Many didn't even win the contest
At the 2012 ceremony, she had made Grammy history as the first solo female rapper to perform at the ceremonies, premiering ‘Roman Holiday.’ However, her exorcism-themed performance and the fake Pope she had on the red carpet were controversial with the American Catholic League…
If the name Ken Ehrlich sounds familiar, it’s probably because Ariana Grande also called him out on Twitter in 2019, the year she neither performed at nor attended the Grammys due to a disagreement about what song she would perform.
Some suspected that the reason for his snub was because of reportedly tense negotiations over whether he could play at both the January 31 Grammy ceremony and the Super Bowl halftime show a week later. They’d agreed he’d play both, but that’s obviously not going to happen now.
When word got out about Grande not performing despite having been scheduled to, Ehrich went to the press and claimed, “she felt it was too late for her to pull something together for sure. And it’s too bad. She’s a great artist.” Though that wasn’t her side of the story…
Despite his four nominations for 2021, Justin Bieber also took to social media to criticize the Recording Academy for nominating his album 'Changes' for Best Pop Vocal Album, the "pop" part being his main grievance.
He went on to say everything "from the chords to the melodies to the vocal style all the way down to the hip hop drums that were chosen it is undeniably, unmistakably an R&B Album!" He also clarified he loves pop music and is still grateful.
After the 2021 nominees were announced, Wiz Khalifa went on a tweet-spree. Responding to a tweet that asked, “Do you think Abel was snubbed?” he responded, “Yea that's a surprise but [it's] politics. If you don't show up to their parties they don't throw your name around.”
In 2012, his albums 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' and 'Watch the Throne' were both snubbed from the Album of the Year nomination. In concert, Kanye said, "Since when was making art about getting rich? ... Remind me again why we in this sh*t? Remind me again why the Grammys [can] suck my d*ck."
In 2020, Kanye shocked his Twitter followers when he shared, as part of his rant against the music industry, a video of himself peeing on one of the 21 Grammys he's won throughout his career. So, his opinions are clear.
The artist's mother tweeted a section of a New York Times article with the caption "this says it all," and it read: "Of the 899 people to be nominated for Grammy awards in the past six years, only nine per cent were women. (This year, Lorde is the only woman nominated for album of the year; she is not scheduled to perform.)"
The show silenced him and the broadcast cut to commercial before he finished speaking. Ken Ehrich had told the New York Times a week earlier that Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Childish Gambino declined to perform during the event, but framed this "problem in the hip-hop world" as something that happens "when they don't take home the big prize." Drake proved that false!
He's taken many swipes at the Recording Academy in his career, and notably hasn't shown up since 2015 when he jokingly almost stormed the stage after Beck beat Beyonce for Album of the Year. In an interview with E!, however, he said, "The Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We aren't going to play with them no more."
While accepting the Grammy award for Best Rap Song in 2019, Drake had a message for aspiring musicians: "I wanna let you know we're playing in an opinion-based sport not a factual-based sport." He also alluded to the Recording Academy's problematic track record with hip hop and artists of color, and emphasized that success is in the fan response.
A year after the #GrammysSoMale hashtag and the comment from Neil Portnow, then-longtime chief executive of the Recording Academy, about women in the industry needing to "step up," Dua Lipa made a thinly veiled criticism while accepting the Best New Artist award.
The artists haven't shown up to the Grammys for a few years either, not even to collect their award. Jay-Z boycotted the ceremony in 1999, as he told MTV News back then, "I didn't think they gave the rightful respect to hip-hop." He couldn't believe DMX wasn't nominated that year.
She gave a shout-out to her fellow female nominees and said, "I guess this year we really stepped up." She noted backstage that the number of female artists nominated was a huge difference from previous years, and "it's a change we hope to see for many years to come."
Former chief executive of the Recording Academy Deborah Dugan detailed accusations of harassment, favoritism, and bullying within the Academy after having just worked there five months, GQ reports. The Academy tried to throw their own accusations at her, but she launched a 44-page complaint that accused them of retaliating against her "for uncovering misconduct including sexual harassment, voting irregularities and rampant conflicts of interest among board members."
Will Smith and DJ Jeff Townes won the first Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1989, but they also boycotted the event that year due to racial inequality within the academy. They told ET they didn't have a problem with the awards, but rather the design of the show.
The hip-hop group also participated in the 1989 boycott, along with Salt-N-Pepa, Slick Rick, and Russell Simmons, but they did it again in 1991 when they were nominated for Best Rap Performance but found out that this category wasn't televised.
Drake, who has criticized the Grammys in the past, came to The Weeknd's defense on Instagram: "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 wrote. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways.”
Tiffany Haddish revealed that she had been invited to host the Grammys Awards Premiere ceremony but turned down the offer after being told she would have to pay her own way and receive no compensation in return. “I don’t know if this might mean I might not get nominated ever again, but I think it’s disrespectful,” Haddish told Variety, adding that, "It’s like a guy asking you on a date but telling you that you have to pay for it.” She's nominated for her second Grammy this year for best comedy album for Netflix’s 'Black Mitzvah.'
Recording Academy interim chief Harvey Mason, jr. posted a public apology on social media, and said he'd apologized to Haddish personally as well. He claimed he was not aware of the offer made. “I’m frustrated by that decision," he said, "I’m part of the creative community and I know what that feels like, and it’s not right.”
Former One Direction member Zayn Malik was another artist completely snubbed by the awards. He aired his frustrations online: “F–k the grammys and everyone associated. Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations,” he tweeted on March 9. “Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary.”
In a historic 2021 move, the Grammys ditched the small, anonymous review committees, and started basing nominations solely on thousands of votes from the academy's voting members. Many credit The Weeknd with stirring this change, but the singer said he will continue to boycott the show. "The trust has been broken for so long between the Grammy organization and artists that it would be unwise to raise a victory flag," he told Variety. He admitted it's "an important start" but added that we must see the transparency work before we can celebrate it. For now, he says, "I remain uninterested in being a part of the Grammys, especially with their own admission of corruption for all these decades. I will not be submitting [my music] in the future."
Drake has made his skepticism clear for a few years now. In December, it was announced that he had withdrawn his two 2022 Grammy nominations. According to Variety, Drake and his management made the decision to withdraw his nomination for Best Rap Album ('Certified Lover Boy') and Best Rap Performance (for 'Way 2 Sexy'), and though it came late in the game, the Grammys honored the request.
The Grammys have been criticized for being an antiquated institution that is too out of touch to properly engage with genres like rap and hip hop. Quavo, of the highly-successful rap trio Migos, expressed this very sentiment in conversation with TMZ. He said that the Grammys mean nothing and that it's time to create a new award that appreciates the real music that's being made "in the streets." Quavo referred to J. Prince, the founder of Rap-A-Lot Records, who called for artists like Kanye "Ye" West, Drake, and Nicki Minaj to put on a competing concert on the same night of the Grammys.
He added that he had assumed The Weeknd was going to be nominated for album or song of the year, "along with countless other reasonable assumptions," mentioning artists like Popcaan, Lil Baby, Pop Smoke, and PartyNextDoor, "and it just never goes that way." He suggested someone create a new award show to build up "and pass on to the generations to come.”
The Weeknd, AKA Abel Tesfaye, has been one of the loudest voices of criticism and even announced that he would no longer be submitting his music to the famed awards show. He was not present at the 2022 ceremony, even though he and fellow absentee Kanye "Ye" West picked up the Best Melodic Rap Performance award for their collab on the 'Donda' track 'Hurricane.' In a hilarious act of rebellion, on the night of the 2022 Grammys Tesfaye was very present on Twitter, making his name and his music trending topics and tweeting, "wow what a day … today belongs to us." Coincidence? We think not.
Major awards shows are typically based upon a few people deciding which of the plethora of creatives are worth validation that year—a premise that leaves a huge amount of room for conflict.
The Grammys specifically have been an increasingly controversial event as artists begin to question the lack of transparency in the nomination process, as well as the discrimination that has become evident in many shapes and forms. Since the choice of winners was left up to the academy, the results didn't necessarily align with public opinion, and even as they have shifted away from small, anonymous review committees, many artists are still skeptical of the awards. Musicians of color in particular have noted the lack of diversity at the Grammys and the yearly snubs of Black artists.
After her award snub, Charli XCX shared a post on Instagram with a caption that read: "me not being nominated for a grammy for crash is like mia goth not being nominated for an oscar for pearl and only further proves that people don’t wanna see hot evil girls thrive." Likely a real criticism veiled in a joke, fellow musician Grimes cut right through to the heart of it in the comments section to spill some insider tea about the Grammys selection process.
"The Grammies are so irrelevant I wouldn’t even sweat it," Grimes began. "I stopped even clocking them in any capacity when I Was on the producer of the year board and they quite literally would not allow me to nominate anyone who wasn’t on a pre fabricated list that was exceptionally boring. I was one of 3 women and the only person under 40 for sure." She concluded, "It’s literally not a relevant thing. I tried to nominate Sophie and was told that wasn’t allowed," referring to the iconic transgender producer and pop star who died in 2021. Grimes and Charli are just a couple out of the many stars who now wear a dismissive attitude towards the award show.
Click through to see which other musicians have had more than a few choice words for the Grammys.
Grimes and other stars who have criticized the Grammys
Grimes backs up Charli XCX's Grammys shade by spilling insider tea: "It’s literally not a relevant thing"
MUSIC Grammy awards
Major awards shows are typically based upon a few people deciding which of the plethora of creatives are worth validation that year—a premise that leaves a huge amount of room for conflict.
The Grammys specifically have been an increasingly controversial event as artists begin to question the lack of transparency in the nomination process, as well as the discrimination that has become evident in many shapes and forms. Since the choice of winners was left up to the academy, the results didn't necessarily align with public opinion, and even as they have shifted away from small, anonymous review committees, many artists are still skeptical of the awards. Musicians of color in particular have noted the lack of diversity at the Grammys and the yearly snubs of Black artists.
After her award snub, Charli XCX shared a post on Instagram with a caption that read: "me not being nominated for a grammy for crash is like mia goth not being nominated for an oscar for pearl and only further proves that people don’t wanna see hot evil girls thrive." Likely a real criticism veiled in a joke, fellow musician Grimes cut right through to the heart of it in the comments section to spill some insider tea about the Grammys selection process.
"The Grammies are so irrelevant I wouldn’t even sweat it," Grimes began. "I stopped even clocking them in any capacity when I Was on the producer of the year board and they quite literally would not allow me to nominate anyone who wasn’t on a pre fabricated list that was exceptionally boring. I was one of 3 women and the only person under 40 for sure." She concluded, "It’s literally not a relevant thing. I tried to nominate Sophie and was told that wasn’t allowed," referring to the iconic transgender producer and pop star who died in 2021. Grimes and Charli are just a couple out of the many stars who now wear a dismissive attitude towards the award show.
Click through to see which other musicians have had more than a few choice words for the Grammys.