominated in 5 categories, including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, Best Hip-Hop Album, and Best Hip-Hop Song. Ultimately, he only walked away with one award, for Hip-Hop Song of the Year, for "Not Like Us", of course. Eminem, on the other hand, established himself as the Best Male Hip-Hop Artist of 2024, as well as for Hip-Hop Album of the Year, for "The Death of Slim Shady".

These choices are strange, as Kendrick clearly dominated the debates last year, but after all, we are not in the States, and they are surely better positioned to grant their awards. For the rest, it was singer Billie Eilish who was the big winner of the evening, with awards in 7 different categories.

We can imagine that now, the parade of award ceremonies will finally be over for the 2024/2025 season. And we hope that US rap artists will get active because at the moment, there is a lack of truly remarkable projects!