When the final Grammy nominations were announced in November, Kanye West received five nominations, including Album of the Year, and suggested a possible reconciliation between one of pop music’s most moody stars and the institution he has criticized for the past two decades . challenging and at times downright insulting — even as West craved his validation.
But this past Friday, just over two weeks before the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, which was slated for April 3 in Las Vegas – and weeks into negotiations for a scheduled appearance at the show – organizers told West’s team, that he was not allowed to perform, according to a representative of the rapper and producer.
Organizers cited West’s erratic and troubling public behavior over the past few weeks, according to a person with knowledge of the decision, who was granted anonymity to discuss an internal matter.
West recently used his Instagram account to air grievances about custody and childcare issues during his divorce from Kardashian
That behavior included the release of an animated music video depicting the kidnapping and funeral of a character who looked a lot like Pete Davidson – the comedian who dated Kim Kardashian, West’s former wife – and an Instagram post that featured Trevor Noah The Daily taunted the show, which is hosting this year’s Grammys, with a racial slur that led to West being banned from Instagram for 24 hours. (Noah said on Twitter that he didn’t call for West to be cut. “I said advise Kanye not to cancel Kanye,” he wrote.)
For West, music’s perennial agent of chaos, the episode may have been just the latest smear of sensational headlines. But for the Grammys, it’s also a setback in a campaign to lure West back into the herd. He’s perhaps the most vocal of a circle of high-profile black creators – including Jay-Z, Drake, The Weeknd and Frank Ocean – who have slammed the Grammys for often failing to recognize the work of color creators, particularly in hip – hop, in its highest caliber categories.
The Recording Academy, which awards the awards, has gone to extraordinary lengths to accommodate West, who has won 22 Grammys in his career. For the final show, a last-minute rule change resulted in West being included in the Album of the Year poll.
In an interview with Billboard, Harvey Mason Jr., the academy’s executive director, said he noticed a lack of rap in the top categories as the initial list of eight nominees for the major competitions was being prepared. Within days, a proposal to expand the poll to 10 spots in those categories was approved by the Academy’s board of directors, giving Donda consideration for best album along with Taylor Swift’s Evermore.
Since becoming the academy’s chief executive last year, Mason has personally appealed to dissident artists, including West. That reach and being nominated for Album of the Year sparked frustration and anger from some members of the Academy, who were horrified by West’s previous antics, such as a toilet bowl.
“How despicable and disrespectful,” said Diane Warren, the Grammy winner of hits like “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” at the time.
West’s recent behavior on social media has made mending fences for the Recording Academy even more risky. Always an oversharer, West has recently used his Instagram account to air grievances about custody and childcare issues during his divorce from Kardashian. That row has coincided with West’s attacks on Davidson, as well as figures like Noah, who have criticized the musician’s posts as bordering on threats and harassment.
For the Recording Academy, however, the reconciliation with West may be symbolic, suggesting that the institution’s efforts to revamp its voting membership and adapt to a faster-evolving music business with a younger, more diverse audience were working.
West’s complaints about the Grammys date back at least 17 years. In 2005, even before that year’s nominations were announced, West told Grammy voters that if he didn’t win Album of the Year for Late Registration, his second LP, he would blame the loss on personal conduct rather than artistry , would win .
“I don’t care if I’m jumping up and down on the couch like Tom Cruise now,” he told MTV News at the time. “I don’t care how much I stunt; You can never take away the amount of work I put into it.” (He lost to U2’s How to Dismantle to Atomic Bomb.)
Kanye West with his 2006 Grammy Awards. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty
Since then, West’s criticism of the Grammys has been sporadic but unrelenting. In 2015, for example, after Beck won Album of the Year for Morning Phase, West challenged the alternative rock musician to give the award to Beyoncé instead, in reference to his infamous moment with Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. He warned that such decisions by Grammy voters would alienate “real artists.”
“Because what happens,” West said, “if you keep belittling the art and disrespecting the craft and slapping people in the face after they’ve delivered monumental musical feats, it’s disrespectful to inspiration.”
While West won’t be performing at this year’s Grammys, he’s still invited to be a nominee – which presents a tricky problem for the Academy when West wins a major award like Album of the Year. Would he take the opportunity of a speech on live TV to make more inflammatory comments, either about his personal life or about the Grammys themselves?
As a reassurance for the show’s producers and for CBS, the Grammys’ longstanding broadcast network, standard editing delays are built into the show. In 2017, for example, Grammy audiences heard Adele blurt out a frustrated profanity after she botched the opening of a George Michael tribute; People watching at home only heard beeps. – This article originally appeared in The New York Times