Frank Ocean Disses Grammy Producers In Tumblr Post

Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean won’t be at the Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday, but he still let off a few shots at the show’s producers after comments they made this week.

Ocean intentionally left his critically-acclaimed album Blonde out of consideration for this year’s Grammys, saying that the awards and their nomination and awarding processes were “dated.” Rolling Stone spoke to Grammys producers Ken Ehrlich and David Wild about Ocean’s comments, and they spoke about his stubbornness surrounding his maligned performance at the awards show in 2013, when he was nominated for his album Channel Orange.

In a new Tumblr post, Ocean aired his grievances. admitted that his performance was bad, but then he got down to insulting the award show producers. He replied by saying that the Grammys awarding Taylor Swift’s 1999 with Album of the Year instead of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly was “bad TV,” and that viewers would “rather watch select performances from your program on YouTube the day after because your show puts them to sleep.” He also said that he considered participating in the show this year to pay homage to Prince, but that his own pursuit of freedom through his artistry and business honor Prince more than an awards show would. Read Frank Ocean’s full post below.

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. Yea yea 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 honoring 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 year for a while to see who gets the top honor 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.