Drake slams the Grammys for overlooking The Weeknd

They were rumored to be feuding in recent years after once being show-stopping collaborators.

But Drake confirmed that all was well with him and The Weeknd on Wednesday as he came to his defense over his Grammy Awards snub.

After The Weeknd, 30, was completely shut out of the nominations, the 34-year-old rapper said he thought the singer had been ‘a lock’ for ‘album or song of the year’ in an Instagram Stories post.

Drake shared a lengthy text post against a blue background in which he pondered whether it might be time to move on from the Grammys.

‘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 that exist now and the ones that come after,’ he began.

‘It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways. The other day I said @theweekend 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.

‘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.’ 

The In My Feelings rapper seemed to think that the Grammys structure might insulate it from any attempts to reform it, so he suggested putting stock in a new alternative. 

Drake is no stranger to being snubbed by the Grammys himself, as his nominations and wins have rarely corresponded with the popularity of his music or the critical acclaim he has received.

In 2018, his album Scorpion was certified platinum before it was even released on the strong sales of its advance singles, and it broke Spotify’s single-day record for global streams on its first day in release.

It became his eighth album in a row to debut atop the Billboard 200 album chart.

However, the album received mixed reviews from critics, and it was shut out for the Rap Album of the Year award at the Grammys.

In a follow-up post, the Hotline Bling rapper also mentioned Lil Baby, the late Pop Smoke, PartyNextDoor and Popcaan as artists who had been overlooked by the influential award ceremony.

‘Too many missing names to even name…’ he wrote.

The Weeknd (real name: Abel Tesfaye) rose to prominence with his acclaimed trilogy of mix tapes in 2011, including House Of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes Of Silence, but his guest spots on Drake’s 2011 album Take Care introduced him to a larger fan base.

The singer’s most recent album, After Hours, debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart and earned the best first-week sales of any album in 2020, according to Billboard.

Since the Grammy nominations were announced, The Weekend has complained that the awards are ‘corrupt,’ and he has suggested that his decision to perform at the Super Bowl, only a week after the Grammys, might have influenced the nomination process.

‘Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited?’ he wrote. ‘In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited.’ 

According to TMZ, the Grammy organizers had required The Weeknd to skip Super Bowl LV, before eventually allowing him to perform at both events. 

But insiders familiar with the artist believe that the shut-out was related to the negotiations.

Recording Academy interim chief Harvey Mason, Jr. responded to the singer’s public complaints in a statement to Rolling Stone in which he admitted that he was ‘surprised’ that The Weeknd had been overlooked, though he claimed that voting had concluded before the Super Bowl performance had been announced.