Drake's Junos Grudge Resurfaces During Nelly Furtado Hall of Fame Tribute
Drake could not resist airing a long-held grudge against the Juno Awards as he inducted Nelly Furtado into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame on Sunday night. The music superstar shelved his years-long feud with the Junos to help pay tribute to Furtado, who joins other notable names like Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, Nickelback, Shania Twain, Rush, and Anne Murray in the Hall of Fame. However, he still took a subtle dig at fellow rapper Shad, who beat Drake fifteen years ago when the awards show took place in Toronto.
A Lingering Dispute from 2011
"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," Drake said during the ceremony. He referenced the show from fifteen years ago, where he was left embarrassed after hosting the ceremony and being famously shut out of the top prizes. "But listen, that’s neither here nor there. Tonight we’ll let it go," he added, as his comments quickly went viral on social media.
Shad Sets the Record Straight
In response, the Kenyan-born rapper Shad took to Instagram to set the record straight on what actually happened in 2011. He shared screenshots of a corrective that ran in the Toronto Star, clarifying the details. "This is the last I want to talk about this … I really believe artists should be trying to direct attention towards things beyond ourselves: Big serious things, small beautiful things, things more vital, edifying, and interesting than this," he wrote in his caption. Shad emphasized the importance of focusing on craft and message rather than ego and noise in the music industry.
According to the Junos website, Drake did not lose in 2011 for Take Care; instead, he lost for his debut record Thank Me Later. Shad also did not beat Drake in every category—he only won rap record of the year. Drake lost album of the year and songwriter of the year to Arcade Fire, dropped artist of the year to Neil Young, while Justin Bieber took home the Juno Fan Choice prize, and Young Artists for Haiti won single of the year.
Historical Context and Industry Reactions
Ever since being snubbed in 2011, Drake has not attended the Junos—Canada’s version of the Grammys—and has not submitted any of his music to the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS), the industry nonprofit that organizes the awards show. Emceeing the event from what was then called the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, he was the evening’s most-nominated performer but won zero trophies.
Dalton Higgins, author of Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake, noted that Drake did not forget the slight. "It was also the first time in the 40-year history of the awards that a musician who agreed to host the show and had nominated music didn’t win at least one award," he said in an email. "In Canada’s ‘urban’ music scene, the feeling has always been that Drake got snubbed at the 40th edition of the Awards show. He got six nominations, was the leading rap artist in North America, never mind Canada, and won nothing in his home country. How bizarre was that?"
Kardinal Offishall told Global News at the time that he thought Drake deserved better. "It makes absolutely no sense … It’s disrespect, what they did," he said.
Drake's Stance on Awards and Recognition
During the 2024 Grammys, Drake took to social media to express his indifference toward awards recognition. "All you incredible artists remember this show isn’t the facts—it’s just the opinion of a group of people whose names are kept a secret," he wrote on his Instagram Stories. "Literally. You can Google it. Congrats to anybody winning anything for hip hop, but this show doesn’t dictate s*** in our world."
He also reminded fellow musicians in 2019 not to worry about clamoring for trophies. "You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word," he said at that year’s Grammys. "If there are people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don’t need this right here, I promise you, you already won."
Shad further shared an opinion piece he penned for the Vancouver Sun in 2011, suggesting that the Junos could be revamped to celebrate everyday Canadians. "How about this for next year’s Junos: Ten of the year’s biggest musicians present awards to ten Canadians like Craig who have devoted their lives to building a better society," he wrote. "I’ve shared the piece in the last couple slides before but resharing here just because it’s precisely about trying to creatively confront this challenge. I wrote it at the request of the Vancouver Sun a few days before the 2011 Junos and it went kinda viral back then. The idea I propose in it was probably naive but it’s literally our job as artists to dream of something better."
