Drake Blasts Grammys, Says Award Show ‘Doesn’t Dictate S–t’ in Hip Hop World

While the rapper doesn’t get specific in his comments about the show, he certainly doesn’t mince words either when it comes to repping for his genre. In fact, he did so three different ways in one Instagram Stories slide.

First, the artist shared a short video snippet from his own Grammys acceptance speech back in 2019 where he emphasized to all his fellow artists that musicians “play an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport,” so there is no clear metric for best.

It’s that opinion that then came under fire in his added note. First, he offered up another quote from his speech, where he said, “You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you’re a hero in your hometown.”

Then, in the new caption he dropped with all of these five-year old comments, Drake again spoke to the musicians themselves, while dropping some serious shade on the Recording Academy behind the Grammys.

“All you incredible artists remember this show isn’t the facts it’s just the opinion of a group of people who’s name [sic] are kept a secret (literally you can google it),” he wrote. “Congrats to anybody winning anything for hip hop but this show doesn’t dictate s–t in our world.”

It’s unclear if he was coming off of the online backlash after SZA failed to secure Album of the Year, instead losing to Taylor Swift, who set a record with her fourth AOTY win. Or perhaps it was Beyoncé’s having never won that award, despite being the Academy’s most-honored artist.

That was a point Jay-Z made while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award and dripping plenty of his own shade all over the Academy. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year,” he said as his wife looked on, expression unreadable.

“So even by your own metrics that doesn’t work,” he continued. “Think about that. Most Grammys, never won Album of the Year, that doesn’t work.”

He went on to note, “When I get nervous I tell the truth.”

Part of that truth was reminding the Academy that DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith) boycotted the show back in 1989 because their category wasn’t televised, and then he boycotted it in 1998 when DMX wasn’t nominated after releasing two dominant albums that year.

“We want y’all to get it right. We love y’all, we love y’all,” Jay-Z said on the stage. “We want y’all to get it right. At least, get it close to right.” He didn’t mention that no rap categories were aired during the 2024 broadcast, either.

For many fans on social media, SZA’s loss after Jay-Z’s remarks only further proved that the Academy continues to not get it right. Many believed Beyoncé would finally score her first AOTY win last year for her Renaissance album, only to be frustrated when she lost to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.