First Ariana Grande and now Drake, Childish Gambino AND Kendrick Lamar – all four super talented artists will NOT be performing at the 2019 GRAMMY awards which is such a huge shame!

 

Drake and Kendrick have the most GRAMMY nominations this year and they both declined to perform.  Kendrick leads the way with eight nominations, Drake has seven and Childish Gambino has five.  According to Ken Ehrlich, who is the show’s producer (and the same dude Ariana now has beef with) told The New York Times ‘he offered the rappers possible slots on the show and was rebuffed.’  He says, “The fact of the matter is, we continue to have a problem in the hip-hop world.  When they don’t take home the big prize, the regard of the academy, and what the GRAMMYs represent, continues to be less meaningful to the hip-hop community, which is sad.”

 

 

According to CNN, “In 2017, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said in an interview with Pitchfork that he didn’t think there was a race problem.”  Neil explained, “We don’t, as musicians, in my humble opinion, listen to music based on gender or race or ethnicity.  When you go to vote on a piece of music – at least the way that I approach it – is you almost put a blindfold on and you listen.”

 

As Billboard points out, “Over the years, the award show has “alienated” hip-hop stars after they lose in the prestigious categories, including song of the year, record of the year and album of the year. All three hip-hop artists are nominated throughout the general field categories this year.”

 

 

This isn’t the first time Drake pulled out of the GRAMMYs.  As Pitchfork explains, “Drake did not submit his playlist More Life for Grammy consideration last year.  Previously, at the 2017 Grammys, Drake won Best Rap Song and Best Rap / Sung Collaboration for ‘Hotline Bling.’  He did not attend the ceremony that year and, in an interview following his victories, criticized the Grammys: ‘Even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song … the only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category.'”

 

The GRAMMYs go down tomorrow night! Catch them live on CityTV at 8PM!

Filed under: Childish Gambino, Drake, GRAMMYs, Kendrick Lamar