Rap artist Drake has made a rather unprecedented move in removing his album Certified Lover Boy from Grammy consideration after it was submitted earlier this year. He is removing all music that he made, which includes removing Certified Lover Boy from the Best Rap Album nomination and removing “Way 2 Sexy” from the Best Rap Performance nominations. While artists can always choose to not submit their albums for Grammy consideration in the first place, this is the first time that an artists has removed their album midway through the process, as there are already ballots in that could potentially have had Drake’s music on them. There will be no replacements for Drake’s nominations, each of the respective fields will now just have 4 nominees.

Drake gave no reason for withdrawing his music, although he does have a long standing feud with the Grammys. He recently was upset at them for not giving The Weeknd any nominations for this album After Hours. He said in a social media post that Grammys should be replaced with a different awards show. Drake had also previously criticized the Grammys in a speech on stage after receiving one in 2019 after declining an invitation to perform on stage. He did not submit his album More Life for Grammy consideration in 2017, so Drake and his team is familiar with the process for not having an album in the running.

After releasing the much anticipated Certified Lover Boy earlier this year and its streaming success, Drake has been involved in a few concerts, such as the now infamous Astroworld festival with Travis Scott. He was sued by the victims of the concert tragedy after what happened.