At the 61st Grammy Awards, Drake took home a win for Best Rap Song for his track ‘God’s Plan’ beating out Travis Scott ‘Sicko Mode,’ Jay Rock’s ‘Kings Dead’ and ‘WIN’ and Eminem’s ‘Lucky You.’
Drake’s acceptance speech reached out to up-and-comers, current artists, and all those who make art for self-expression. He stressed the fact that the awards are all opinion based and you have nothing to stress over if people with regular day jobs are paying money to see your show.
“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,” Drake said. “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.”
Drake continued by saying…
“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 heard earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don’t need this right here. I promise you, you already won.”
And that’s where the speech ended due to the broadcast cutting to commercial before Drake could continue or finish speaking. Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich told the New York Times,
“The fact of the matter is, we continue to have a problem in the hip-hop world,” Ehrlich said. “When they don’t take home the big prize, the regard of the academy, and what the Grammys represent, continues to be less meaningful to the hip-hop community, which is sad.”
