Frank Ocean Fires Back at ‘Old’ Grammy Producers
Frank Ocean fired back at Grammy producers in a seething Tumblr post Saturday night, after producer Ken Ehrlich and writer David Wild speculated in the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast that Ocean opted not to submit his Blonde for Grammy consideration due to his “faulty” 2013 performance. “Winning a TV award doesn’t christen me successful,” Ocean wrote.
“Yea yea my 2013 performance at the Grammys was absolute shit. Technical difficulties, blah blah,” Ocean continued. “Fuck that performance though. You think that’s why I kept my work out of the Grammy process this year? Don’t you think I would’ve wanted to play the show to ‘redeem’ myself if I felt that way?”
In his post, Ocean admitted that he considered taking part in this year’s planned Prince tribute “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.”
Ocean also criticized the Grammys for being out of touch, especially when it came to last year’s Album of the Year battle between Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar.
“I’ve actually been tuning into CBS around this time of year for a while to see who gets the top honor and you know what’s really not ‘great TV’ guys? 1989 getting album of the year over To Pimp A Butterfly,” he wrote. “Hands down one of the most ‘faulty’ TV moments I’ve seen.”
Ocean added, “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.”
In their interview with Rolling Stone Music Now, Wild and Ehrlich discussed Ocean’s “Forrest Gump” performance at the 2013 Grammys, accusing the singer for being too “rigid” in his vision for the show.
“Frank had a very definite idea of exactly what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it,” Wild said. “Ken said, that’s not great TV, and what he’s taught all of us is, ‘We’re not putting on a radio show … you have to make it a TV moment.’ And he knew from the start that that was not one of those moments.”
Read Ocean’s full Tumblr post to the Grammys below:
Ok Ken (and David). As much as I hate to make you guys famous or even respond to you directly. We all die one day and you’re old so fuck it. Yea yea my 2013 performance at the Grammys was absolute shit. Technical difficulties, blah blah. Thanks for the reminder. Very much appreciated. Fuck that performance though. You think that’s why I kept my work out of the Grammy process this year? 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 honoring 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. It took me some time to learn that. I bought all my masters back last year in the prime of my career, that’s successful. Blonde sold a million plus without a label, that’s 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 honor and you know what’s really not ‘great TV’ guys? 1989 getting album of the year over To Pimp A Butterfly. Hands down one of the most ‘faulty’ TV moments I’ve seen. 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. Have a good night.
The entire interview with Ehrlich and Wild is available on the latest episode of our podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now. Listen and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Spotify and tune in Fridays at 1 p.m. ET to hear the show live on Sirius XM’s Volume channel.