Kanye West has signaled an ultimatum to the Grammy Awards: nominate Frank Ocean or else Yeezy will boycott the ceremony.
“The album I listened to the most this year was Frank Ocean,” he told the Oakland crowd of his Saint Pablo Tour on Saturday night (October 22). “If his album is not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammys.”
Despite being a commercial and critical success, it’s unlikely that Ocean’s Blonde (or the visual album that preceded it, Endless) will get any nominations because the projects weren’t submitted for consideration before the deadline, which he reportedly did on purpose.
Still, in his latest viral-inducing Saint Pablo monologue on Saturday, West references a precedent where the Grammys apparently changed the rules to allow Lady Gaga to be celebrated. “The Grammys secretly changed something about the nominations in order to nominate her, in order for her to perform in the show,” he explained.
The inspiration behind ‘Ye’s stance would be The Grammys’ looseness regarding the timeframe of Gaga’s The Fame album from 2008. According href=”http://www.mtv.com/news/2946464/kanye-west-frank-ocean-grammys/” target=”_blank”>to MTV, the Gaga debut was nominated for the 52nd Grammy Awards even though it was released during the timeframe for the 51st Awards. It was also re-released as The Fame Monster in 2009, which added eight new songs to the original tracklist. That album also went on to scored multiple nominations.
Gaga also inspired rule changes after being ineligible for the Best New Artist award at the 2010 ceremony. She’d been nominated the previous year for “Just Dance” and previous nominees weren’t able to be nominated in the Best New Artist category. The new rules dictate that previously nominated artists could get the consideration as long as they hadn’t already released a full album, or won in the previous category, Billboard reported in 2010.
Still, that seems to be a different situation than Ocean’s, who apparently just wasn’t interested in participating in the awards.
In 2013, Ocean’s Channel Orange was nominated for Album of the Year and won for Best Urban Contemporary Album. He was also nominated for Best New Artist but lost out to the indie pop band, fun.
The full list of nominations for the 2017 ceremony is scheduled to come out December 8. Expect a Kanye West reaction on that day as well.
Listen to the full speech below.
I’m starting not to affiliate Kanye with great production and amazing music anymore, he’s like a housewife nowadays, twitter model, reality tv star. It’s not a good look
never affiliated him with amazing music. I affiliate the 17 writers and 10 Producers he needs to create the music with amazing music
i mean college dropout was done all by himself and so was much of Late Registration and Graduation. It was after that when he wanted to go experimental when he brought in more writers and producers
Reply to justsayin3 nah Kanye west always had writers that nigga didn’t even write Jesus walks…..and now he calling himself a rap god he ain’t shit fuck that
Yeah and his lyricism was criticised on all of these Albums. but even if they wasnt criticised, he as 3 Albums then. thats an early carreer status for an Artist. Dude is overrated af
Frank Ocean did not want to submit the albums gor grammys so why does it matter?
We’re in a position where Kanye is and will be remembered for his antics rather than his music. TLOP was okay but it still wasn’t that Ye we used to rock with. Not saying he has to stay the same but something has been missing since the Good Music/MBDTF days. A person just “learning” about hip hop today will know Ye for his antics instead of the incredible music he used to put out. And that’s a shame because he really was that voice that offered a lot to the people. Now, he’s creating a legacy that’s extremely hard to rock with
Hey Kanye do us a favor and stfu nobody cares your a whiny bitch who rants thinks his music is way better than everyone else’s and u think Kim is hotter than any other girl in the world but she’s not she’s a dumb bitch that got robbed of 10 mil
“your a whiny bitch”
HIs WHAT is a whiny bitch?
“f his album is not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammys.”
Wait… let’s add up all of those negatives… if it’s NOT nominated in NO categories, he’s NOT showing up…
Translation: If it IS nominated, Kanye will NOT show up. Hm, Frank Ocean is a song-stealing douchebag, but if nominating him keeps Kanye away from the Grammies… it might be worth it.
Wow, it’s a tough decision. But really… I say we nominate Frank Ocean in NO categories… which means Kanye WILL show up, but not have a place in the proceedings.
fuck kanye west opinion he is a fucking retard