Ezra Koenig spent much of the latest episode of his Beats 1 show, Time Crisis, going over his role in the Grammy voting process. Sadly for many, the Vampire Weekend frontman doesn't appear to be hugely influential. In conversation with Cazzie David and Jake Longstreth, Ezra revealed that he voted "a lot" for Lil Uzi Vert, particularly pushing for "XO TOUR LIif3" to score a nomination (it did not).
He also revealed that he voted for Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. for Best Album, and spoke at length about this year's Producer of the Year nominations, which he believes snubbed Metro Boomin.
"It’s not just that he’s a cool producer," he explained. "He legitimately produced these huge crossover rap songs. He had a really crazy year. Very few producers ever have years like that. He was the producer of the year."
Ezra points out that Producer of the Year has historically been one of the few Grammy categories that accurately portray the diversity behind the year's biggest hits.
"For Producer of the Year, as much as you get a lot of white dudes winning, you also have Pharrell, Babyface winning three times, Quincy Jones," he said. "It’s the one place you could say, 'That award category, reflects the fact that so many massive contributions to American music have been by black and white people.' It’s not lopsided the way that other categories are."
The Grammy talk begins around the :38 minute mark, with Ezra explaining quite a bit about the voting process throughout; years of being extremely excited and interested in the Grammys really shine through.