Drake has withdrawn his two Grammy nominations for the forthcoming 2022 ceremony.
The rapper was up for Best Rap Album for ‘Certified Lover Boy‘ and Best Rap Performance for his song ‘Way 2 Sexy’ featuring Future and Young Thug.
But the rapper and his management have withdrawn both nominations and there will be no replacement nominees in the two categories, according to Variety.
It is unclear as to why Drake has withdrawn his nominations at this stage.
It comes after the Recording Academy rescinded the names of Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff and Annie Clark – aka St. Vincent – as part of the list of nominees on Olivia Rodrigo‘s 2022 Album Of The Year Grammy nomination for her debut ‘Sour’.
Swift, Antonoff and Clark were originally listed as part of the credited writers for the nomination, given Swift’s 2019 single ‘Cruel Summer’ was interpolated on Rodrigo’s top-five 2021 single ‘deja vu’.
Both Swift and Antonoff were also credited for Rodrigo’s song ‘1 step forward, 3 steps back’, which interpolates Swift’s 2017 song ‘New Years Day’. This was done in accordance with the Academy’s new rule that everyone who served as a credited songwriter on an album nominated in the category shares the nomination.
The Academy have since, however, changed this rule to reflect those that directly wrote songs for the album – as opposed to those whose work is interpolated or referenced.
This rescinded nomination from a Grammys category follows on from Marilyn Manson‘s quiet removal from Kanye West‘s Best Rap Song nomination. The change was made due to the nomination changing from ‘Jail Pt. 2’ – which features Manson on backing vocals and a verse from controversial rapper DaBaby – to ‘Jail’, which features Jay-Z.
Meanwhile, Drake previously criticised the Grammys last year after The Weeknd didn’t receive a single nomination for ‘After Hours’.
The rapper said at the time he thinks “we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards”.
He continued: “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.”
Drake then tagged other artists overlooked for a nomination, including Lil Baby, Pop Smoke and Popcaan, adding, “too many missing names to even name.”