Despite earning four Grammy nominations this year, J. Cole failed to snag any trophies at Sunday’s 64th annual ceremony.
The North Carolina rapper was nominated in four categories: Best Rap Album (The Off-Season), Best Melodic Rap Performance (“Pride Is the Devil”), Best Rap Performance (“My Life”), and Best Rap Song (“My Life”). Cole, a 16-time nominee overall, came away empty handed, as Tyler, the Creator won Best Rap Album for Call Me If You Get Lost, Baby Keem’s “Family Ties” featuring Kendrick Lamar snagged Best Rap Performance, and Kanye West took home Best Melodic Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for Donda tracks “Hurricane” and “Jail.”
Cole appears to be taking the loss in stride. While performing at his 2022 Dreamville Festival on Sunday night, the rapper took a moment to celebrate his sole Grammy award to date, which he won in 2020 for his appearance on 21 Savage’s late 2018 single “A Lot.”
“Y’all make some noise for my n***a 21 Savage. He got a n***a his…the only Grammy I ever won was ’cause of this n***a 21 Savage, you know what I mean?” Cole said as he performed the song.
It isn’t the first time Cole took the high road after losing at the Grammys. Back in 2019, after his album KOD was snubbed in the nomination process, the rapper took to Twitter to celebrate his peers who took home trophies at that year’s show.
“I don’t never wanna be propped up by tearing somebody else down,” he wrote. “Seeing Cardi b win a Grammy make me feel like I won. Same with jay rock and Anderson.”
Cole went on to say that he’d learned to seek validation elsewhere. “I went through a lot of heart break the first half of my career, maybe even longer, cuz deep down I needed that validation that I thought the awards could bring,” he said, before sharing a quote that read, “My heart is at ease knowing that what was meant for me will never miss me, and that what misses me was never meant for me.”
From there, Cole congratulated a few other peers before declaring that “no award show could ever get it all the way right. Especially one that ain’t run by us.”
