Canadian rapper and producer Aubrey Graham, popularly known as Drake, has asked the Recording Academy to withdraw his nominations from 2022 Grammy Awards consideration.
Drake got two nominations in this year’s Grammys; Best Rap Performance for ‘Way 2 Sexy’ and Best Rap Album for ‘Certified Lover Boy’.
So far, the four-time Grammy Award winner has not made a statement regarding the withdrawal. The Recording Academy however obliged his request to be withdrawn.
This means there will now be only four nominees in each of the affected categories.
For a while, Drake has been critical of the Grammys.
Part of the uproar over the award-nominations process and its use of so-called ‘nominating committees’ last year was when Drake’s compatriot, The Weeknd, didn’t get any nominations despite having some of the year’s most critically acclaimed and popular work.
When the Weeknd received no nominations, Drake wrote on his Instagram page last year saying;
“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 artist that exist now and the ones that come after. It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just won’t change their ways.”