Rapper Kanye West has been barred from performing at the Grammy Awards “in connection with his online behavior,” a representative for the artist confirmed to Variety. According to Variety, representatives from the Recording Academy and CBS, which presents the Grammys, did not immediately respond to the portal’s requests for comment on the claim.
West’s reps, citing a report in the Blast posted late Friday, claimed that the cast’s team received a call Friday night informing them that they were “unfortunately” for the show with regards to her “online behavior”. The cast was dropped from the lineup. While West, who is up for five 2022 Grammy Awards, wasn’t on the first list of artists announced Tuesday, he could have been a planned artist.
A West representative sent Variety a link to that story, saying only “it’s been confirmed”; The rep did not respond to requests for further information, although the Blast report said, “Our sources say Kanye’s team is not surprised by the decision.”
While Academy representatives did not respond to requests for comment, there are several reasons why performing Kanye West on live network television would be a prohibitively risky proposition.
Based on his social media posts and activity over the past few months, he may be using the platform to continue the online harassment of Pete Davidson, the new boyfriend of his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian; He could try to defend public sentiment for the custody of his children; He may make some statements in support of accused sex offender Marilyn Manson or the non-repentant homophobe DaBaby, both of whom he has portrayed at his recent concerts or listening events; He could have made more misguided statements about slavery or revived his stumpings for former President Donald Trump.
Conversely, he may use the platform to do something that isn’t self-serving, self-referential or outright trolling, such as when he unexpectedly said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” in 2005. During a televised Hurricane Katrina fundraiser.
Perhaps most of all, the report said the decision was made partly due to concerns over a possible conversation between West and Grammy host Trevor Noah; West used a slur against Noah in an Instagram post regarding the “Daily Show” host’s comments regarding his split with the Kardashians, which resulted in a 24-hour ban from the platform.
In response, Noah wrote “”I’ll be honest with you, what I see from the situation is a woman who wants to live her life without bothering her ex-boyfriend or ex-husband or ex-anything.
West’s public appearances are rarely without controversy, often negative, and there’s no reason to expect that a performance at the 2022 Grammy Awards will be an exception.
The report sparked fierce outrage in some quarters, claiming it was part of a racist or anti-hip-hop narrative.
However, it’s worth noting that Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. has stated that they successfully argued for increasing the number of nominees of the year from eight to 10 with the 2022 awards, as hip-hop was not represented, and a beneficiary of that decision was West’s ‘Donda’ album. Was.
Veteran rapper The Game, who recently collaborated with West on the single and Davidson-trolling video ‘Easy’, wrote in an oft-quoted post: “Time and time again they show us just stealing culture. Want, don’t allow you to always be their equal. In a step more than obvious for reasons of minor actions. The Grammys at the last minute decide to pull (Kanye West) from performing on the show as if we don’t know was that it was coming.
“Maybe because (Trevor Noah) is hosting and there were talks between his team and the academy that led to the decision or because Yeh’s account was suspended a few days ago for unknown reasons, especially in a world like this. Where all the negativity was in the world can be found on the same app with no repercussions or suspensions. All we will say is it is all of the above and a constant disrespect to us and especially in the last 100 years we have been in entertainment, media and brought it to the table in the game.”
(with IANS inputs)
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