Arts & Entertainment
Kanye West threatens to skip Grammys if Frank Ocean isn’t nominated
rapper says Academy made exception for Lady Gaga

Frank Ocean’s sophomore album ‘Blonde.‘ (Photo courtesy Boys Don’t Cry)
Kanye West wants Frank Ocean to receive the same Grammys treatment as Lady Gaga.
According to Billboard, Ocean’s album “Blonde” and his visual album “Endless” were not submitted for consideration by Ocean’s management by the 2017 Grammy eligibility deadline.
During the Oakland stop of his Saint Pablo tour, West says the Academy should find a way to include Ocean like it did for Lady Gaga in 2010.
“[Gaga] wasn’t nominated for Best New Artist, right? But they wanted her to perform at the show; they wanted her to open. So the Grammys secretly changed something about the nominations in order to nominate her, in order for her to perform in the show,” West told the crowd.
Lady Gaga’s “The Fame Monster,” a reissue of her 2008 debut album “The Fame,” was nominated for five Grammys in 2010 and she performed with Elton John at the awards ceremony.
However, she was excluded from a Best New Artist nomination because her single “Just Dance” had been released in 2008.
Artists whose work have been previously nominated had been ineligible to be nominated for Best New Artist.
The Academy changed the rules in 2010 because of Lady Gaga’s ineligibility for the category despite her rising popularity.
West believes Ocean’s albums, which have received critical acclaim, should receive similar treatment.
“Now, Frank Ocean, on the other hand, is very vocal that his album wasn’t nominated for the Grammys, right? Since he’s vocal, no one wants to say nothing about it. No one wants to do nothing about it. And I’m saying this to y’all, because a lot of people try to make a scene, like, ‘I’m so self-centered.’ But the album I listened to the most this year is Frank Ocean’s album. And I’ll tell you this right now: If his album’s not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammys,” West continued.
The 2017 Grammy nominees list will be released on Dec. 8.
Baltimore
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
Pope of Trash dishes on Trump, plane etiquette, last meal, and more
By WESLEY CASE | At 80 years old, John Waters is still the ideal dinner guest — incisively sharp, quick-witted and funny as hell.
The chic Baltimore native proved it again and again in a recent Zoom interview, calling from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.
The occasion was the Blu-ray releases of two of his movies — the 1977 dark comedy “Desperate Living” and his enduring 1988 musical “Hairspray” — on June 23 by the Criterion Collection, which publishes restorations of films it deems culturally important. The Criterion stamp of approval has become the gold standard among cinephiles.
“It’s like getting an award,” said Waters, who wrote and directed both films.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
The Washington Blade held the seventh annual Pride on the Pier at The Wharf DC on Saturday, June 13.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)



















The 2026 Lost River Pride Festival was held on the scenic grounds of the Lost River Farmers Market in Lost City, W.Va. on Saturday, June 13. Headliner Tom Goss performed at the festival and gave a second performance at the nearby Guesthouse Lost River.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)




















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