Rapper-singer Drake has questioned the Recording Academy’s decision to classify Hotline bling under the rap category at the 2017 Grammy awards.
The 30-year-old recently appeared on an episode of a radio show for an interview that highlighted his struggles to be taken seriously as a black Canadian artist covering multiple genres.
“I won two awards (Grammys this year), but I don’t even want them because it just feels weird for some reason. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I feel almost alienated, or (like they’re) trying to purposely alienate me by making me win rap awards or pacify me by handing me something and putting me in that category because it’s the only place where you can figure out where to put me,” he said.
“I feel like an outsider, it’s usually because I’m not American. That’s when I feel like people are against me,” he said.
“I guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have quite an eclectic make-up. I am mixed, I am Jewish… at the end of the day, when it comes to everything else, I’m black.”
He said that Hotline bling, which won Grammys earlier this month, is not a rap song.
“I am referred to as a black artist like at (the Grammys), I’m a black artist… I’m apparently a rapper, even though Hotline bling is not a rap song. The only category they can manage to fit me in is in a rap category, maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m black. I can’t figure out why.”
Though he did voice support for Chance the Rapper’s victory among the Best New Artist set, Drake also pondered the omission of his 2016 hitOne dance from the crop of Record of the Year nominees.
“There are pop obligations they have, and I fluked out. I fluked out and got one of the biggest songs of the year that is a pop song and I’m proud of that. I love the rap world and I love the rap community… I write pop songs for a reason. I want to be like Michael Jackson.”
“I want to be like artists that I looked up to. Those are pop songs, but I never get any credit for that,” he said.
