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Jack Antonoff, Cher, Kendrick Lamar, Scott Bridgeway and Kamasi Washington attend the 68th Grammy Awards
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Key Takeaways:
- Kendrick Lamar now holds the record for most Grammy Award wins by a rapper, surpassing JAY-Z with 27 awards.
- His 2026 wins include Best Rap Album for GNX and Record of the Year for “luther” featuring SZA.
- He emphasized the importance of clean lyrics and thanked Luther Vandross’ estate for the sample clearance.
The Grammy Awards are turning into an annual celebration of Kendrick Lamar. After his haul at the 2026 ceremony, the Compton rapper has earned the distinction of being the rapper with the most Grammys of all time.
K. Dot has now sprinted, figuratively, past JAY-Z. Prior to Sunday’s (Feb. 1) Grammy Awards presentation, Hov held the title with 25 trophies to his name. However, by the end of the evening, the “squabble up” rapper held 27 Grammy Awards.
In February 2025, Lamar picked up five Grammys thanks to his Drake-dissing smash “Not Like Us.” The critical acclaim his 2024 album GNX received also made it a safe bet that Lamar had a shot at passing JAY-Z’s benchmark. When the 2026 Grammy nominations were announced back in November 2025, Lamar was at the top of the leaderboard with nine nods. Notably, Clipse, Doechii and Tyler, The Creator each earned five nominations of their own.
Lamar already had three new Grammy Awards before the live ceremony aired. He won in the categories for Best Rap Performance for his guest verse on Clipse’s “Chains & Whips,” Best Melodic Rap Performance for “luther,” featuring SZA, and Best Rap Song for “tv off.”
It was during the televised portion that the “Money Trees” artist asserted himself in a pair of major categories. His GNX project won Best Rap Album, beating entries like Tyler’s CHROMAKOPIA and Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out. Later on in the evening, he picked up Record of the Year for “luther,” which bested songs from Bad Bunny (“DtMF”), Doechii (“Anxiety”) and Lady Gaga (“Abracadabra”).
While accepting his Record of the Year award, Lamar mentioned that part of getting Luther Vandross’ estate to clear the song’s use of the “If This World Were Mine” sample was that the lyrics contain no curse words. “Being able to put our vocals [on] it, it proves that we were somewhat worthy to be just as great as them individuals,” Lamar said, referring to Vandross and Cheryl Lynn. “They granted us that. They said, ‘No cursing, though. Can’t curse on it.’”
Lamar was also up for the Album of the Year. However, he ended up losing to Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.
