Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage
Drake’s music won’t be considered for the Grammys next month.
Drake, 35, and his management have withdrawn hisGrammy Awardnominations for the albumCertified Lover Boy, which was up for best rap album, and"Way 2 Sexy," which was nominated for best rap performance, PEOPLE can confirm, and the Recording Academy has honored his ask.Varietywas first to report.
In the album category, the nominees are nowJ. Cole’sThe Off Season,Nas’King’s Disease II,Tyler, the Creator’sCall Me If You Get LostandKanye West’sDonda.
The rapper’s decision comes about a year after he criticized the awards shows for notnominatingThe Weekndfor any awards after the high level of success of his albumAfter Hoursand its hit single “Blinding Lights.”
The Grammys.Michael Kovac/Getty Images
He continued, on his Instagram story, “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’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.”
Drake added at the time that now is “a great time” for someone to “start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come.”
The year prior, when “God’s Plan” took home the award for best rap song in 2019, Drake took the stage to criticize the awards show, saying that it was “the first time in Grammys history where I actually am who I thought I was for a second.”
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“I wanted to take this opportunity, while I’m up here, to just talk to all the kids who are watching this who are aspiring to do music, all my peers who make music from their heart, that do things pure and tell the truth,” he said. “I want you to knowwe play in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport. This is 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.”
“This is a business where sometimes it’s up to a bunch of people who might not understand what a mixed-race kid from Canada has to say, or a fly Spanish girl from New York, or anybody else, or a brother from Houston, my brother Travis,” he continued. “You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word,if you’re a hero in yourhometown… You don’t need this right here. I promise you.”
Varietyalso reported that he declined to submit his albumMore Lifein 2017 after JAY-Z won no awards, despite being nominated for eight.
Drake has won four Grammys before — two in 2017 for “Hotline Bling,” one in 2019 for “God’s Plan” and another in 2013 forTake Care.
source: people.com
