When Drake attended his first GRAMMY Awards in 2010, he was 23 and hadn’t yet released a debut album. By the time he received his nominations for the 2024 GRAMMYs — Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance and Best Melodic Rap Performance for his collaborations with 21 Savage — he was Spotify’s most-streamed artist of all time, and the holder of more Billboard chart records than we can possibly list in this intro.
In between, his relationship with the Academy’s yearly showcase has been all over the map. He’s lost (mostly), won (five times), and performed alongside some of pop culture’s biggest names. But more to the point, starting in 2017 his public comments about — and during — the GRAMMYs have sparked debate. He’s gone back and forth about submitting his music for consideration, and even went as far as to demand that nominations be retracted (more on that later).
Drake is nominated for Best Rap Album among other awards at the 2024 GRAMMYs. Here is a year-by-year account of the relationship between one of music’s biggest stars and Music’s Biggest Night.
2010 — 52nd GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best Rap Song (“Best I Ever Had”), Best Rap Solo Performance (“Best I Ever Had”)
Performances: “Drop the World”/”Forever” with Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Travis Barker
This was Drizzy’s first GRAMMYs, and he was still green enough that he got “reassurance” from Eminem in advance of their performance.
“He was like, ‘Man, anytime you need to look over at me, don’t get nervous. Just look over at me, man, and I’ll give it back to you. Everything will be all right. Don’t be nervous.’ For him to say that to me — I feel like that was an important moment,” Drake told MTV News at the time.
His first two nominations, both for “Best I Ever Had,” came before he had even put out his debut album. And as you can see in an interview at the event, the awards circuit was new enough that his mother’s reaction to finding out that Drake was nominated was to text him a bunch of swear words.
“I think she was excited,” the rapper joked to a CNN reporter.
2011 — 53rd GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best New Artist, Best Rap Album (Thank Me Later), Best Rap Solo Performance (“Over”), Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (“Fancy” with Swizz Beatz and T.I.)
Performances: “What’s My Name” (with Rihanna)
This is the year that seems to sting Drake the most. Best New Artist was a tough battle, with Drizzy, Justin Bieber, Mumford & Sons, and Florence + the Machine in the mix. All of them lost to Esperanza Spalding, in a major upset.
Drake’s bitterness about the moment lingers to this day. On his most recent album For All the Dogs, he has a surprisingly angry lyric about it: “Four GRAMMYs to my name, a hundred nominations/ Esperanza Spalding was gettin’ all the praises/ I’m tryna keep it humble, I’m tryna keep it gracious/ Who give a f— Michelle Obama put you on her playlist?/ Then we never hear from you again like you was taken.”
2012 — 54th GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Album Of The Year (Rihanna’s Loud, as featured artist), Best Rap Performance (“Moment 4 Life” with Nicki Minaj), Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“I’m On One” with DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne; “What’s My Name” with Rihanna)
This was Drake’s first year as a presenter, so he appears to be moving up in the award show hierarchy. But that doesn’t help him with hardware — he still goes home empty-handed.
This is also the time that he has multiple nominations in the same category (in this case, two in Best Rap/Sung Collaboration), which is also a trend that would repeat throughout the years.
2013 — 55th GRAMMY Awards
Wins: Best Rap Album (Take Care)
Nominations: Best Rap Performance (“HYFR [Hell Ya F—king Right]” with Lil Wayne), Best Rap Song (“The Motto” with Lil Wayne)
He finally wins! Drake gets his first victory (for Best Rap Album). Also, he is the only Canadian to win that year (sorry, Loreena McKennitt!) However, the big moment wasn’t telecast and Drizzy hadn’t yet arrived at the ceremony. In a charming interview from later in the night, Drake recalled jumping out of his car in the middle of traffic to celebrate. There’s also a video of him receiving his GRAMMY in the mail after the fact, which is notable for him immediately taking a celebratory drink from the trophy.
2014 — 56th GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Album Of The Year (Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city, as featured artist), Best Rap Album (Nothing Was the Same), Best Rap Performance (“Started From the Bottom”), Best Rap Song (“Started From the Bottom”; “F—in’ Problems” with ASAP Rocky, 2 Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar)
Drake gets five nominations — and again two in one category — with no wins. It’s hard to pinpoint where the tide might have turned regarding the rapper’s feelings about the institution, but this ceremony may well have been it.
2015 — 57th GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Album Of The Year (Beyoncé‘s Beyoncé, as featured artist), Best Rap Performance (“0 to 100 / The Catch Up”), Best Rap Song (“0 to 100 / The Catch Up”), Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“Tuesday” with ILoveMakonnen)
Once again Drake gets an Album Of The Year nomination…for someone else’s album. It’s now the third time this has happened, following Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar. Still, four nominations during a year with no new album is impressive, and shows just how much of a fixture The Boy has become in the pop firmament at this point.
2016 — 58th GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best Rap Album (If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late), Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“Only” with Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown), Best Rap Performance (“Back to Back”; “Truffle Butter” with Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne), Best Rap Song (“Energy”)
From four nominations in 2015 to five this year, tying his personal best from 2014. They are all for rap-related awards, perhaps because Drake didn’t release a “proper” album that might have ended up in one of the big categories — If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late had a convoluted rollout.
2017 — 59th GRAMMY Awards
Wins: Best Rap/Sung Performance (“Hotline Bling”), Best Rap Song (“Hotline Bling”)
Nominations: Album Of The Year (Views), Best Rap Album (Views), Record Of The Year (“Work” with Rihanna), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“Work” with Rihanna), Best R&B Song (“Come and See Me” with PartyNextDoor), Best Rap Performance (“Pop Style” with The Throne)
The results of this year marked the beginning of Drake’s public issues with the GRAMMYs. Drake didn’t attend the ceremony and, in an interview just after the ceremony, he pushed back against his own victory, upset that “Hotline Bling,” a song with no rapping, won two rap awards.
“Last night at that awards show, I’m a Black artist,” he said. “I’m apparently a rapper, even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song. The only category that 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.”
He was also upset that his hit “One Dance” wasn’t nominated in any general categories.
“There’s pop obligations that [the Recording Academy] have,” he said. “And 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, but I write pop songs for a reason. I want to be like Michael Jackson.
“I won two awards last night, but I don’t even want them for some reason,” he continued. “It just feels weird. It feels like you’re purposely trying to alienate me or pacify me by handing me something, putting me in that [rap] category because it’s the only place you can figure out where to put me.”
Perhaps because of these issues — it was never confirmed — he never submitted his 2018 project More Life for GRAMMY consideration. Regardless, he ended up with no nominations the following year.
2019 — 61st GRAMMY Awards
Wins: Best Rap Song (“God’s Plan”)
Nominations: Album Of The Year (Scorpion), Best Rap Performance (“Nice for What”; “Sicko Mode” with Travis Scott, Swae Lee, and Big Hawk), Best Rap Song (“Sicko Mode” with Travis Scott, Swae Lee, and Big Hawk), Record Of The Year (“God’s Plan”), Song Of The Year (“God’s Plan”)
This was a year that heightened the Drake/Recording Academy tension even further. First, he turned down a chance to perform during the ceremony. And then, during his acceptance speech for Best Rap Song, Drizzy let awards shows have it.
“We play in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport,” he began. “Look, the point is, you already won if you have people singing your songs word for word, if you’re a hero in your hometown. You’re already winning, you don’t need this right here.”
The broadcast went to commercial while he was still talking, something that fans thought was an intentional slight. The Academy said otherwise.
“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 to it.”
2020 — 62nd GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best R&B Song (“No Guidance” with Chris Brown), Best Rap Song (“Gold Roses” with Rick Ross)
Drake didn’t publicly react to his two losses this year, but he did speak out on a friend’s behalf. The superstar was upset that The Weeknd didn’t receive any nominations, and said so in an Instagram story. He went far enough as to say that awards shows like the GRAMMYs “may no longer matter” to up-and-coming artists.
“I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after,” Drake wrote. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways.
“The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way,” he continued. “This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come.”
He went on to list artists he believed should be been nominated: Lil Baby, Pop Smoke, Party Next Door, Popcaan, and “too many missing names to even name.”
2021 — 63rd GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best Rap Song (“Laugh Now Cry Later” with Lil Durk), Best Melodic Rap Performance (“Laugh Now Cry Later” with Lil Durk), Best Music Video (“Life Is Good” with Future)
Drake again misses out on everything he’s nominated for, which might have something to do with what happened the following year.
2022 — 64th GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best Rap Album (Certified Lover Boy), Best Rap Performance (“Way 2 Sexy” with Future and Young Thug) – Both withdrawn
Things came to a boiling point in 2022. Drake was nominated for two awards, but his management asked the Academy to remove the nominations, which they did.
2023 — 65th GRAMMY Awards
Wins: Best Melodic Rap Performance (“Wait For U” with Future and Tems)
Nominations: Album Of The Year (Beyoncé’s Renaissance, as songwriter), Best Rap Song (“Wait For U” with Future and Tems, “Churchill Downs” with Jack Harlow)
Drake didn’t submit any material for GRAMMY consideration this time around, but it didn’t stop him from receiving four nominations, and winning once.
There was one other unexpected Drake-related Grammy moment this year as well. Several days before the ceremony, he made a speech at the Black Music Collective’s Recording Academy Honors event praising one of the evening’s honorees, Lil Wayne. Even when paying tribute to his mentor, Drake seemed to be referencing his ongoing issues with the Academy. His knowing winks to the camera whenever he said the phrase “Black Music Collective” appeared to be a nod to his ongoing complaints that contemporary Black artists were being ignored by the Grammys.
2024 — 66th GRAMMY Awards
Nominations: Best Rap Album (Her Loss with 21 Savage), Best Rap Song (“Rich Flex” with 21 Savage”), Best Rap Performance (“Rich Flex” with 21 Savage), Best Melodic Rap Performance (“Spin Bout U” with 21 Savage)
In a sign that a change might be underway in the often-stormy relationship between Drake and the GRAMMYs, the rapper actually submitted material for nomination for the 2024 GRAMMYs. His collaboration with 21 Savage, Her Loss, was put up for Album of the Year (which it didn’t get a nom for) and Best Rap Album (which it did). The songs “Rich Flex” and “Spin Bout U” were also offered up in multiple categories, and each ended up with nominations.
