The backlash to the Grammys continues to grow and grow.
When Adele, the winner of Best Album award, tells you that she doesn’t deserve to win it over Beyonce, you know you’re in trouble.
As we’d mentioned previously, if Beyonce had won, she would have become only the fourth African-American woman to take home the top award, and the first since Lauryn Hill won for The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill back in 1998.
If Drake had won, Views would become only the second rap album ever to win the top prize, following in the footsteps of Outkast’s seminal 2003 album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
In fact, the Grammys have a recent history of amazing albums by black artists being overlooked:
- 2017 – Adele’s 25 beats Beyonce’s Lemonade
- 2016 – Taylor Swift’s 1987 beats Kendrick Lemar’s To Pimp A Butterfly
- 2015 – Beck’s Morning Phase beats Beyonce’s Beyonce
- 2014 – Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories beats Kendrick Lemar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
- 2013 – Mumford & Suns’ Babel beats Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange
Regardless of who deserved to win what, Drake didn’t even show up and still walked away with two Grammys, one of which was for Best Rap Song with Hotline Bling, which his fans found interesting, considering it wasn’t a rap song.
best rap song? hotline bling? rap… pic.twitter.com/rFyRO8HPli
— glitter boy (@Sawamss) February 12, 2017
Talking to DJ Semtex on OVO Sound Radio, Drake was equally bemused by the win: “Even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song, the only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category. Maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m black, I can’t figure out why. I won two awards, but I don’t even want them, because it just feels weird for some reason.”
Drake decided not to cancel his gigs in Manchester in order to go to the ceremony, but he was not the only person of note not present, with Kanye West and fellow Best Album nominee Justin Bieber also decided not to go.
Listen to Drake talk about the Grammys, as well as a host of other topics, below:
Clip via OVO Sound
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