Drake’s impassioned appearance at Sunday’s Grammy Awards was one of the highlights of the night, but many viewers were left confused after the rapper appeared to be cut short following a brief pause in his speech.
While accepting a Grammy for rap song of the year, the “God’s Plan” rapper took the opportunity to speak to the “kids watching,” “those aspiring to do music” and “all [his] peers” about some of the pitfalls he perceived within the awards show circuit.
“We play in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport. It is not the NBA… This is a business where sometimes it is up to a bunch of people that might not understand what a mixed race kid from Canada has to say… or a brother from Houston right there, my brother Travis,” he said. “You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you are a hero in your hometown. If there is 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.”
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However, before he could continue, the show cut to commercial, much to the chagrin of the evening’s viewers. Speculation abounded with some criticizing the Grammys for throttling a speech that was likely criticizing its own show and with Drake himself calling the speech “Too raw for TV” in an Instagram post.
But the Recording Academy claims the move wasn’t intentional.
After the show, a spokesperson for the Academy explained that the abrupt ending of the speech was the result of a misunderstanding on the part of the producers, who offered Drake a chance to reappear on stage after the commercial.
“During Drake’s speech there was a natural pause during his speech and at that moment the producers did assume that he was done and then cut to commercial,” the Academy said in an official statement. “However the producers did speak with Drake following his speech and did offer him to come back on stage to finish whatever his thoughts were, but Drake said he was happy with what he said and didn’t have anything to add too it, so just a point of clarification.”