Cyrus Langhorne
OVO Sound leader Drake, Kanye West and Justin Bieber won’t pop up at the Grammy Awards this year. The trio are reportedly falling back on the prestigious ceremony.
According to reports, they don’t feel any serious urge to change plans and end up at the awards show.
We’re told Justin Bieber, who’s nominated for 4 Grammys, plans to be somewhere other than the Grammys a week from Sunday. As for why, we’re told he just doesn’t think the Grammys are relevant or representative, especially when it comes to young singers. Drake has 8 nominations but we’re told he also doesn’t plan to be there … we’re told he’ll be on tour in Europe. As for Kanye, who’s got 8 noms, he received 21 Grammys in the past, but he always lost when he went head-to-head against a white singer. (TMZ)
Back in November, singer Frank Ocean talked about his issues with the Grammy Awards.
“That institution certainly has nostalgic importance,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down.” He noted that since he was born, just a few black artists have won album of the year, including Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock and Ray Charles. … I think the infrastructure of the awarding system and the nomination system and screening system is dated. I’d rather this be my Colin Kaepernick moment for the Grammys than sit there in the audience.” (New York Times)
Weeks prior, Kanye threatened to boycott the upcoming Grammy Awards if the organization did not nominate Blonde.
“Wait, wait, hold up while I speak on my brother for a second. My brother Frank Ocean. So, you know they didn’t put his album in the Grammy nomination, right? So, I don’t know if any of y’all remember but I was supposed to go on a tour with [Lady] Gaga about six, seven years ago – it was something where she was nominated. She wasn’t nominated for ‘Best Artist’ but they wanted her to open so the Grammys secretly changed something about the nominations in order to nominate her for her to perform at the show. Now, Frank Ocean on the other hand, is very vocal and his album wasn’t nominated for a Grammy. And since it’s vocal, nobody wants to say nothing about, no one wants to do nothing about and I’m saying this to y’all because a lot of people try to make it as if I’m self-centered. The album I listen to the most this year is Frank Ocean’s album. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you this right now. If his album’s not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammys. As artists, we have to come together to fight the bullsh*t they’ve been doing to us for years. All we need is a fair shot.”
Buzz recently developed about Ocean not submitting his Blonde album in time for Grammys consideration.
Why didn’t Frank Ocean submit his albums Endless and Blonde for Grammy consideration? Perhaps, as SPIN’s Brian Josephs argued, it’s because the Grammys always get it wrong, and Ocean isn’t the kind of guy to humble himself in front of a Recording Academy that picked 1989 over To Pimp a Butterfly. (SPIN)
