(with apologies to TV Guide)
A belated but no less hearty congratulations to all of Georgia's Grammy nominees. (The nominations for the 2009 Grammys were announced during a prime-time special Wednesday night, but between our usual Thursday print-deadline mayhem and battling a bugbear of a cold, I didn't get around to posting this until today.) The nominees with local ties are too numerous to mention here (check out the full list on Grammy.com), but we’re particularly jazzed about a couple of categories in particular: Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, with four out of the five nominees—OutKast, T.I., Young Jeezy and Ludacris (with T.I., pictured)—hailing from the 404; and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, in which up-and-comer Lady Antebellum, which features Georgia members (and is also up for Best New Artist) goes up against Atlanta’s own Sugarland.
(A brief digression: Coldplay racks up seven nominations? Really?)
Speaking of Georgia music connections, let's talk about Kid Rock for a minute. (Don't worry; I promise it'll be brief.) Seems the paragon of bad judgment is unhappy with Georgia State Court Judge Alvin T. Wong, who denied Rock’s request to allow the rap-rock-country performer to let performing for U.S. troops overseas count toward his community-service sentence stemming from a brawl at an Atlanta-area Waffle House last year. (There's your local connection.)
“Apparently, he thinks it’s more important that I do something else rather than sing, shake hands and take pictures with the men and women who put themselves in harms [sic] way to protect the very freedoms he and all of us live by,” Rock huffed on his Web site. Wong rightly opined that the singer shouldn’t receive credit from something he enjoys and was already planning to do—it’s supposed to be punishment, after all.
Hey, Kid, do the community a real service and shut the hell up, already.