Kanye West Just Won Two More Grammys And Broke The Record For The Most Wins For A Hip-Hop Artist Despite Being Pulled From The Show Over His “Concerning Online Behavior”

Despite not being in attendance, the 64th Annual Grammy Awards wound up being a pretty successful night for Kanye West.

After what’s already been a pretty turbulent year for Ye, the rapper was honored twice at Sunday night’s ceremony in Las Vegas, scooping awards for tracks from his 10th studio album, Donda.

“Hurricane,” his song with The Weeknd, was crowned Best Melodic Rap Performance, and he and Jay-Z also went on to win Best Rap Song for their collaboration, “Jail,” meaning that the two rappers are now tied for the most wins for a hip-hop artist ever, with a total of 24 Grammys each.

However, the man himself was not there to claim his record-breaking awards in-person, having been caught up in a ton of controversy in recent months.

In case you missed it, on Mar. 19 a representative for Ye confirmed that an unannounced performance had been scrapped from the ceremony due to his “concerning online behavior.” The spokesperson corroborated earlier reports that Kanye had received a phone call from the Recording Academy informing him that he would no longer be allowed to perform at the show.

This news hardly came as a surprise to many fans, given that Kanye was facing intense criticism following a string of concerning and harassing Instagram posts shared throughout February and March — the majority of which were directed towards his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and her new partner, Pete Davidson.

And while the representative did not specify the exact details of the decision to pull Kanye’s performance, many have speculated that the final straw were his comments directed at The Daily Show anchor Trevor Noah, who also hosted last night’s Grammys ceremony.

As you likely remember, on Mar. 16 Kanye published a disturbing post featuring racial slurs targeted at Noah. The post — which came after weeks of similarly concerning behavior aimed at others — resulted in the rapper being served with a 24-hour suspension for violating Instagram’s policies on hate speech, bullying, and harassment.

It wasn’t initially clear why he chose to target Noah, however it later became evident that Ye was responding to comments that the host had made during a segment on The Daily Show regarding his public harassment of Kim and Pete.

It was quickly reported that the decision to cancel Kanye’s performance was made in part because of concerns about how he and Noah would interact during the ceremony.

And despite being barred from performing, a source later informed Variety that there wasn’t anything to stop Kanye from still attending the awards and walking the red carpet. Representatives for Ye did not confirm whether or not he would still attend the ceremony, although it came as no surprise last night to see that the rapper was ultimately a no-show.

Of course, if you know anything about Kanye, you’ll know that these events add to his long and complicated history with award shows, especially the Grammys. Whether it’s giving iconic speeches or publicly slamming the Recording Academy, it’s been a long road to becoming one of the most decorated artists of all time.

It’s also important to note that the video was shared during a period in September 2020 when Kanye — who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016 — was thought to be going through a manic episode. For some wider context, the same day that he shared the video of himself urinating, Kanye reportedly tweeted over 100 times in one hour, and was subsequently suspended from the platform for 12 hours.

So, in light of his past behavior, and the events that led to his performance being pulled from the ceremony, it’s understandable that fans were shocked to see that Kanye’s work was still being celebrated by the Recording Academy.

But along with skipping the ceremony, Kanye has also been pretty quiet on social media recently. Interestingly, the rapper has not returned to Instagram since serving his 24-hour ban last month.

However, reports suggest that all is well, and that he and Kim are focused on coparenting their four children together. The claims came days after the exes were photographed together watching their eldest son, Saint, play soccer last weekend.