Drake is still holding grudges from 15 years ago. During Sunday's Juno Awards, Drake appeared remotely, sending in a video to induct Nelly Furtado into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame. During that speech, Drake paused all of his praise for. Furtado to hype his upcoming album Iceman — he's still calling it that — and to take a stray shot at the London, Ontario rapper Shad.
During his induction speech, Drake said, "To the Junos, because you are honoring one of my dearest friends tonight, I will spare you, even though I know you're still thinking about those six awards that you gave to Shad in 2011 when you snubbed Take Care as I hosted the 40th anniversary of your award show. But listen, that's neither here there [sic]. Tonight, we'll let it go." Judging by his delivery, Drake probably meant that as a joke. It just doesn't come across that way when you don't hear anyone laughing.
Take Care, the best album that Drake ever made, actually won a 2012 Juno — Canada's version of a Grammy — for Rap Recording Of The Year. Drake's little witticism was presumably a reference to the 2011 Junos, which Drake hosted. That year, his official debut Thank Me Later, which is nowhere near as good as Take Care, lost that award to a Shad album called TSOL.
Drake lost a bunch of other awards that night, but it wasn't like Shad ran the table on him. He lost the Fan Choice Award to Justin Bieber, Artist Of The Year to Neil Young, Album Of The Year and Songwriter Of The Year to Arcade Fire, and Single Of The Year to the one-off supergroup Young Artists For Haiti. Since Drake was one of the participants in that Young Artists For Haiti song, you might even argue that he didn't lose that one.
In any case, that stray shot was evidently a big moment for Shad, whose work I don't know at all. (This Shad is not Shad Moss, AKA Bow Wow. It's a different Shad.) Now, Shad has responded. On Instagram, Shad writes, "There's a lot of temptation to ego in this biz. The real work is staying focused on the craft, the message, and the people rather than the noise."
In his post, Shad shares screenshots of Toronto Star and Rolling Stone articles correcting the record on Drake's Juno losses. He also mentions a 2011 Vancouver Sun article in which he suggests a version of the Junos that don't pit artists against each other, where stars would instead present awards to Canadians who "have devoted their lives to building a better society."
