The Grammy Awards producers have slammed Frank Ocean.
Ocean refused to submit his 2016 album ‘Blonde’ for considering for the annual awards show, calling it “dated” and out of touch with young black artists but the Grammy Awards broadcast’s producer Ken Ehrlich and writer David Wild have hit out at Frank and his 2013 performance at the ceremony.
Speaking on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, David said: “Frank had a very definite idea of exactly what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it. Ken said, that’s not great TV, and what he’s taught all of us is, We’re not putting on a radio show … you have to make it a TV moment. And he knew from the start that that was not one of those moments.”
Ken added: “We executed his vision knowing that it was faulty. And we tried to tell him that, we tried to tell his management that, we tried to tell the record label that. So, his feelings about the Grammys right now, I would imagine, probably go back to that in one way. But honestly, it wasn’t us.”
The pair also admitted they are disappointed that Drake and Kanye West will not be performing at the ceremony but said they are still working on Justin Bieber. Ken said: “If they’re concerned about the representation of hip-hop on the show, they need to respond and say ‘Yeah, of course I want to do it’. They’ve all done it in the past. Without overstating it, I think we were very instrumental in the growth of Kanye West’s career. He did epic performances on our show going back to ‘Jesus Walks.’ We know that he’s had his problems this past year, but we pursued him. We would love to have had him here. Same with Drake. But early on, before nominations came out or anything, Drake had already locked in his schedule to be in Europe. So, there’s nothing I can do about that. Justin Bieber, we’re still talking to him – he may or he may not be there.”
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