The Grammys hadn't even started and already four of the five hip-hop awards had been handed out. Jay-Z grabbed two of them -- Best Rap Solo Performance for "D.O.A." and Best Rap Song for "Run This Town" with Rihanna and Kanye West. The latter added a second award -- and the only one presented live on the broadcast, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration -- to bring Jigga's total to three for the night.
Once presenters Mos Def and Placido Domingo figured out how to open the envelope and read "Run This Town," Rihanna and Jay-Z stepped to the stage and thanked the absent "genius that is Kanye West" in a speech kept brief.
Soon after, Wyclef Jean was given a solo spotlight to make his pitch for continued Haiti support.
Eminem's Relapse won Best Rap Album honors, which comes as no surprise to us, but is still a disappointment. The Grammys could have picked up some more credibility by not making the obvious choice. (Q-Tip's The Renaissance would have received my vote.) Em's "Crack A Bottle" collaboration with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent also won Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group, putting our first-ever predictions at 2-for-5. (We apparently overestimated the influence of Justin Timberlake on Grammy voters.)One of the early highlights was a Beyonce medley that included an angry performance of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." Did Jay-Z do something we don't know about? Jay did win the face off with B in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category, as his Kanye collabo beat hers. In fact, West had a 60 percent chance of winning, lending a hand to three of the five nominees.
In a bizarre twist, what was presented by Robert Downey Jr. as an opera performance quickly turned into a Jamie Foxx set that grew to include T-Pain, Doug E. Fresh and Slash. Foxx closed with "I apologize for the auto-tune Jay-Z." Eminem, Drake and Lil' Wayne also performed.
Beyonce finished with a record six trophies for a female artist, beating the five she, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and others had won at previous shows.
All of the hip-hop winners for this year and since 1989 can be found on our Awards Tour page.
The 411 Online has 
As always, The 411 Online is not of one mind when it comes to the end of the year honors. The Best of 2008 is our first edition since the site was retooled with an old school emphasis -- and 15th overall -- but that doesn't mean our staff's favorites are limited to that generation of artists. Q-Tip and Jay-Z represent the golden era, but Lil' Wayne, T.I. and Young Jeezy are featured as well. Keeping it simple this year, here are our picks for the Best of 2008.
People have been waiting for 10 years for this album -- literally. I still remember the day in 1998 that A Tribe Called Quest's The Love Movement, Outkast's Aquemini and Jay-Z's Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock Life arrived. Quest was easily the favorite at that time, but ended the day in third place. In some ways it felt as if the Tribe had passed the torch of consistent excellence to Outkast that day, even if the masses followed Hova from that point on. As the years passed we awaited a return. Quest or Q-Tip -- it didn't matter, just as long as it was a worthy comeback. Finally, The Renaissance has arrived. 
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