LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Canadian rap celebrity Drake requested for his two Grammy nominations to be withdrawn this 12 months and the Recording Academy has honoured his request, a number of sources advised AFP on Monday (Dec 6).
Drake, 35, had been up for 2 rap awards at January’s ceremony, however his mega-hit album, Licensed Lover Boy, was conspicuously omitted of the overall area classes final month, and the artiste has clashed with the Academy a number of instances.
The singer can also be at the moment dealing with a number of lawsuits over a rap live performance in Texas final month throughout which 10 followers had been killed by a deadly crowd surge.
No clarification was offered by Drake’s representatives for his request.
A supply near the artiste stated the choice had been made by Drake and his administration, and had been honoured by the Grammys.
A Recording Academy supply acquainted with the request confirmed these particulars to AFP, and Drake’s nominations have been faraway from the official Grammys web site, simply as final-round poll voting started.
Drake, one of many world’s top-selling and most influential musicians, has gained 4 Grammys.
In a 2017 interview, he accused the Grammys of pigeonholing him as a rapper as a result of he’s black.
“The one class that they’ll handle to suit me in is in a rap class, possibly as a result of I’ve rapped prior to now or as a result of I am black,” he stated on Apple’s Beats 1 radio.
On the 2019 Grammys, Drake once more vented his frustration that black hip-hop artistes should not at all times given their due.
“We play in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport,” Drake stated as he accepted his lone award for Finest Rap Track for God’s Plan.
“It is a enterprise the place typically it’s as much as a bunch of individuals that may not perceive what a mixed-race child from Canada has to say.”
Different prime black artistes together with The Weeknd, Frank Ocean and Jay-Z have all slammed the Grammys as irrelevant in recent times, particularly citing its failure to recognise black artistes.
Final month, Drake was sued for having “incited mayhem” after he participated within the closing quarter-hour of American rapper Travis Scott’s headline set on the Astroworld competition – properly after authorities had declared an emergency.
The sixty fourth Grammy Awards ceremony is because of happen in Los Angeles on Jan 31.
