American rapper, Ye, has reportedly been barred from performing at the Grammy Awards due to his “concerning online behavior”.
The rapper, who is contesting for five awards this year was yet to be confirmed as a performer at the forthcoming ceremony, which will take place on 4 April. A representative of Ye confirmed reports from some media outlets that Ye was scrapped from the awards show due to his online behavior.
The report claimed that Ye’s team received a phone call informing them that Ye had been “unfortunately” removed from the lineup of performers. Ye’s representative then confirmed the reports. However, the team did not respond to requests for further information.
The report claimed that the decision was made due to Ye’s recent outburst against Trevor Noah, who will be hosting the ceremony. It is worth noting that Noah is also the writing partner of Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
According to some reports, the choice to scrap Ye as a performer at the Grammys was partially because of concerns over possible interactions between Ye and Noah.
It can be recalled that Ye used a racial slur against Trevor Noah in an Instagram post after the ‘Daily Show’ host mentioned that the situation between the rapper, his ex-wife, and Davidson was “terrifying to watch”. Ye had his account suspended, with Instagram’s parent company Meta confirming that it deleted content from Ye’s account and temporarily restricted the account from posting, commenting, and sending direct messages.
Meanwhile, the first round of Grammy performers has been announced. Nominees: BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, Brandi Carlile, Brothers Osborne, Billie Eilish, and Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, all set to perform on the night.
Trevor Noah had nothing to do with Ye’s cancellation?
Some social media users suggested that Trevor Naoh might have had a hand in the scrapping of Ye from the lineup of performers. However, Trevor Noah “had nothing to do” with Ye’s performance at the Grammy Awards being canceled, according to reports.
A source close to Noah disclosed that Trevor Noah was not involved in the Grammys decision, nor had he spoken to producers or the Recording Academy about the hip-hop star.
“Trevor never asked the Grammys to ban Kanye from performing. He was not offended by Kanye’s Instagram post and Trevor responded on Instagram. The notion that Trevor or his team asked the Grammys to ban Kanye is ridiculous”, the source said.
“I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye”, Noah also tweeted in reaction to Ye being removed from the lineup of performers.
Critics call for Ye’s cancellation at Coachella
Meanwhile, critics have rallied to have Ye dropped from the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival lineup.
A petition on Change.org has called for the removal of the rapper from headlining next month’s festival. It has received over 7,000 signatures. The petition’s caption states: “No one seems to want to stand up to him [Ye], and the ones that do, he puts under fire as well”.
It continued: “Coachella (along with other brand names that are still working with him) should be ashamed of themselves and should not be giving him any more of a platform!”
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