Drake is defending The Weeknd after he received zero nominations for the upcoming 63rd Grammy Awards.
The “Laugh Now Cry Later” emcee took to Instagram on Wednesday (Nov. 25) and called out the Recording Academy once After Hours did not receive any nods. He believes there is a “disconnect” between the awards show and influential music.
“I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists [who] exist now and the ones [who] come after,” Drake wrote. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up, but they just can’t change their ways.”
“The other day, I said [The Weeknd] was a lock for either album or song of the year, along with countless other reasonable assumptions, and it just never goes that way,” he continued.
Drake then called on the new generation to make a change and suggested that an alternative award show be created. “This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come,” he wrote.
In a follow-up Instagram story, he tagged the names of artists who he felt were snubbed for certain Grammy nominations. “[Lil Baby], [Pop Smoke], [PARTYNEXTDOOR], [Popcaan] — too many missing names to even name,” he concluded.
On Tuesday (Nov. 24), The Weeknd publicly accused the Grammys of being tainted after he did not receive any nominations. “The Grammys remain corrupt,” he wrote. “You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”
Harvey Mason Jr., Recording Academy chief, responded to claims by saying that the nominations are decided from votes from their peers in the industry. “Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists,” he said. “But as the only peer-voted music award, we will continue to recognize and celebrate excellence in music while shining a light on the many amazing artists that make up our global community.”
Check out Drake’s posts below.
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