Canadian rapper, Aubrey Drake Graham, affectionately known as Drake has reportedly withdrawn his 2022 Grammy nominations. This was revealed by a rep of the Recording Academy who revealed that reps for Drake did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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According to sources online, Drake and his management made the decision, and the Grammys fulfilled his request, though his motivation was unclear at the time of publishing.
As a reminder, Drake was one of five nominees for Best Rap Album, for “Certified Lover Boy,” and for Best Rap Performance, for his song “Way 2 Sexy” featuring Future and Young Thug.
Drake’s nominations, on the other hand, were uncommon. While it’s unclear whether he decided not to submit the hit “Certified Lover Boy” or any tracks from it for the big categories Album, Song, or Record of the Year, his absence from any of those categories on the preliminary ballot, which covers thousands of releases, suggests he did. He definitely chose to enter and was nominated for the two rap categories from which he has now withdrawn.
However, some thought that his decision was influenced by the fact that he was mentioned in lawsuits stemming from last month’s tragedy at the Astroworld event in Houston, where ten people were killed after a crowd erupted during headliner Travis Scott’s set, which included a surprise appearance by Drake. Drake, on the other hand, is set to appear alongside Kanye West at the “Free Larry Hoover” benefit concert in Los Angeles on Thursday, making that explanation seem doubtful.
Drake has long been at loggerheads with the Recording Academy following the awards scheme’s refusal to include fellow Canadian musician, the Weeknd in any of its 2021 categories, despite him having one of the best albums and songs of 2020.
He urged for them to be replaced with something fresh that we can build up through time and pass on to future generations.
“I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artist that exists now and the ones that come after,” he wrote on his IG page.
“It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just won’t change their ways. The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way. This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come, he added.
It would be vividly recalled in 2017 that the rapper declined to submit his ” “More Life” for any 2018 Grammy awards, even though it qualified; the rancor around that year’s show intensified after Jay-Z won no awards despite being nominated for eight.
Drake also made fun of the Grammys during his acceptance speech for “God’s Plan,” which won Best Rap Song in 2019. After claiming that prizes have no meaning, the producers of the awards presentation cut off his microphone.