Drake has known both success and more than his share of disappointment at the Grammys over the years.
The Canadian-born superstar, one of the most commercially successful recording artists of all time, could be headed for Grammy success this year. Her Loss, his Billboard 200-topping collaborative project with 21 Savage, is entered for both album of the year and best rap album, and has a good chance of being nominated in both categories. Her Loss won album of the year at the recent BET Hip Hop Awards.
Drake has received 51 career Grammy nominations. Only two rappers have received more – Jay-Z with 88 and Kanye West (who now goes by Ye) with 75. But Drake has had a hard time translating those nominations in to wins. He has won just five Grammys, far fewer than Jay and Ye, who have won 24 each.
Another issue: All five of Drake’s wins have come in rap categories – best rap album (Take Care, 2012), best rap/sung performance and best rap song (“Hotline Bling,” 2016), best rap song (“God’s Plan,” 2018) and best melodic rap performance (as a featured artist, along with Tems, on Future’s “Wait For U,” 2023).
There’s nothing wrong with winning a rap Grammy, but artists crave recognition in the all-genre “Big Four” categories – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist. In those categories, Drake has gone 0-10. And four of his six album of the year nominations have been as a featured artist on other artists’ albums. Again, nothing wrong with that, but most artists would rather be honored for their own projects.
Drake has voiced his displeasure in no uncertain terms, as you’ll see as we review his Grammy highs and lows. The years shown are the years of the ceremony.
Additional reporting by Gil Kaufman
Drake receives his first two nominations – best rap song and best rap performance, both for his breakthrough smash “Best I Ever Had.” He loses in both categories, and he is passed over for a nomination for best new artist. However, because the Recording Academy has some flexibility in that category, he is back in the mix the following year.
Drake receives four nominations, including best rap album, for his first studio album, Thank Me Later. This time he makes the cut for best new artist. It’s an especially hot field that year: the other nominees include Drake’s fellow Canadian superstar Justin Bieber, as well as Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine and jazz bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding, who most pundits think was lucky just to be nominated. In one of the biggest upsets in Grammy history, Spalding winds up winning. (Though many were inclined to hate her for beating the acts they favored, her talent has made that difficult. She has won five Grammys over the years — the same number as Drake.)
More than a decade later, Drake addressed the loss to Spalding, and other Grammy disappointments, on “Away From Home,” from his new album For All the Dogs, which was released last week. (It came out too late to be eligible for the 2024 Grammys.) Drake’s stats here are a little off, but his meaning is clear. “Four Grammys to my name, a hundred nominations/ Esperanza Spalding was gettin’ all the praises/ I’m tryna keep it humble/ I’m tryna keep it gracious/ Who give a f–k/Michelle Obama put you on her playlist?”
Drake receives four more nominations, including his first album of the year nod – for Rihanna’s Loud, on which he was featured. He loses all four. When the show is over, his career Grammy total stands at 0-10. But his luck is about to change (a little bit).
Drake finally takes home his first Grammy: best rap album for Take Care, his second studio album. But the victory is tarnished by the fact that the album, which topped the Billboard 200, wasn’t nominated for album of the year.
Drake receives five nominations (his best showing to that point), including his second album of the year nod – as a featured artist on Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city. Drake’s third studio album, Nothing Was the Same, is nominated for best rap album. He goes 0-5 on the night. When the night is over his career Grammy track record stands at 1-for-18.
Drake receives four nominations, including his third album of the year nod – this time as a featured artist on Beyoncé’s Beyoncé. He goes 0-4 on the night, bringing his career Grammy track record to 1-for-22. This is getting to be a humbling experience.
Drake receives five nominations, tying his personal best mark to date. The nods include best rap album for his mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. But he loses all five, bringing his career Grammy track record to 1-for-27.
Drake receives eight nominations, his highest total (a distinction it still holds). The nods include his first album of the year nod for one of his own albums – Views, which topped the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks, as well as a record of the year nod for his featured role on Rihanna’s “Work,” which topped the Hot 100 for nine weeks. Drake wins two Grammys, for the first and (so far) only time – best rap song and best rap/sung performance, both for his smash “Hotline Bling.”
Drake receives seven nominations, just one shy of his best mark. For the first time, he is nominated in each of the marquee categories – album of the year (for Scorpion, his fifth studio album) and record and song of the year (for “God’s Plan”). Drake’s only win is best rap song for “God’s Plan.” Accepting the Grammy, Drake was candid about his feelings about peer-voted awards. “We play an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport,” he said. “You already won if you have people singing your songs word for word, if they’re singing in your hometown. You’re already winning, you don’t need this right here.”
At this point, his career Grammy track record is 4-for-42.
In 2020, Drake criticized the Grammys after The Weeknd (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) received no nominations for his After Hours album or its blockbuster single “Blinding Lights.”
“I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artist that exist now and the ones that come after,” Drake said in an Insta story at the time. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just won’t change their ways. The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way. This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up overtime and pass on to the generations to come.”
Drake receives three nods, including best music video for Future’s “Life Is Good,” on which he was featured. He loses all three (natch), but it was a real achievement to make the all-genre video category.
Drake’s sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy, is nominated for best rap album, as all five of its predecessors had been. And its lead single, “Way 2 Sexy,” featuring Future & Young Thug, is nominated for best rap performance. But these nods don’t show up in Drake’s official nominations count or on his page at Grammy.com. Drake’s management asked the Recording Academy to remove him from consideration on the final-round balloting, a request the Academy honored.
Drake doesn’t submit his 2022 album, Honestly, Nevermind, or any of its singles for consideration. Even so, he receives four nominations, his best showing since 2019. He receives his sixth total album of the year nomination for Beyoncé’s Renaissance. And he wins his fifth Grammy, for best melodic rap performance for his guest spot on Future’s “Wait For U.”
This year’s nominations will be revealed on Nov. 10. The awards will be presented on Feb. 4, 2024 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.