In an exclusive interview with WMV to be aired on YouTube this Sunday October 30, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. says Ye, formerly known as Kanye West will not lose his Grammy status and trophies amidst the Yeezy fashion designer’s ongoing controversial statements.
“We are not at the place where we would ever rescind a trophy, I wouldn’t say ever but we try hard not to be involved in judging people’s politics or morals or getting involved in deciding what people should or shouldn’t say,” Harvey told World Music Views.
“Obviously we do not support what many artists say or their actions -and sometimes we are very disappointed in different people, but I don’t believe its our place to remove trophies from people who earned them through excellence in music or in art so I guess I would probably say specifically we are not in that space of removing trophies or asking for them back.”
Earlier this year Ye was up for 5 nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards but he was banned from performing at the show. Subsequently he did not attend music’s most prestigious event, even though he won two awards for “Hurricane,” his song with The Weeknd, crowned Best Melodic Rap Performance, and he and Jay-Z also won Best Rap Song for their collaboration “Jail,” from the Donda album. Ye has 24 Grammys awards, tying with his former boss Jay-Z as the most decorated hip hop act.
His rep confirmed with People Magazine that he was prohibited from performing at the Grammy Awards.
At the time rapper Game posted in support of the Yeezy star, “When will all the BLACK entertainers, Athletes, Actors, Producers, Writers, Directors, Media etc… figure it out?” along with a long winded response to the ban.
Ye had launched off against Trevor Noah, who was the host of the April 3 CBS Grammy Awards telecast. Some reports factored that as the reason why the Chicago bred rapper was asked not to be at the event.
Noah tweeted that he didn’t want Kanye to be cancelled but for him to be counseled.
I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 20, 2022
The Wait Till I Get My Money Right rapper was back on Instagram Thursday evening after the platform suspended him for violating their terms of use policy. His first order of business was to let fans know that he owns the rights to the Yeezy name and likeness and that he could continue making new designs right away despite severing ties with Gap and Adidas. He shared a text message between himself and his lawyer.
He also posted a direct message to Ari Emanuel who had written to the Financial Times advising all of Ye’s partners to cut ties which sent off a wave of tie cutting announcements by the top brands he previously had partnerships with.
Ye addressed Ari directly via instagram with a “love speech” by saying, “Ari Emanuel I lost 2 billion dollars in one day and i’m still alive. This is a love speech, I still love you, God still loves you, the money is not who I am, the people is who I am.”
Meanwhile the world’s largest music companies are scrambling to contain the fallout from a furore over Ye’s recent comments. The latest to condemn the rapper’s remarks is Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek who said on Tuesday that West’s recent comments were “awful”, but that his music does not violate the streaming service’s policies. “It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not,” Ek told Reuters.
Universal Music and Sony Music, West’s long standing partners, have both denounced his statements, which included a tweet on October 8 stating that he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people”.
So far Adidas, Balenciaga, CAA and Gap have dropped their deals with the Chi Town native.
“There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society. We are deeply committed to combating anti-Semitism and every other form of prejudice,” a spokesperson for Universal told industry trade magazine Billboard while they continue to earn from his music.
Universal owns the copyrights of West’s recordings up to 2016 and distributed his music until last year. It collects royalties when this music is played.
Sony’s publishing arm has administered West’s music for years. A spokesperson told the Financial Times that the deal expired earlier this year but as part of the contract it will carry on administering the songs — and collecting a fee for doing so — “for a period of time”.
In an internal memo last week, Sony’s management told employees that “we denounce anti-Semitism” and the company was working to “combat prejudice against the Jewish community”.
Watch promo for interview with Harvey Mason Jr. below
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