The 64th Annual Grammy Awards came and went without any major incidents on Sunday, as host Trevor Noah handled the hosting duties smoothly.
Noticeably absent from the ceremony was rapper Kanye West who was up for five awards on the night, including Best Rap Album and Album of the Year.
West had been pulled from the Grammys lineup of performers due to his 24-hour suspension on Instagram for directing an offensive slur at Noah several weeks ago. However, the rapper still ended up with two awards.
Kanye West wins two Grammy awards, but not top prizes
With five nominations at the 2022 Grammy Awards, many people wondered if Kanye West would win and if he’d show up to claim any trophies. That wasn’t the case, as the rapper opted to continue his public silence following his Instagram and Grammy performance ban.
Still, he claimed two awards for his songs released last year. West ended up winning one award for Best Melodic Rap Performance for Hurricane featuring Lil Baby and The Weeknd. The song appeared on his Grammy-nominated album Donda, released in 2021.
His second award of the night was for Best Rap Song for Jail featuring Jay-Z, another cut from Donda.
In the Best Rap Album category, Tyler, the Creator ended up winning for his album, Call Me If You Get Lost, besting Ye, Nas, and J. Cole. Ye was also nominated for Album of the Year, but the prize went to 35-year-old jazz and R&B artist Jon Batiste for We Are.
Batiste became the first Black artist to win that award since Herbie Hancock in 2008.
Kanye West was banned as a performer
Several weeks ago, Kanye West’s friend and colleague, The Game, revealed that West was removed from the Grammys as a performer. That announcement arrived days after West had been banned from Instagram for 24 hours after a batch of posts he shared mocking or attacking Pete Davidson, D.L. Hughley, and Trevor Noah.
Once his Instagram suspension ended, West or someone from his social media team removed all of his posts from his page. Since then, there have been no new posts on his Instagram, and West has been silent.
Sources indicated that he could still attend the Grammy’s red carpet, non-televised, televised awards ceremonies and claim any Grammy awards he won. However, the rapper was nowhere to be seen.
Over the past three months, he’s made it no secret that he dislikes Saturday Night Live star, Pete Davidson, targeting him in his Instagram posts, the song Eazy featuring The Game, and the accompanying music video. Davidson has been dating Kanye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian since October of last year, following her appearance as an SNL guest host.
Recently, sources reported that West was “going away to get help,” but those reports were refuted.
Meanwhile, Ye has been dating a woman many refer to as a Kim Kardashian lookalike, Chaney Jones. The couple was first spotted together in early February, as Jones attended a listening party for West’s Donda sequel album, Donda 2. They popped up together a few other times publicly over the past two months.
It should be interesting to see if West’s Donda 2 receives recognition at the next Grammy Awards show. The rapper released it exclusively on his Stem Player, a $200 MP3 player that allows listeners to modify, loop, and edit songs in creative ways. Following the release, Billboard revealed that it wouldn’t be eligible for Billboard charts due to how West released the album.