Drake's acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night (10Feb19) was cut short, after bosses mistook a pause as his conclusion.
The 32-year-old rapper took home the Best Rap Song gong at the star-studded ceremony for his tune God's Plan. As he accepted the prize on stage, the Canadian musician told the crowd: "I want to take this opportunity while I'm up here to just talk to all the kids that are watching this, aspiring to do music. All my peers that make music from their heart that do things pure and tell the truth, I wanna let you know we're playing in an opinion-based sport not a factual-based sport. 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."
He continued: "This is a business where sometimes it's up to a bunch of people who 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 right there, my brother Travis (Scott). But my point is you've already won if you have people singing your songs word for word, if you're a hero in your hometown. Look, 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 already won."
At that point, Drake paused, and the television broadcast went to commercial. Many viewers assumed bosses had cut him off due to the nature of his speech, but a representative later told Variety that the early end was an innocent mistake.
“During Drake’s speech, there was a natural pause and at that moment the producers did assume that he was done and then cut to commercial,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “However the producers did speak with Drake following his speech and did offer him to come back on stage to finish whatever his thoughts were. But Drake said he was happy with what he said and didn’t have anything to add."
It was reported last week that Drake was one of several famous faces who had turned down the chance to perform at the Grammys, as questions continue to arise about the awards ceremony's relevance.
