Kanye To Boycott Grammys Over Frank Ocean Nominations
Last night, during the Oakland stop on his “Saint Pablo Tour,” Kanye West interrupted his performance of “Wolves” to announce to the crowd that he would boycott February’s Grammys show over Frank Ocean nominations.
While it is not rare for West to interrupt his own show, this particular interruption differed from typical West discussion as it centered around an artist other than himself.
“I’ll tell you this right now, if his album [Ocean’s] is not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammy’s,” said West.
Ocean released two projects this year; Blonde a 17-track album and Endless a visual album. Even though both projects were released before the Grammy eligibility deadline date, representatives for Ocean did not submit his work for his review.
The reasons for which Ocean’s camp failed to submit his work for consideration are unclear. While unlikely, it is possible that Ocean’s representatives simply made a mistake, unintentionally not submitting Blonde and Endless through an oversight or confusion. The more likely scenario is that Ocean is continuing to go against industry standards and is intentionally keeping his projects away from Grammy nominations.
Ocean released his first studio album Channel Orange to critical acclaim on July 10, 2012. Channel Orange won the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Following Channel Orange, Ocean went into relative seclusion, only appearing occasionally on other artists songs and remaining out of the public eye, not releasing new music and rarely granting interviews.
After four long years, hype began to build about a new studio album from Ocean in July of this year. Throughout the summer, Ocean teased the public, missing several speculated release dates. Without press or public announcement, Ocean released his visual album Endless via livestream on August, 19, seemingly out of the blue. Ocean’s second studio album Blonde was then released August, 20 to mass public anticipation.
Like Channel Orange, Blonde lived up to its hype, receiving critical acclaim and gaining immense popularity, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. With features from Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, and James Blake, Blonde featured exceptional storytelling, masterful vocals, and a truly unique sound that would have surely been up for several Grammy Awards had it been submitted for nomination. In typical Ocean fashion, he has not done any interviews to promote Blonde.
West, who will more than likely receive Grammy nominations this year for The Life of Pablo, has never been shy about publicly campaigning for those he admires. West infamously interrupted Taylor Swift’s award speech during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to campaign for Beyonce, saying that she instead deserved the award for Best Female Video, not Swift.
West has gone public about his support for Ocean in the past, releasing a series of tweets in August, praising the R & B crooner. In these tweets, West urged radio stations to play Ocean songs and support amazing artists like him.
Further into West’s speech last night in Oakland, he referenced a situation in which the Grammys and the Recording Academy have made exceptions to rules regarding award nominations before. West sited the 2010 Grammys as an example. West explained that the those in charge made it a point to nominate Lady Gaga for Best New Artist even if rules had to be tweaked because she was one of the shows opening performers.
With West’s support and growing support from the public, it will be interesting to see if Ocean’s camp responds to the Grammy nomination controversy, regardless of the initial intention of the failure to submit Blonde and Endless for consideration.
The 59th annual Grammy awards will take place on February 12, 2017.
[Featured Image by Scott Roth/Invision/AP Images]
