Kanye “Ye” West’s rep says that an unannounced performance at the 2022 Grammy Awards has been pulled due to “concerning online behavior.”
A representative for the rapper confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter details in a report, published on Friday by The Blast, which alleges West received a call Friday evening notifying him that he was scrapped from this year’s Grammys performer line-up. While West is up for five nominations this year, he was not among the first round of artists announced to perform by the Recording Academy ahead of the April 3 ceremony.
A rep for West, whose legal name is Ye, declined to confirm whether he was still attending or invited to the show taking place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. THR has reached out to the Recording Academy for comment but has yet to hear back.
The news follows Ye’s temporary suspension from Instagram on Wednesday, March 16, after he published a post featuring a slur that targeted The Daily Show host Trevor Noah. During the 24-hour suspension, the Grammy-winning musician was unable to post, comment or send DMs.
In Ye’s post, which has since been deleted by Instagram, lyrics to “Kumbaya” were replaced with a variation of a racial epithet based on a minstrel character. West used the slur in response to a Tuesday segment of The Daily Show, in which Noah addressed the rapper’s online fixation on and harassment of both his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her current boyfriend, SNL cast member Pete Davidson, calling it “terrifying to watch.”
Before West’s post was removed, Noah — who is hosting the 2022 Grammys show — responded, telling the rapper that his behavior “broke” the host’s heart and that Ye should “know the difference between that and fighting your family.”
“If you’re just joking about it all and I’m an idiot for caring, then so be it. But I’d rather be the idiot who spoke up,” Noah concluded his comment.
West’s public response to Noah is just the latest chapter in his ongoing public response to his divorce from Kardashian, who was declared legally single on March 2. Kardashian filed for divorce from West in February 2021 after six years of marriage, and during court proceedings claimed he was causing her “emotional distress” with his social media posts.
Since then, West has made numerous public comments across social media about their split. Ye apologized in February for at least some of those posts, specifically those that involved him publishing private texts with Kardashian on his public account.
Addressing his escalating social media responses to their divorce, he wrote that “I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability.” He went on to say that he’s “still learning in real time” and that he could “benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers and community leaders.”
But following the public apology, Ye went on to, among other things, depict decapitating a claymation version of Davidson in his video for “Eazy,” a track that features the lyrics, “God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
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