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The 2027 Grammys will be decided without some of the year’s most-played music. Drake reportedly kept all three of his 2026 albums out of the running, and BTS and Stray Kids declined to enter anything at all. First-round voting opens Monday (Oct. 12), and the nominations arrive Nov. 16.
What did Drake do?
Sources told Billboard that he didn’t submit ICEMAN, HABIBTI or MAID OF HONOUR, or any of their songs. The detail surfaced on Oct. 5, inside a Billboard feature on hip-hop’s Grammy prospects, and it rests on unnamed sources, which is why everyone is still saying “reportedly.” It matters because, as of September, Drake was the only rapper to reach the Hot 100’s top 10 as a lead artist this year.
Read moreDrake’s HABIBTI (FOMO) Is Tracking for No. 2 as Coachella 2027 Talk Builds
He more or less told us. On “Make Them Know,” the track that closes ICEMAN, he raps that he’s never submitting the album, as Rolling Stone and Complex both pointed out. All three albums came out together on May 15, well inside the eligibility window of Aug. 31, 2025, to Aug. 28, 2026. Hear the song below.
Has he done this before?
Yes, and the history explains the shrug. Drake is a five-time Grammy winner, but he said he didn’t even want the two awards “Hotline Bling” won in 2017, and his acceptance speech for “God’s Plan” in 2019 was cut short on the broadcast. He kept More Life out of the 2018 awards and had his Certified Lover Boy nominations pulled from the 2022 show. His last nomination came at this year’s ceremony, for “Somebody Loves Me” with PARTYNEXTDOOR, which lost to Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther.”
Charlamagne Tha God doesn’t think the Academy is the point. On the Oct. 7 episode of The Breakfast Club, he argued that Drake measures himself somewhere else entirely:
He actually cares more about internet validation than he does the Grammys.
Charlamagne Tha God, on The Breakfast Club, Complex
His co-hosts Loren LoRosa and Jess Hilarious pushed back, suggesting Drake cares more about the people. The exchange starts around the 1:00:31 mark of the full episode.
Why are BTS and Stray Kids out?
Their absence traces back to a new award. In June, the Recording Academy added Best Asian Pop Music Performance, one of five new categories for the 69th Grammys. Under its rules, an entry needs “meaningful use of one or more Asian languages,” and a recording performed entirely in English can’t compete there, though it stays eligible elsewhere, Music Business Worldwide reports.
BTS said on July 29 that they wouldn’t submit, which kept ARIRANG out of contention. They never named the category, but their statement, translated from Korean, made the point. HYBE, the company behind the group, told Korean media it was “not a boycott at the company level.”
We hope music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.
BTS, in a July 29 statement translated from Korean, Music Business Worldwide
Stray Kids followed. On Oct. 2, JYP Entertainment confirmed the group hadn’t submitted anything before entries closed on Aug. 21, and it gave no reason. Asked about awards at a press conference in August, Seungmin said the group has “never once set out to make an album chasing a particular award or record,” according to Rolling Stone.
“SWIM,” from ARIRANG, won Song of the Year at the MTV VMAs last month. Watch it below.
What is the Academy saying now?
It isn’t backing down. CEO Harvey Mason jr. confirmed on Oct. 1 that the category will be handed out in February, saying the loudest feedback had come from “enthusiastic supporters of the category.” In a Billboard interview published Oct. 9, he admitted the rollout taught the Academy to think harder about how new categories land with the artists they’re meant to honor. Asked whether there could be more than one Asian pop category next year, he left the door open:
I would say all that is open for discussion, and we will be having some very robust conversations around not just the Asian pop category, but all of our categories.
Harvey Mason jr., Recording Academy CEO, Billboard
The voting body is bigger this year, too: more than 2,300 new voting members joined. The Feb. 7 show will present 100 awards, the most since 2011, and moves to ABC, Disney+ and Hulu after 54 years on CBS, with a new host replacing Trevor Noah.
Who gains?
Hip-hop’s general-field hopes now rest on other people. With no major eligible releases from Kendrick Lamar, Clipse or Tyler, the Creator, the Academy members Billboard spoke to pointed to A$AP Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb and Don Toliver’s OCTANE and its hit “E85” instead. Record executive and Academy member Riggs Morales put it plainly:
This was a pretty weak year for standout [hip-hop] releases with storylines, with narratives.
Riggs Morales, Recording Academy member, Billboard
Drake, meanwhile, is doing what he says matters: his HABIBTI (FOMO) deluxe is tracking for No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and his playful rivalry with Bruno Mars over Karol G is still running.
What happens next?
First-round voting runs Oct. 12 to 22. Nominees are announced Nov. 16, final-round voting runs Dec. 10 to Jan. 7, and the ceremony takes place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, 2027. The first Asian pop nominees will be named on Nov. 16, and so will a general field without Drake in it.
- First-round voting
- Oct. 12–22, 2026
- Nominations
- Nov. 16, 2026
- Final-round voting
- Dec. 10, 2026–Jan. 7, 2027
- Ceremony
- Feb. 7, 2027, Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles
- Broadcast
- ABC, Disney+ and Hulu
