Drake accepts the award for Best Rap Song for 'Gods Plan' at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. February 10, 2019.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Drake won the Best Rap Song Award for "God's Plan" at the 61st Grammys Awards, and his acceptance speech came with a bit of controversy. After taking the stage and his trophy, Drake began a surprisingly reflective and insightful speech about the nature of the music business. It was when he dismissed the Grammys themselves that the telecast cut to commercial break, and his mic was reportedly cut onstage in the Staples Center.
Addressing fans and fellow nominees, Drake said: "I want to let yall know that we're playing in an opinion-based sport, not a factual based sport. He went on to give shoutouts to Cardi B and Travis Scott. "This is a business where sometimes it's up to a bunch of people who might not understand what a mixed raced kid from Canada has to say, or a fly Spanish girl from New York, or a fly brother from Houston."
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"If you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you're a hero in your hometown, if there's people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain and the snow, spending hard earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don't need this right here," an apparent nod to his Grammy. "You already won." At that point the telecast cut to commercial. Watch the speech in full below:
Entertainment Weekly's Alex Suskind, tweeting from the Staples Center, said Drake's onstage mic was cut too:
Many Twitter users expressed amusement and shock that Drake had apparently been cut off. But he found a fan in Ariana Grande, who had her own conflict with the Grammys this week:
