Drake has decided against participating in the 2022 Grammy Awards, withdrawing his two nominations. He was up for Best Rap Album for Certified Lover Boy and Best Rap Performance for “Way 2 Sexy.”
Variety reports that the request was made by the Canadian rapper and his management team. The Grammys complied with the request.
Drake was one of five nominees in the categories in which he was nominated. Those categories will now proceed with just four nominees instead of moving another artist up into the vacated spot.
Drake has not publicly addressed the reason for the withdrawal, and it is unclear why he chose to do so.
It’s well known that Drake has had a strained relationship with the award show. Just last year, he called for the ceremony to be reworked into “something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come,” after The Weekend failed to garner a nomination.
“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 exist now and the ones that come after.” he wrote in his Instagram Story at the time.
Further back then that, he declined to submit his More Life in 2018 and said the Grammys hold no value during his acceptance speech in 2019. Producers of the show cut his mic mid-speech.
“We play an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport,” he said. “You already won if you have people singing your songs word for word; if they’re singing in your hometown. You’re already winning; you don’t need this right here.”
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