(AllHipHop News) A lot of big names associated with the Hip-Hop world picked up trophies at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards Ceremony on Sunday night. The two biggest winners of the evening in the rap categories were Jay-Z and Kanye West.
The songs “N****s In Paris” and “No Church In The Wild,” off their 2011 collaborative album Watch The Throne, helped the duo add three more awards to the one they received last year for “Otis.”
That total makes Watch The Throne one of the most celebrated rap releases in Grammy history. It also raised the amount of career Grammy wins for Kanye to 21 and for Jay-Z to 17- enough to put both emcees on the top ten list of Grammy award recipients of all time.
Kanye did not attend the awards show, but Jay-Z was present to accept the award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “No Church In The Wild” featuring Frank Ocean and The-Dream. The win gave Jay the opportunity to produce one of the most talked about moments of the night when he ribbed his fellow winner for his choice of clothing.
“I would like to thank the swap meet for his hat,” joked Jay, referring to the “Boyz In The Hood” cap The-Dream wore onstage.
The Roc Nation boss also made an appearance during Justin Timberlake’s comeback performance. Jay-Z and JT performed their new hit song “Suit & Tie” to a standing audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My3FXIMZTT8
Along with his win for “No Church,” Ocean also took home the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album for channel ORANGE beating out Miguel’s Kaleideoscope Dream and Chris Brown’s Fortune. He used his turn at the microphone to thank his mother who could be seen with tears in her eyes, as her son won his first Grammy.
Ocean later returned to the stage for an innovative performance of “Forest Gump” where the singer appeared to run in place as images scrolled on digital screens around him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlsHpVnYhvU
Ocean’s competitor for Urban Contemporary award, Miguel, didn’t leave the show empty-handed. Before taking to the stage with Wiz Khalifa to perform “Adorn,” the breakout star won his first Grammy award for Best R&B Song in the pre-televised portion of the program.
Beyoncé and Usher were also honored before the actual show began. Usher won Best R&B Performance for “Climax,” and Bey won Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Love On Top.” This was the 17th Grammy win for Beyoncé, and the 8th for Usher.
While some artists were piling on to their Grammy totals, other were winning the golden phonograph for the first time. After 12 nominations, Young Money’s Drake snagged his first ever Grammy last night. His sophomore LP Take Care won for Best Rap Album winning over Nas’ Life Is Good and The Roots’ Undun.
[ALSO READ: Drake Wins Grammy For Best Rap Album, Nas Fails To Garner Grammy]
One of the featured artist on Take Care, Rihanna, won her 6th Grammy for “We Found Love” in the Best Short Form Music Video category. The international superstar performed her latest single “Stay,” and she also joined Sting, Bruno Mars, Damien Marley, and Ziggy Marley as part of the all-star Bob Marley tribute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSQAXh47IBQ
Other performances included an Alicia Keys/Maroon 5 duet, and Hip-Hop Legends LL Cool J and Chuck D closing out the show.
To see those performances and others visit: www.mrworldpremiere.net
For the full list of Grammy winners visit: www.grammy.com