Sure, Drake might be taking home an award from this year’s Grammys for his song “God’s Plan,†but he wants everyone to know: You absolutely should not care if you ever win a Grammy, which he is doing currently, as he tells you this. “I want to let you know we play in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport,†the rapper said in his acceptance speech for Best Rap Song Sunday night. “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.â€
Continued Drake, “This is a business where sometimes it’s up to a bunch of people that 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, my brother Travis [Scott]. The point is, you’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you’re a hero in your home town.â€
Concludes the rapper “If there’s 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’ve already won.†As if that wasn’t enough, you even get to hear Drake say a sudden “But!†really quickly before the telecast cuts to commercial.
Update, February 11: The producers of the Grammys offered Drake an opportunity to finish his Grammys speech onstage, but he declined. According to a rep, his speech wasn’t cut off, rather the producers interpreted a pause as the speech’s conclusion. “However, the producers did speak with Drake following his speech and did offer him to come back onstage to finish whatever his thoughts were,†a rep for the show said in a statement. “Drake said he was happy with what he said and had nothing else to add to it.†You don’t need a Grammy, but having one doesn’t hurt.
Reporting by Taylor Ferber.