Drake Pulls out of Grammys, Withdrawing His Nominations

Drake has withdrawn his two 2022 Grammy Award nominations, after his hugely successful 2021 album Certified Lover Boy and his hit songs were surprisingly missing among the nominees in the major awards. Certified Lover Boy was only nominated for Best Rap Album and his hit "Way 2 Sexy" was nominated for Best Rap Performance. Drake's team formally requested the Recording Academy remove his nominations, and the group did so on Monday, according to its website.

Certified Lover Boy became an instant hit when it was released in September and spawned the hit singles "Way 2 Sexy," "Girls Want Girls" and "Knife Talk." It reached the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart, making Drake only the eighth artist with 10 No. 1 albums on the chart. The album and its songs were expected to be major players in the Grammy's four general categories, especially since they were expanded to include 10 nominees each. However, Drake was shut out of those categories when the nominations were announced on Nov. 23 and only earned two nominations.

Now that Drake is no longer included in the Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Album categories, those two will go forward with only four nominees each, reports Variety. This is likely because voting has already begun. Ballots were posted for voting members on Monday, so it was probably too late to add replacement nominees. J. Cole's The Off-Season, Nas' King's Disease II, Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, the Creator, and Kanye West's Donda are the only Best Rap Album nominees now. (Donda was the only one to secure an Album of the Year nod.)

Certified Lover Boy's absence from the major Album of the Year category could have been due to Drake choosing not to submit it for consideration in the first place. Grammy nominations are submitted by an artist's representative, and if an artist does not want their work considered, they usually ask their label not to submit it. Drake may have initially chosen to be considered for the two categories he was nominated in, before suddenly deciding against it at the last moment.

Drake has had a difficult relationship with the Grammys. Last year, he showed support for The Weeknd after the "Blinding Lights" singer blasted the Grammys when he wasn't recognized for his work. "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 exists now and the ones that come after," Drake wrote on Instagram at the time. "It's like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just won't change their ways."

In 2017, Drake didn't submit his album More Life for any awards consideration. When he won Best Rap Song for "God's Plan" in 2019, his microphone was cut off when he suggested awards weren't necessary at all. "We play an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport," Drake said after picking up his award. "You already won if you have people singing your songs word for word if they're singing in your hometown. You're already winning, you don't need this right here."

Drake has four Grammys and 47 nominations in his career. He also won Best Rap Album for Take Care. "Hotline Bling" won Grammys for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song.