Getty ImagesSafe to say the Grammys haven't killed Kendrick Lamar's vibe.
After the 26-year-old rapper lost the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on Sunday, Jan. 26—an honor which even the Seattle-based musician believed the good kid, m.A.A.d. city star deserved—Lamar has since opened up about the headline-making snub, admitting he holds no hard feelings towards neither the Recording Academy nor his fellow rap stars.
"It's well-deserved; he did what he did, man," Kendrick told XXL of Macklemore's Grammys sweep. "He went out there and hustled and grinded. Everything happens for a reason; the universe comes back around, that's how it go."
Macklemore & Lewis took home four Grammys: Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album and Best New Artist. Meanwhile, Kendrick, who was nominated in seven categories—including Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, among others—failed to take home a single award.
But we weren't the only ones who were seemingly shocked by Lamar's Grammys' snub. Macklemore himself took to Twitter after the show to share a text he sent to the Compton-based rapper, in which he apologized for taking home the top accolade in the rap category.
"You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have," Macklemore wrote in the message, which he then posted to his Instagram account. "It's weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing during my speech, and I froze. Anyway, you know what it is. Congrats on this year and your music. Appreciate you as an artist and as a friend. Much love."
While Lamar may have gone home empty-handed, he still made headlines for his performance with Imagine Dragons, which has been called one of the best Grammy performances of the night.
And he's not slowing down anytime soon, most recently performing his song "Backstreet Freestyle" at rapper Dom Kennedy's show on Tuesday, Jan. 28 in New York, where XXL also asked the rapper if he believes hip-hop should receive more attention on music's biggest night (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Jay Z and Lamar were the only rappers to take the Grammys stage, but gave three of the night's best performances).
"I definitely feel like they should always have more of the culture up in there, for sure, because we definitely stand out just like any other genre," he said. "We part of the world. We part of the movement. So I think any awards, including the Grammys, should always push for more hip-hop because it's music as a whole, it's not just splitting different regions. Everything moves as far as sound and vibrations, and that's how it goes. And we are a part of that."
Poetic justic, indeed.