Frank Ocean Didn't Get A Single Grammys Nod

After waiting with baited breath this morning, the 2016 Grammy nominations have been announced, and subsequently, the 2016 nomination snubs have been declared all up and down Twitter. And among all the upsets, it's particularly to strange to some fans that there are no nods for Endless or Blonde... anywhere. Where is Frank Ocean's Grammy nomination?

Well, if it helps you sleep at night, there was no Grammy vendetta against the R&B singer. Lest we forget, Ocean has already garnered six nominations in the past, including a Best Urban Contemporary Album for Channel Orange and a Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "No Church in the Wild" with Kanye and Jay Z. Instead, Ocean isn't getting a nomination for his albums this year because neither Endless or Blonde were submitted for Grammy consideration by Ocean's labels, management or other representative. And, considering that both albums came out a while before the submission deadline, you can guess that it's because Ocean intentionally didn't throw his hat in the ring.

"I think the infrastructure of the awarding system and the nomination system and screening system is dated," he said in an interview with the New York Times, in which he spoke about not submitting his music for consideration this year. "I’d rather this be my Colin Kaepernick moment for the Grammys than sit there in the audience."

And there are a lot of reasons besides the obvious that he would want to sit this one out. Maybe Ocean just didn't want to deal with the competition overall. After all, as prestigious as the Grammys are, it's also a weird, pop-leaning world where Panic of the Disco! is considered "rock." It makes sense that Ocean, therefore, wanted to keep his artistry in tact. After all, this is someone who surprise dropped a seamless visual-audience experience on Apple Music as a bonus to his actual highly anticipated album.

As such why would he want part of Endless or Blonde's legacy to include "snubbed for a Justin Bieber album"? No, Ocean took himself out of the race entirely, and in doing so preserves the prestige of his 2016 work. After all, Blonde ended up soaring to the number one spot on the Billboard charts following it's debut. It remains one of the most successful releases of the year, and it can keep that reputation by not playing into the awards game.