Frank Ocean Hits Back At Grammy Producers In Tumblr Post

Frank Ocean has responded to the Grammy Awards telecast producers who had criticised him for his performance four years ago, calling them “old” and responsible for “faulty TV” in a new Tumblr post.

Writing on Sunday (February 12th), the 29 year old singer went in with both feet on Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich and writer David Wild, saying “We all die one day and you're old so f*** it,” and citing the moment Taylor Swift won the 2016 Grammy for Album of the Year as an example of how The Recording Academy was behind the times.

Speaking to Rolling Stone’s Music Now Podcast two days before the 2017 ceremony, producer Ehrlich and Wild responded to criticisms that the Grammys were “dated” and out of touch with young black artists. They said that the likes of Ocean and fellow boycotters Justin Bieber and Kanye West should turn up to perform in order to better represent themselves and their communities.

Additionally, addressing Ocean in particular and his disappointing performance of ‘Forrest Gump’ at the 2013 Grammys, Ehrlich implied that that was the reason he had decided to sit out the 2017 edition, not even putting forward his latest album Blonde forward for consideration.

Ehrlich recalled that the young singer was “rigid” about his idea, “and 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.”

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Ocean specifically mentioned this in his post. “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 honouring 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… 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 honour and you know what's really not 'great TV' guys? 1989 getting album of the year over [Kendrick Lamar’s] To Pimp A Butterfly. Hands down one of the most 'faulty' TV moments I’ve seen.”

The issue of diversity reared its head during the 2017 ceremony, when Adele expressed hesitancy at picking up the Album of the Year award for 25, ahead of Beyonce’s Lemonade which many felt ought have won.

Completing his rant, Ocean wrote: “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.”

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