Kanye West has been prohibited from performing at the 2022 Grammy Awards, which will take place on April 3, 2022 in Las Vegas, following what has been perceived as troubling online behaviour.
West has faced intense scrutiny and criticism following his social media conduct in the wake of his divorce from Kim Kardashian West, after the rapper was seen to be harassing his ex-wife, threatening violence toward her new partner Pete Davidson and violating her privacy by sharing screenshots of his text exchanges with her, all via Instagram.
West also used the platform to take aim at other music artists such as Kid Cudi and Billie Eilish.
One of West’s collaborators, The Game, shared the news of Ye’s barring from the Grammy’s stage in an Instagram post of his own, in which he suggested the move was more likely racially motivated than prompted by West’s own behaviour.
“Time & time again they show us that they only want to STEAL the culture, not allow you to ever be their equals,” he wrote.
“Speak your mind in this country for yourself, family or your people & you’re ostracized immediately & if you push them hard enough they will stop at no ends to try and put an end to you as a whole,” the caption later continued.
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The Game also referenced the fact that comedian Trevor Noah is hosting the event and referred to a theoretical conversation between Noah’s team and the Recording Academy that led to the decision to prevent West from performing.
Noah, who will take on emcee duties for the second time, recently took the time to unpack the issue of West harassing his ex on his late-night talk show The Daily Show. Noah got candid about his own experiences growing up in an abusive household and how worrying it has been to witness West’s behaviour.
“What we are seeing is one of the most powerful women in the world unable to get her ex to stop texting her, to stop chasing after her,” he said. “Kim Kardashian and countless other women find themselves in a terrible position because Kim asking Kanye to stop clearly isn’t helping.”
Noah concluded his monologue by musing, “all I’m saying about this story is, if Kim Kardashian cannot escape this, then what chance do normal women have?”.
West responded to Noah’s thoughts by hurling a racial slur at him in a now-deleted Instagram post, which prompted the social media site to suspend the rapper for 24 hours for violating the platform’s policies on “hate speech, harassment, and bullying.”
After responding to West’s comments on Instagram — in which he cited the important impact the rapper had had on him — Noah reminded him of the role racism also plays in the situation between the pair.
“Don’t ever forget, the biggest trick racists ever played on black people was teaching us to strip each other of our blackness whenever we disagree, he wrote in the comments section of the since-deleted post. I don’t care if you support Trump and I don’t care if you roast Pete. I do however care when I see you on a path that’s dangerously close to peril and pain.”
Noah later Tweeted that the purpose of his Daily Show speech was to “counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.”
I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 20, 2022
While West may not be making an appearance at the Grammys this year, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, BTS, Brandi Carlile, the Brothers Osborne, and Lil Nas X are all set to perform.
The 2022 Grammys will take place on April 3 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, which equates to 10am AEST on April 4. The show will be streaming live on Paramount Plus, but if you don’t have a subscription to the streaming platform, you can also catch all of the action at the official Grammys website.
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