When the 59th annual Grammy Awards kick off live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles Sunday night, some key players will be missing.
Most notably, the biggest no-show nominee will be Toronto's own "6 god" Drake, up for eight awards including Album of the Year and Best Rap Album for Views — his local love letter to the city — but preferring instead to busily entertain his Manchester, U.K., fans that night with his Boy Meets World Tour.
Coincidentally, Drake's tour features Toronto's dvsn as one of its opening acts, taking another multiple nominee out of the equation: duo member Anthony Paul Jefferies, a.k.a. Nineteen85, who is up for five awards including Producer of the Year and Best Rap Song as co-author of "Hotline Bling."
Another eight-time nominee, Kanye West, still recovering from his meltdown and a pre-inauguration visit to U.S. President Donald Trump, isn't expected to be at the Grammys either, although he threatened as much when he told Oakland concertgoers in October he'd boycott the show if Frank Ocean's Blonde wasn't nominated.
Nor is Justin Bieber, who stated in an Instagram post following an appearance at the 2016 Billboard Awards: "I don't know about these award shows. No disrespect to anybody at any of the shows or the people running it. Nothing but love for you guys and your support. But I don't feel good when I'm there nor after. I try to think of it as a celebration but can't help feeling like people are rating and grading my performance."
Those high-profile absences are helping fuel the notion from some that the Grammys may have jumped the shark somewhat in artistic credibility, despite the fact nominees are selected by peers and are to music what the Academy Awards are to film.
"They're not doing themselves any favours this year," says Alan Cross, host of The Ongoing History of New Music on The Edge 102.1. "The biggest controversy, I guess, is the Beyoncé song 'Don't Hurt Yourself' being nominated in the rock category, against four other songs, two of which were for TV shows, not actual recordings on albums."
Reached in Singapore, Cross says the Grammy Awards ceremony often goes through phases where, for any number of reasons, people take it less seriously. This year, even though Jay Z and Beyoncé and Bruno Mars and Adele will all be there, might be one of them.
"This seems to be one of those years where the Grammys don't matter to anybody of consequence. Another thing that's going to hurt people's credibility, you're going to have Metallica perform with Lady Gaga? Really?"
In Kanye West's case, the rap superstar might change his mind and show up following the news that Ocean — perhaps still stinging from the backlash to his underwhelming 2013 Grammy performance — didn't even submit his albums Blonde and Endless for awards consideration, telling the New York Times that he felt "the infrastructure of the awarding system and the nomination system and screening system is dated." (Neither did previous multiple Grammy winners Macklemore & Ryan Lewis submit This Unruly Mess I Made.)
"Every once in a while, the Grammys run through a period of time where people completely discount them as any kind of important musical force," says Cross. Showrunners "have to be worried this year, because they're getting flak for the Beyoncé thing; they're getting flak for the fact that Drake and Kanye and Justin Bieber are not going to be there, so that's going to hurt their television show. And then there's the Frank Oceans of the world who don't seem to think that the Grammys are all that important when it comes to their careers because it's a vestige of some kind of previous era."
Dalton Higgins, publicist and author of six books devoted to hip hop, including an unauthorized biography of Drake, says the Grammy Awards have never been in touch with what's going on in the urban music community.
"The Grammy Award has never really had credibility, if we're talking about hip-hop culture/so-called urban music," Higgins explains. "The Grammys have never really been tapped into the zeitgeist. If you're a music historian, you'll know that the hip-hoppers have boycotted it before" — in 1989, when the Grammys refused to televise the category.
Since only two hip-hop albums — Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999 and OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004 — have ever won Album of the Year, Higgins hints something bigger could also be afoot.
"Hip hop is the predominant youth culture of now and to kind of consistently shut rappers out of the major categories is a slap in the face. Maybe it's a bit of a silent protest," he says.
Regardless of the MIA status of Drake, Nineteen85 and possibly the Biebs, Canada as a nation will be well represented, with more than 40 nominations in 84 categories for this year's edition (yes, Drake's Views supplies the lion's share: anyone listed in the category alongside a nominee will win a Grammy and, in some cases, like Noah "40" Shebib's role as both producer and engineer, he'll land two).
Bieber is up for four Grammys for Purpose, including Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, and Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Love Yourself."
Vancouver-born dance duo Bob Moses is up for Best Dance Recording for "Tearing Me Up," competing with Toronto's Kai, vocalist for Flume's "Never Be Like You." Newmarket's Steven Lee Olsen is co-author of Best Country Song nominee "Blue Ain't Your Colour," recorded by Keith Urban, while Northern Cree contends for Best Regional Roots Album for It's A Cree Thing, and Darcy James Argue's Secret Society vies for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album with Real Enemies.
And the T-Dot is especially well represented: Daystar "Tory Lanez" Peterson is nominated for Best R&B Song for "Luv," as is Jahron "PartyNextDoor" Brathwaite for "Come and See Me," co-written by Drake and 40.
Then there's the host of local production talent including Matthew "Boi-1da" Samuels, Maneesh Bidaye, Shane Lee "Murda Beatz" Lindstrom, Jahmar "Daxz" Carter, Majid Jordan's Jordan Ullman, Adam "Frank Dukes" Feeney, Rupert "Sevn Thomas" Jr., as well as engineers Noel Cadastre and Noel "Gadget" Campbell, who helped create Views; and the Canadian talent, including Boi1da, Gadget and 40, who helped Rihanna created her catchy earworm "Work" with Drake and capture Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group nominations.
Drake is also up for Best Rap Performance for "Pop Style," featuring the Throne, a.k.a. Jay Z and Kanye West. Snarky Puppy's Toronto drummer, Larnelle Lewis will win a Best Instrumental Album Grammy if Culcha Vulcha takes that category's cake and The Weeknd will be a major winner if Queen Bey's Lemonade takes Album of the Year honours.
Throw in Toronto's ARC Ensemble for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for Fitelberg: Chamber Works and there are a lot of locals to cheer for, starting at 8 p.m. on Sunday on City TV and CBS.
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