Three Of Our Favs Who Have Called Out The Grammys & Were Nominated After

Throughout the years, numerous artists have expressed discontent with the Grammys, highlighting various issues within the music industry’s premier awards ceremony.  Complaints often revolve around concerns of transparency in the nomination and voting processes, alleged biases, and a lack of diversity in nominees and winners.  Jay-Z made headlines during this year’s 66th Annual Grammy Awards when he called out the Recording Academy during his Dr. Dre Global Impact Award speech for failing to honor his wife, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, with Album of the Year, despite her being the most Grammy-awarded artist in history. Unfortunately, many of his fellow artists have voiced their concerns with the award show. Ironically, several of them have continued to be nominated even after expressing their disdain. 

The Weeknd

The Weekend released his “After Hours” album in March 2020, and surprisingly, the project did not earn a single Grammy nomination when they were unveiled in late 2020 for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, which aired in March 2021.  The Weeknd called out the award show on Twitter, writing, “The Grammys remain corrupt.  You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”

https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1331394452447870977?lang=en

While there appeared to be bad blood between the Canadian pop and R&B singer, he scored a nomination during April 2022’s 64th Annual Grammy Awards for “Hurricane,” in which he was featured with Kanye West.  The track won Best Melodic Rap Performance.  He was also nominated for Album of the Year for Kanye’s “Donda” and Album of the Year for his work on Doja Cat’s “Planet Her.”

Drake

Since at least 2014, Drake has been a critic of the Grammys, especially after  Macklemore won Best Rap Album for “The Heist” at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. The win was controversial because he beat out “Magna Carter Holy Grail” by Jay-Z, “Yeezus” by Kanye West, “Nothing Was The Same” by Drake, and “Good Kid, MAAd City” by Kendrick Lamar. Macklemore even agreed that Kendrick Lamar deserved the award and texted him to let him know how he felt. 

Then, in 2019, while accepting his award for Best Rap Song at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards for his track “God’s Plan,” Drake took the opportunity to drag the Recording Academy. 

“I wanna let you know we’re playing in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport.  So it’s not the NBA where at the end of the year you’re holding a trophy because you made the right decisions or won the games,” he said while holding his trophy, before adding, “If there’s people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don’t need this right here. I promise you, you already won.” 

Drake’s speech was abruptly cut off, though the Grammys maintained that he was simply done speaking.  Despite his fallout with the ceremony, that did not deter the Recording Academy from honoring Drake with nominees during the 62nd, 63rd, and 65th Grammys, where he won Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Wait For U,” which he was featured with Future and Tems. He also earned nominations at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards Show. 

Nicki Minaj

In October 2022, Nicki Minaj called out the Grammys for allegedly placing her record, “Super Freaky Girl,” in the pop category after initially having it in a rap category. In a tweet, Nicki even referenced Latto’s single, “Big Energy,” which was nominated as a rap song despite being looked at as a pop record.

“If SFG (‘Super Freaky Girl’) has 2B moved out RAP then so does Big Energy!  ANY1 who says diff is simply a Nicki hater or a troll,” she wrote in a tweet.

I have no prob being moved out the RAP category as long as we r ALL being treated FAIRLY. If SFG has 2B moved out RAP then so does Big Energy! ANY1 who says diff is simply a Nicki hater or a troll. I’d actually LUV 2 c a more street record win- male OR female! IJS rightIsRight 🫡

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) October 13, 2022

Ironically, when the 65th Grammy Awards nominations were unveiled, Nicki’s name nor “Super Freaky Girl” were in any category.  It’s unknown why the song was removed altogether. However, Nicki earned a nod after this drama during the 66th ceremony for her “Barbie World” record from the “Barbie” soundtrack.  The cut featured Ice Spice and was nominated for Best Song Written For Visual Media and Best Rap Song, though sadly, it did not win.