With four Grammy Awards in his career, Drake was expected to be competing for two more next month. The 2022 Grammy Award nominees featured Drake’s Certified Lover Boy competing for “Best Rap Album” and his Young Thug and Future-assisted “Way 2 Sexy” in the running for “Best Rap Performance.” However, Drake withdrew both nominations today (December 6) in a highly unusual move. Variety confirmed the report with Recording Academy, responsible for the awards. Sources said Drake and his management made the request, but the Toronto superstar has yet to expound on his reasoning.

Now “Best Rap Album” is limited to four competitors: Nas’ King’s Disease 2, J. Cole’s The Off-Season, Kanye West’s Donda, and Tyler, The Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost. “Best Rap Performance” is now reduced to J. Cole, 21 Savage, and Morray’s “My Life,” Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s “family ties,” Cardi B’s “Up,” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Thot Sh*t.” Variety reports there will not be replacement nominees in Drake’s absences.

Rap Snubs & Predictions For The 2022 Grammy Awards

Notably, Drake was competing against Kanye West’s Donda in the Rap album category. In November, the OVO founder and Ye appeared to squash a longstanding beef with public appearances together. One involved comedian Dave Chappelle, the other included Rap-A-Lot Records founder J. Prince. Unlike West’s Donda, Drake’s CLB was not nominated in the “Album Of The Year” category, which has expanded nominees. That is a category that neither Drake nor West has ever won. Last month, Drake also performed at Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld festival, where 10 people died, and hundreds were injured due to an audience stampede towards the stage.

Drake previously won “Best Rap Album” for Take Care. He has also been critical of the platform for much of his career. In 2019, Drake’s acceptance speech for “Best Rap Song” award was cut short on broadcast when the entertainer said, “I want to take this opportunity while I’m up here to just talk to all the kids that are watching this, aspiring to do music. All my peers that make music from their heart that do things pure and tell the truth, I wanna let you know we’re playing in an opinion-based sport not a factual-based sport. So it’s not the NBA where at the end of the year you’re holding a trophy because you made the right decisions or won the games.” Winning for “God’s Plan,” Drake continued, “This is a business where sometimes it’s up to a bunch of people who might not understand what a mixed race kid from Canada has to say or a fly Spanish girl from New York or anybody else, or a brother from Houston right there, my brother Travis [Scott]. But my point is you’ve already won if you have people singing your songs word for word, if you’re a hero in your hometown. Look, if there’s people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don’t need this right here. I promise you, you already won.” That year, Drake declined a request to perform for the CBS broadcast.

Drake’s Formula Sells Records But Will Not Give Him A Classic Album (Video)

Last week, Ambrosia For Heads‘ What’s The Headline podcast discussed the Grammy nominations, forecast the winners in the Rap and “Album Of The Year” categories, and weighed in on the biggest snubs. That episode is embedded above in video and audio.