Kanye West banned from Grammy Awards for social media misconduct

The more than 15 million followers that Kanye West accumulates on his Instagram account have witnessed the rapper’s continuous and controversial posts against his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and his current partner, comedian Pete Davidson. Last Wednesday, a racist comment against the presenter of the American program TheDailyShow, Trevor Noah, was the trigger that caused the suspension of the artist’s account for 24 hours. Now, it also seems to be the reason that has prompted the organization of the Grammy Awards to veto the rapper in its next edition, which will be held on April 4. So he advanced The Blast last Friday and it has been confirmed by the rapper’s representative to People and Variety. A decision that is due, according to the textual words of the 44-year-old West team, to his “worrying online behavior”.

Although the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States, which grants the awards, has not commented on the matter, sources close to the rapper, to whom he had access The Blast, assure that his team received a phone call on Friday night, informing him that he had been removed from the list of artists invited to the show. This decision, they say, is due, in part, to the fact that Trevor Noah will host the event and the organization has wanted to avoid any kind of tension or confrontation between the two, after the rapper’s racist attack against him. The aforementioned medium has also confirmed that this veto has not surprised West’s team, who attack the organization for considering it obsolete and unimportant in musical culture.

Despite the fact that the rapper has five nominations in the next edition of the Grammys, including Album of the Year and Best Rap Album for his album dondaWest was not on the first list of performances that the organization of the event published last tuesday. However, according to the magazine Variety, the rapper’s representative had confirmed that they did have their performance agreed. Although West’s environment accuses Trevor Noah of being the cause of his veto, sources close to the presenter have assured CNN that he had nothing to do with this decision and that he had no conversation with the producers of the event about the rapper. “The idea that Trevor Noah or his team asked the Grammys to ban Kanye West’s performance is ridiculous,” they argue.

After the news came to light, a barrage of comments have flooded social networks. Among them stands out that of the rapper also known as The Game, who collaborates with West on the controversial topic Eazy which premiered at the beginning of the month, where the interpreter of donda not only does he refer to Pete Davidson in the lyrics of the song, he also appears kidnapping and burying in the video clip to an animated figure reminiscent of the humorist. “Over and over again they show us that they only want to steal culture,” reads on the rapper’s post in defense of West.

The veto at the Grammys is not the only repercussion that the singer’s latest performances have had on social networks. After the suspension of his Instagram account, user criticism has been fired at the rapper, even launching a collection of signatures through the change.org platform to eliminate West from the Coachella festival, which will hold its next edition from April 15 to 24 and where the rapper is headlining. “We have watched Kanye harass, manipulate and hurt Kim, Pete and others for over a year. No one seems to want to confront him”, reads the description of the request created on the platform. “It is ridiculous that he is allowed to do this freely. Coachella (along with other brands that still work with him) should be ashamed of themselves and not give him any more loudspeaker.” To date, nearly 30,000 people have signed the petition.