Drake was nominated for several Grammys this year, but he didn’t even show up to perform, present or gather up the two Grammys he ended up winning. He was nominated for “Hotline Bling,” the cheesy, entertaining song which was everywhere last year. If you go back and listen to “Hotline Bling,” you might realize… oh right, Drake sings the entire song. He’s not rapping. So why was “Hotline Bling” nominated in the rap categories? That was one of the big reasons why Drake didn’t even bother to go to the Grammys this year, because he thinks the Recording Academy needs to get their house in order. He sat down for an interview with Apple Music’s OVO Sound radio show, and this is some of what he said:
As a multifaceted Canadian recording artist, he feels like an outsider: “I ever feel like an outsider, it’s usually because I’m not American. That’s when I feel like people are against me. I guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have quite an eclectic makeup. I am mixed, I am Jewish… at the end of the day, when it comes to everything else, I’m black.”
He didn’t get why “Hotline Bling” was considered a rap song: “I am referred to as a black artist, like last night at [the Grammys], I’m a black artist… I’m apparently a rapper, even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song. The only category they can manage to fit me in is in a rap category, maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m black. I can’t figure out why.”
He didn’t get why “One Dance” (his biggest hit in America) was snubbed: “There’s pop obligations they have, and I fluked out. I fluked out and got one of the biggest songs of the year that is a pop song and I’m proud of that. I love the rap world and I love the rap community… I write pop songs for a reason. I want to be like Michael Jackson. I want to be like artists that I looked up to. Those are pop songs, but I never get any credit for that. By the way, I’m speaking to you as a winner from last night. I won two awards last night, but I don’t even want them because it just feels weird for some reason. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I feel almost alienated, or [like they’re] trying to purposely alienate me by making me win rap awards or pacify me by handing me something and putting me in that category because it’s the only place where you can figure out where to put me.”
So, let’s get this straight: there are now a dozen major (black) artists saying (in so many words) that they feel like the Recording Academy is forcibly marginalizing their contributions to music. Those artists include but are not limited to: Beyonce, Drake, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar and more. #GrammysSoWhite and #GrammysSoRacist should be bigger things and changes absolutely need to be made. I didn’t even realize that Drake’s pop songs were nominated in rap categories, which is like Beyonce’s Lemonade only winning in “Urban” categories. The Recording Academy is explicitly telling black artists: stay in your lane, your music isn’t as important as white artists’ music. But in an interview with Recording Academy president Neil Portnow last week, he said “No, I don’t think there’s a race problem at all.” Sure thing. This needs to be a bigger story.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN, screencap from ‘Hotline Bling’.
Who decides which category the songs belong to? Is it the Recording Acedemy? I always thought it’s like with the Oscars, where the studio decides which categories they want to be in.
The studio does not the recording academy.
The Recording Academy has veto power though. They didn’t allow Beyonce’s ‘Daddy Lessons’ into the country category. I do think they’re the driving force behind marginalizing black artists.
Frank Ocean got it right. More artists need to follow his lead and just say bye to the Recording Academy and its Grammy Show. It’s crazy because so much of American music has its roots in the black experience.
I get what he’s saying and I do believe there is a race problem within the recording academy BUT the recording academy doesn’t pick and choose which songs get nominated in which categories. They’re submitted by the artist or the studio for specific categories and then based on the submissions for the specific categories, they choose the nominees. For example, Beyonce’s team submitted her music to Urban. Drake’s team submitted his song to the rap category. Maybe if they hadn’t done that they wouldn’t have gotten nominated but then if that were to happen then that’s all the proof you need. But when your team is the one doing the submitting, then you can’t really blame the recording academy itself.
That’s actually not true. Artists simply submit their work, and then the Academy places them into categories. From the Grammy website:
The process begins with members and record companies submitting entries, which are then screened for eligibility and category placement. The Academy’s voting members, all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording, then participate in (1) the nominating process that determines the five finalists in each category; and (2) the final voting process which determines the GRAMMY winners.
@Caity thank you for the clarification. I was under the impression all these years that it’s the studio and the artist that picks the categories they want to be placed in and then academy goes from there similar to the Academy awards.
Having read more from their website you are 100% correct.
I’ve submit work (design and art) for awards and have had it happen that I choose a category and then get a call from the organization I submit to saying they feel I should be in a different category. They then move my work into the category they think is the better fit. Perhaps that happened here?
Never mind
@Rosie, if I understand you correctly, the process is like this: You choose your own category, but if the Academy disagrees with it, they call you if they can change it? What happens if you say no, do you stay in your category, but (like Sam said) don’t get nominated? Or do they just say that then you can’t even be in the running?
ETA: Caity already explained above. Thanks guys.
Maybe he tried to submit his song in the pop category, but was rejected. My understanding is that artists can request which category they want to be placed in but it’s ultimately up to the academy to decide. I remember years ago Kate Winslet campaigned for Best Supporting Actress for The Reader, but was nominated ( and won) best lead actress, because the academy felt it was a leading role. I know that was the Oscars, and we’re talking about the Grammys, but it might work the same way.
You are not wrong, but maybe they are forced to submit to those categories because there is no other way for their artists to win? The pop and mainstream categories are dominated by white artists, the Academy finalizes, out of the million submissions they get, who actually gets nominated, in saying that studios probably feel that black artists just won’t have a chance at even getting a nomination if they are in the pop categories.
Check out the NY times article about a grammy committee meeting to figure out what music belongs where. In particular, they had an issue with one of Beyonce’s songs being in the rock category. So, yes, they are not passively making these choices rather, their bias is in full view and they have no interest in any kind of self inquiry.
The irony is that Black cultural producers have been at the forefront of music innovation throughout America’s history.
Beyonce, Rihanna and Bruno Mars all put out albums last year so I’m doubting they’ll have new ones by the end of 2018 cut off date but I also dont see them attending either. Rihanna was already a reluctant attendee and I believe Beyonce is done with their clowning. Drake, Kanye and Frank Ocean are already in the mix. I think we have the makings of a very damaging boycott here.
They just need to articulate the grievance and their demands effectively. The categories need an overhaul and new recruitment strategy for the recording academy voters. (One of the ironies of the current system is because black musicians are shoved in the urban categories, there are fewer black nominees and therefore fewer new voters who are black). Its a biased system that builds more bias into itself with every passing year.
ITA, the recording academy is “ghettoisng” and “otherisng” black music, and it’s not okay.
On A totally unrelated note, I really can’t with Drake and his “outsider” shtick. His thing has always been “look at me, I came up from nothing and made it without a record contract.” Yeah… but… you were Jimmy on Degrassi. Degrassi, which is essentially “Pretty, Rich White Kids With Problems.” I can understand his “outsider” perspective based on the fact that he was one of the only people of color on that show, but he was still on a highly watched teen drama before he decided to become a musician. It’s not exactly a Cinderella story.
If I recall correctly, his girlfriend (or one of them) is black in Degrassi, Her name was Hazel, I’m not sure if she was one of Main Characters, but she was besties with Paige.
I never thought my knowledge of Degrassi would ever come up in a conversation, lol.
Do you think being the sixth lead on a Canadian teen soap is big money? Do you really think you can translate that to a rap career. Especially given how hypermasculin rap music was by the late 00s. And how Drake’s image has always been the emotional half black Jewish kid from Canada. You can criticize Drake for a lot of things. But you can’t really credit Degrassi for his musically success. Who’s even close to his fame level from that show in acting let alone music.
I’m not saying he was making big money, not at all. I’m saying I side-eye all the credit he gives himself for being an entirely self-made artist a la “started from the bottom now we here,” when the “bottom” is actually Degrassi
I believe he said most of his Degrassi money was gone when he started his music career. And let’s be honest, until his first hit, he was being derided as “wheechair Jimmy trying to rap” in regards to his fledging music career. So I get why he sees himself as an outsider. People quickly jump on the bandwagon and embrace you AFTER you’ve proven yourself. I’m sure Drake still remembers all the “wheelchair Jimmy from Degrassi” cracks, though. A lot of music insiders and rap fans expected him to fail and were ready to drag him for it.
I don’t think Degrassi was big money- one of the kids went to my high school and he seemed pretty ordinary.
Worth pointing out, too, though, that even without Degrassi, Drake didn’t start at the “bottom.” He grew up in the Forest Hill are of Toronto, which means $$$.
@Shambles…so a mixed Jewish guy from Canada who was on a kids show is not an outsider in hip hop/rap world? You’re kidding, right? A super hyper-masculine world no less & here comes Drake. I understand what’s he saying. He didn’t say he pulled himself up from nothing, he said he felt like an outsider because he didn’t fit neatly into any box.
He did not grow up poor. I don’t know why people think that. He grew up in a nice suburb of Toronto.
It is entirely possible to live in a fairly nice neighborhood and be broke. My parents bought a house in a nice, quiet part of town. When they split up, my mother had to buy out my father in order to keep the house for me and her to live in, plus she had to pay off my father’s credit card debt. End result: a single mother (with a good job but with an ex husband who didn’t pay child support) raising a teenager in a nice part of town but with absolutely no money for extras, like plumbers. I think Drake has said that his dad was in and out of jail so he probably wasn’t paying child support. I’m willing to bet that Drake’s Degrassi money went towards living expenses for him and his mom.
This is all so disgusting. I am amazed at all the passes the Grammy’s gets for this.
Given that African-American citizens have made the BIGGEST contributions to music in the last 200 or so years (gospel, jazz in all its glorious forms, rock-n-roll, blues, rhythm and blues, pop–Motown anyone?), it’s a travesty that many of these contributors have never been honored by the Grammies. It’s the main the reason I stopped watching or caring about them years ago.
White privilege is still very much a thing. Twice as good to get half as far. :/
+1…
He wasn’t even rapping in that song. But I wouldn’t call what he was doing singing either and I’m shocked it was nominated for anything at all.
Edited to add that I would love to see all of these pointless award shows eliminated. They are a waste of time and money. If the fans like your music or acting they will award you money to see and hear you do your talent in the arena or platform of the artists choosing. Why do stars need statues for doing their job? They are rich. Thats their award.
I’m surprised some of these artists even bother submitting their work at this point. What happened to Beyoncé and Kendrick was just plain wrong. I hope there’s some kind of boycott next year then it can be a “white out” like the oscars. Maybe then change will come to the voting process. Solange pointing out that only two black artists have won AOTY in 20 years is appalling and shameful.