Following criticism of his 2013 Grammys performance, Frank Ocean took to Tumblr to pen a letter criticising the Grammy Awards.
Basically, Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich and writer David Wild told Rolling Stone that Frank’s 2013 performance was “not great TV”.
In the letter Frank called out the awards show for its cultural bias. He then went on to say that 1989 didn't deserve Album of the Year over Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly.
Frank Ocean wrote an open letter to the Grammy's and highkey throws shade at Taylor Swift for winning Album Of The… https://t.co/P5gqkiaDEZ
The letter reads:
"OK Ken (and David). As much as I hate to make you guys famous or even respond to you directly, we all die one day and you're old, so fuck it. Yeah, yeah my 2013 performance at the Grammys was absolute shit. Technical difficulties, blah, blah. Thanks for the reminder. Very much appreciated. Fuck that performance though. You think that's why I kept my work out of the Grammy process this year? Don't you think I would've wanted to play the show to 'redeem' myself if I felt that way? In reality I actually wanted to participate in honouring Prince on the show but then I figured my best tribute to that man's legacy would be to continue to be myself out here and to be successful. Winning a TV award doesn't christen me successful. It took me some time to learn that. I bought all my masters back last year in the prime of my career, that's successful. Blonde sold a million plus without a label, that's successful. I am young, black, gifted, and independent... that's my tribute. I've actually been tuning into CBS around this time of the year for a while to see who gets the top honour and you know what's really not 'great TV' guys? 1989 getting Album of the Year over To Pimp a Butterfly. Hands down one of the most 'faulty' TV moments I've seen. Believe the people. Believe the ones who'd rather watch select performances from your program on YouTube the day after because your show puts them to sleep. Use the old gramophone to actually listen bro, I'm one of the best alive. And if you're up for a discussion about the cultural bias and general nerve damage the show you produce suffers from, then I'm all for it. Have a good night."
Taylor Swift's fans were quick to defend her, claiming she was more than deserving of the win.
@blackgirlicon @PopCrave It had a very thought out story too. Imo 1989 and TPAB were two different albums but were both AOTY worthy.
obviously other people deserve album of the year too but dont you dare say that taylor swift didn't deserve it
And others went so far as to say that Frank was only mentioning Taylor to stay relevant.
@PopCrave
@PopCrave This people that try to be relevant insulting Taylor are so pathetic lmao
Frank Ocean: "I can get trendy by dragging Taylor Swift since THAT is trendy"
However some people agreed with Frank that To Pimp a Butterfly was robbed of the award.
I love the fact that Frank Ocean is just as mad as I am about To Pimp A Butterfly losing album of the year to Taylor Swift
@Musicnews_feed we all know she didn't deserve AOTY or Best Pop Vocal Album
@PopCrave we all knew to pimp a butterfly deserved aoty. But white privilege tho. Art gets ignored but mediocrity is praised
@PopCrave i love Frank 100000% more for calling out white privilege and white mediocrity
While others believed the whole point of Frank's letter was totally lost in the "Taylor Swift shade" thing.
Frank Ocean was making a bigger point about the Grammys racism and bias towards Black artists. Taylor Swift was just used an example.
@Scarlet_Halo @shookasf @grethanswift @PopCrave He never dragged Taylor. He only illustrated how faulty the Grammy committed can be.
Frank said some valid shit about the bias against black people at the Grammys but yeah let's reduce it to shade at… https://t.co/AoJZlExO49