Kanye West’s Grammy Performance Has Been Canceled Over His “Concerning Online Behavior”

March 20, 2022 / Posted by:

A quick second after Instagram locked Kanye West out of his IG account for 24 hours due to him throwing a racial slur at Trevor Noah, among other things, the Grammys decided to get into some Ban Kanye (Banye?) action too. The Grammy producers must have done the math and realized that Kanye West + a mic + a live show = Not A Fucking Good Idea. Because a rep for Kanye (seen above looking like Storm’s second cousin going to a David Byrne’s Big Suit-themed leather bar) tells Variety that he was supposed to perform at this year’s Grammys, but not anymore.

Kanye West is up for 5 Grammys this year including two Album of the Year noms for Donda and Lil Nas X’s Montero (Kanye is a producer on that album). The Grammys are scheduled to go down on April 3 in Las Vegas. Earlier this week, the first group of Grammy performers was announced and that list included the Brothers Osborne, Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, Olivia Rodrigo, BTS, Billie Eilish, and Brandi Carlile. Kanye wasn’t officially announced as a performer, but The Blast says he was scheduled to perform. That’s not happening anymore, though. Kanye’s team got a call on Friday letting them know that they can go ahead and delete the Craigslist ad looking for a Pete Davidson look-alike who doesn’t mind being fake killed during a Grammy performance of Eazy (I’m guessing that’s what Kanye had planned). Because Kanye is no longer invited to perform.

West’s rep cited a report in the Blast posted late Friday claiming that the artist’s team received a phone call Friday night informing him he had been “unfortunately” removed from the lineup of performers for the show due to his “concerning online behavior.” While West, who is up for five 2022 Grammy Awards, was not among the first list of performers announced on Tuesday, he may have been a planned performer.

A rep for West sent Variety a link to that story, saying only “This is confirmed”; the rep did not respond to requests for further information, although the Blast report states, “Our sources say Kanye’s team isn’t surprised by the decision.”

This year’s Grammys will be hosted by Trevor Noah, and sources tell The Blast that’s partly the reason why Kanye’s performance was canned. After Trevor said on The Daily Show that Kanye’s social media harassment of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson could lead to violence, Kanye repeatedly called Trevor a racial slur on Instagram and producers are apparently afraid that things are going to get extra messy during the show and don’t want to risk it.

We’re told the decision was made partially because Trevor Noah is hosting the night’s festivities and there is worry about the two men’s interaction during the show. As we reported, Kanye responded to Noah after he addressed the rapper’s split from ex-wife Kim Kardashian. “I’ll be honest with you — what I see from the situation is a woman who wants to live her life without being harassed by an ex-boyfriend or an ex-husband or an ex-anything,” Noah said.

Kanye’s rep wouldn’t say if he’s also been disinvited from going to the Grammys at all. I mean, producers are probably not going to go THAT far. They still want some Kanye drama for ratings. But if Kanye does show up, the band won’t have to worry about playing off the winners whose acceptance speeches go on too long. Because about 10 seconds into every acceptance speech, Kanye is going to jump on the stage, snatch the mic out of the winner’s hand, and slam absolutely everybody. Wrap up your speech in 10 seconds or you’ll be Kanye’d off!

Pic: Walik Goshorn/Media Punch/INSTARimages.com

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