Kanye West Kicks Off 2012 Grammys With Three Wins, Fans React

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(2012 Grammy Nominees)

By Gil Kaufman

It's still unclear whether or not Kanye West will actually show up at the Staples Center in Los Angeles tonight, but he already picked up three awards during the 2012 Grammys pre-telecast. West won awards for Best Rap Album of the year, with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, (beating out his collaboration Watch the Throne with Jay-Z) in addition to Best Rap Song for "All of the Lights" and Best Rap Song Collaboration for that song's hook-up with Rihanna, Fergie and Kid Cudi.

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Kanye also beat out Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV, Lupe Fiasco's Lasers and Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday for Best Rap Album. In the category for Best Rap Song Collaboration he beat out some other major players, including Beyoncé and Andre 3000's "Party"; DJ Khaled's "I'm on One" with Drake, Rick Ross and Wayne; Eminem, Dr. Dre and Skylar Grey's "I Need a Doctor"; Rihanna's "What's My Name" featuring Drake; and the Kelly Rowland/Weezy duet "Motivation."

"Everybody's working hard and he's definitely another big artist in the game," Tyga told MTV News' Sway on the Grammy red carpet when news broke about the West wins. With 17 nominations for the YMCMB crew, label boss Baby didn't have much to add about West's win, though Weezy had plenty to say in a pre-Grammy freestyle in which he took shots at West and Jigga.

Fans took to Twitter to react after Kanye's initial wins.

He2Wavvy Rapper Alive Kanye West #Yeezy #MrWest #GRAMMYs

shadowoolu Kanye West has already won half the number of Grammys Whitney Houston won in her career before the Grammys even started

cadencebeats Kanye West is about to clean up at these Grammys.

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/02/12/2012-grammys-kanye-west-win-three-wins-awards/]View the full article[/url]