Damon Dash Says Black Artists Should ‘Make Our Own Grammys’ Amid Kanye West Backlash
After Kanye West’s performance for the 2022 Grammys was canceled due to “concerning online behavior” West’s friend and former CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records Damon Dash gave his opinion on why Ye doesn’t care about the award show.
“Kanye don’t give a f— about the Grammys,” Dash bluntly told TMZ during a run-in at LAX on Tuesday (March 22). “We make our own Grammys.”
The rap mogul also voiced his opinion that Black entertainers and artists should create institutions that uplift and embrace their own culture: “I’m not trying to fit into somebody else’s system. So we just create our own so we ain’t gotta worry about nobody else’s rules. It’s not for them to judge who’s hot. It’s for us. They really shouldn’t be giving us the awards. We should be giving them the awards. They gotta respect our culture.”
Although Ye can’t perform at the Grammys, he can still attend the show. The outlet asked Dash his thoughts on what should happen if Ye wins and goes up on stage and accepts his Grammy. Dash doesn’t recommend it and he’s encouraging Ye to skip it altogether, the gossip site reports.
Dash believes the Grammys are out of touch with hip hop and says he didn’t go either when he was nominated.
The “concerning online behavior” that had Ye’s Grammys performance axed was when he hurled racial slurs at Trevor Noah. The comedian who is hosting the award show on Sunday (March 27) responded to the Academy’s decision tweeting, “I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.”
I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 20, 2022
The Daily Show host also responded to Ye’s attack in a lengthy comment saying in part it “broke his heart” to see the rapper like this referring to his latest social media antics. Since Kanye’s 24 hour suspension from Instagram, the rapper has deleted all posts and has not posted any new content.
