Rapper Drake gets 4 Grammy nominations

Jay Z easily led Grammy Award nominations announced Friday with nine, but left-of-centre rappers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Kendrick Lamar were among a group of new stars who took many of the major nominations.

Macklemore and Lewis's gay marriage anthem Same Love was among song of the year nominees and the Seattle rap crew joined Los Angeles rapper Lamar with seven nominations apiece, including best album and best new artist of the year. Pharrell Williams had four major nominations among his seven and Justin Timberlake also had seven.


Macklemore and Lewis dominated a nominations TV special from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles that also included performances by nominees Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lorde and Robin Thicke. They opened the show with a colourful, high-energy version of their hit Thrift Shop, featuring Wanz, and immediately picked up a song of the year nomination for Same Love.

Two nominations later, Ben Haggerty, the rapper known as Macklemore, was noting it was a "very surreal moment," during an on-air interview with host LL Cool J. "It's like we're not supposed to be here, but we're here with LL Cool J."

Recording Academy favourites Timberlake and Jay Z teamed up for two nominations apiece, but they only had one major nomination between them this year and that came for Jay Z's participation on Lamar's album of the year nominee "good kid, m.A.A.d city" instead of his own "Magna Carta ... Holy Grail."

Williams, who seemed to be everywhere in 2013, is up for producer of the year and faces himself in three categories, including record of the year for Get Lucky with Daft Punk and Blurred Lines with Robin Thicke, and album of the year entries Random Access Memories by Daft Punk and Lamar's good kid.

Joining Lamar, Macklemore and Lewis and Daft Punk in the album of the year category were Sara Bareilles' The Blessed Unrest and Taylor Swift's Red. Swift is among five acts with four nominations apiece along with Daft Punk, Bruno Mars, Lorde and Kacey Musgraves. British musicians James Blake and Ed Sheeran round out the best new artist category with Musgraves, Lamar and Macklemore and Lewis.