"What am I doin? What am I doin?
Oh, yeah, that's right, I'm doin me
I'm doin me, I'm livin life right now mayne
And this what I'ma do 'til it's over, 'til it's over
But it's far from over"
Oh, yeah, that's right, I'm doin me
I'm doin me, I'm livin life right now mayne
And this what I'ma do 'til it's over, 'til it's over
But it's far from over"
—"Over"
Influences:Influenced:
Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario), known professionally as just Drake, is a Canadian rapper and actor. Drake's father is an African-American (of Nigerian and Somali descent) from Memphis, Tennessee, and his mother is a white Jewish Canadian.
He originally became known for playing Jimmy Brooks on the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation (which, up until his guest host spot on Saturday Night Live, he didn't want to admit).
After making a few mixtapes, he was discovered by Lil Wayne in 2008. His first studio album, Thank Me Later, released on June 15, 2010, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album has since gone platinum. He released his second studio album, titled Take Care, in November 2011.
Drake has been nominated for several awards including Grammys, even being selected to perform at the 2010 Grammy award ceremony. Drake has also won several awards, including two Juno Awards in 2010 for Best New Artist, and Rap Recording of the Year, as well as the 2013 Grammy for Best Rap Album.
In 2012, Drake and producer Noah "40" Shebib launched the label imprint OVO Sound, which is currently distributed by Warner (Bros.) Records.
Not to be confused with Drake Bell or Nick Drake.
Discography:
- Room for Improvement (Mixtape) (2006)
- Comeback Season (Mixtape) (2007)
- So Far Gone (Mixtape/EP) (2009)
- Thank Me Later (2010)
- Take Care (2011)
- Nothing Was the Same (2013)
- If You're Reading This It's Too Late (Mixtape) (2015)
- What A Time To Be Alive (Mixtape) (2015) (with Future)
- Views (2016)
- More Life (Playlist) (2017)
- Scary Hours (EP) (2018)
- Scorpion (2018)
- Care Packagenote (2019)
- Dark Lane Demo Tapes (Mixtape) (2020)
- Scary Hours 2 (EP) (2021)
- Certified Lover Boy (2021)
- HONESTLY, NEVERMIND (2022)
- Her Loss (2022) (with 21 Savage)
- For All The Dogs (2023)
"Trope Me Later":
- Advertised Extra: Along with Nicki Minaj in Ice Age: Continental Drift. Their combined screen time is about five minutes and yet Fox saw it was enough to put their names on the poster. Meanwhile, actual actors like Peter Dinklage, Nick Frost, Aziz Ansari and Rebel Wilson have far more screen time than those two but barely appeared in the marketing.
- all lowercase letters: How the liner notes for If You're Reading This It's Too Late are presented.
- Answer Song: "The Motto" is this to "If Today Was Your Last Day" by Nickelback.
- Arc Words: OVO. It stands for "October's Very Own", referencing his birthday. He also raps with The Weeknd as OVOXO. OVO is mentioned in many of his songs.
- Ascended Meme: The "Drake the type of nigga" meme is referenced in "Back to Back":I'm not the type of nigga that'll type to niggas.
- Audience Participation Song:
- Everyone shouts the "I WAS! RUNNIN! THROUGH THE! SIX! WITH MY WOES!" chant from "Know Yourself".
- The entirety of "Back to Back", but especially the "world tour or your girl's tour" and "getting bodied by a singin' nigga" lines.
- Basketball: The video for "Best I Ever Had" is centered around a women's basketball team.
- Battle Rapping: Drizzy's gotten wrapped up in a few battles with other rappers, despite being labeled "soft":
- Around 2011 and 2012, Common and Drake were beefing heavily, with the center of the conflict rumored to be tennis star Serena Williams, who was romantically linked to both rappers at one point or another. Common first took subliminal shots with the track "Sweet", particularly in reference to comments Drake had made about him during a show. In turn, Drake responded with his verse on Rick Ross' track "Stay Schemin'", making fun of Common's age (he was almost 40 at the time), and implied Serena had told him some very nasty stuff about him during pillow talk. Common quickly came back with his own remix of "Stay Schemin'", accusing Drake of biting styles, trying to create a hardcore persona, despite being the total opposite and not being able to respond without hiding behind his associates' songs. The rappers eventually squashed their beef, but Common is widely considered the winner of the feud.
- In 2015, Meek Mill, apparently in response to Drake not helping promote his album Dreams Worth More Than Money, claimed Drake used a ghostwriter on their collabrative track "R.I.C.O.". Hot 97's longtime resident DJ Funkmaster Flex also chimed in on Meek's claims, leaking out reference tracks to support the former's claims. Drake quickly responded with the tracks "Charged Up" and "Back to Back", the latter of which was widely considered to have easily buried Meek by fans. Meek would attempt to clap back with "Wanna Know", but the rap community didn't take to it, and WWE quickly forced a
copyright takedown on the song, due to the song illegally sampling The Undertaker's theme music. Drake would go on a victory lap with "Summer Sixteen" prior to releasing Views, and also dissed Funkmaster Flex while on tour. After Meek was unjustly imprisoned in 2017, Drake publicly squashed the beef, and helped campaign for Meek's release from prison. - In 2016, not long after his feud with Meek had wrapped up, Joe Budden had given Drake's then-recent album Views negative reviews on his podcast. Drake would throw subliminal shots at Budden on "4PM in Calabasas", which Budden genuinely complimented, before retaliating with both "Making A Murderer Pt. 1" and "Wake". Drake would respond on French Montana's "No Shopping", but didn't name Budden in his verse. Budden would drop two more diss tracks at Drake, demanding a direct response, but the 6 God never did, and the beef eventually cooled out.
- Drake and Pusha T had been beefing on and off since 2012, stemming from the latter's feud with his mentors Birdman and Lil Wayne, but 2018 was when things truly kicked into high gear, and got Kanye West involved. Things started with Pusha T reigniting the ghostwriting accusations towards Drake on the track "Infrared" from his album Daytona. Drake quickly responded with the well-received "Duppy Freestyle", wherein he denied the ghostwriting accusations while questioning Pusha's past as a drug dealer, and insinuated he ghostwrote for Kanye while he visited him in Wyoming. Drake even went as far as to send G.O.O.D. Music a $100,000 invoice for "promotional assistance and career reviving". Unfortunately, Drake's fortunes would immediately turn sour with Pusha releasing "The Story of Adidon" a few days later. On "Adidon", Pusha revealed to the world that Drake had a secret child with a pornstar, accused him of being a deadbeat father, and mocked Drake's longtime producer Noah "40" Shebib for having multiple sclerosis. However, the most damning blow to Drizzy was the song's cover art, showing a photo of him in blackface with a goofy smile
◊ which prompted mockery and condemnation from all sides. Drake later explained that the photo was part of a project he did with a photographer about racism in the entertainment industry. He also accused Kanye of telling Pusha about his son, but Pusha claimed he got the info from a woman Shebib slept with. Ultimately, Drake never responded to "Adidon" on record, and it caused his reputation among the hip-hop community to nosedive tremendously, though it ultimately didn't hurt his overall sales or pop chart success. The feud would also lead to a beef between Kanye and Drake (mainly instigated by Ye) that lasted into 2021, with the two of them regularly throwing barbs at each other on various songs.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Talks about his love of these in his feature on Nicki Minaj's "Only" - though the fact that he's rapping about Nicki suggests that he means something a bit different.note
- Big Damn Heroes: The video for "Hold On, We're Going Home" is Drake and crew rescuing his lover from a rival gang in 1985 Miami.
- Breather Episode: "Wednesday Night Interlude" is a slow jam to help calm listeners down after the rap-dense first half of If You're Reading This It's Too Late.
- Boastful Rap: "Forever", "Over", and "Headlines". Many others.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The "Find Your Love" music video.
- Bowdlerise: His first hit single "Best I Ever Had", is changed from "You the fuckin' best, you the fuckin' best" to "You the, you the best" for radio play.
- Break-Up Song: "Hotline Bling" is about him angsting because of his ex not calling him on his cellphone anymore.
- Call-Back:
- "The Motto" interpolates a line in the chorus he provided for Lil Wayne's "She Will":
I mean maybe she won't, but then again maybe she will.- In "Summer Sixteen" he makes a reference to "Hotline Bling" and the infamous dance moves he performs in the music video:
Then I hit them with the hotline
Chris Breezy with the dance moves
Moe G with the dance moves
Ave Boy with the dance moves- "You Only Live Twice" is clearly a callback to "The Motto", which had the titular motto being YOLO (You Only Live Once). Both songs feature Lil Wayne.
- City Shout Outs: In "Fancy", one stanza talks directly to the girls of whatever city he's performing in about how they should be confident in themselves.Atlanta/NY/LA/TO(Toronto) girls, let me see your hands
Wave 'em at them bitches hating on you with their friends
Girl you got it
Let 'em know that everything big
Nails done, hair done, everything did - Cluster F-Bomb: Far too many to count (he is a rapper, after all). A very glaring example (given the song) is on the remix to Kanye West's "All of the Lights" (as mentioned on Rhyming with Itself below).
- "Days of the Week" Song: "Wednesday Night Interlude"
- Don't Explain the Joke: Does this twice on his Comeback Season mixtape.
- From "The Presentation":
Tryna make some cheese off a single is a process
Get it? Kraft, single, cheese, process- From "Man of the Year":
I never copied nor bit like Eddie, man
Did you get it? Eddie Murphy was in Norbit
Or was it way over your head? Did you forfeit? - Flipping the Bird: In the video for "Headlines".
- Freestyle Version: Around a quarter of the mixtape So Far Gone is freestyles, using songs by Jay-Z ("Ignorant Shit"), Kanye West ("Say You Will"), Lykke Li ("Little Bit"), Santogold ("Unstoppable") and Peter Bjorn and John ("Let's Call It Off"). note
- Genre Roulette: He switches between straight-up rap (combining elements of both Alternative Hip Hop and Pop Rap) and pop/R&B. One of his top hits is "Find Your Love", which has no rap at all. Take Care especially has less rap and more of an alternative R&B feel. On Views, "Controlla" and "One Dance" are obviously influenced by reggae/dancehall. The leaked version of "Controlla", in fact, featured Jamaican dancehall artist Popcaan (who isn't on the album version).
- Inherited Illiteracy Title: "Marvins Room" is supposed to be spelled with no apostrophe.
- Insistent Terminology: There was lots of debate on whether If You're Reading This It's Too Late is a mixtape or studio album, as it was released commercially although Drake referred to it as a mixtape.
- Similarly, More Life is neither a mixtape nor a studio album; it's apparently a playlist.
- Lyrical Dissonance: A common criticism of "Toosie Slide" is that the beat is very moody and introspective-sounding, but the song is a dance song mentioning things such as dancing like Michael Jackson.
- Melodic Rap: He's been the top melodic rapper since at least 2009, which caused countless other rappers to try and copy his style. However, this also is the main crux of his critics labelling him as "soft", as his particular style blurs the line between rap and straight-up R&B, and is lyrically more emotionally vulnerable than most rap.
- Mood Whiplash: HONESTLY, NEVERMIND is mostly a house and Baltimore club album, until the 14th and final track, "Jimmy Cooks", a song that's clearly in the genre of Trap Music, featuring Atlanta rapper 21 Savage.
- The Muse: Several of his songs ("Firework", "Take Care" and possibly "Made Man") are based on his relationship with Rihanna, and he frequently collaborated with her for many years.
- New Sound Album: HONESTLY, NEVERMIND is mostly a house and Baltimore club album in contrast to his other projects—which are mostly Genre Roulette fusions of hip-hop, R&B and pop.
- One Name Only: His rap name, Drake.
- Only Sane Man: Naturally on "Forever" from the More Than a Game soundtrack, since the other three are Eminem, Lil Wayne and Kanye West.
- Non-Appearing Title: "Marvins Room", "Headlines", "The Resistance", "Wu-Tang Forever", "Pain 1993", "Massive", "Flight's Booked", "Jimmy Cooks"
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Know Yourself". You know the one. "I WAS! RUNNIN! THROUGH THE! SIX! WITH MY WOES!"
- Posthumous Collaboration:
- "Faithful" samples a verse from Pimp C that originally appeared on "Tom Ford Remix" by Jay-Z.
- "Don't Matter to Me" samples an unreleased Michael Jackson recording.
- "After Dark" samples an unreleased recording by R&B singer Static Major.
- Rock Star Song: Quite a few of his songs discuss fame.
- Rhyming with Itself:
- He often rhymes "shit" with "shit".
- His verse on the "All of the Lights" remix has him ending about ten lines with "motherfucker".
- He also often rhymes "nigga" with "nigga".
- Sampling:
- "Tuscan Leather" uses three instrumentals, which all sample "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston in different ways.
- "Nice For What" is built around a sped-up sample of "Ex Factor" by Lauryn Hill.
- "Way 2 Sexy" is a Shout-Out to and samples "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred.
- Sex Goddess: "Best I Ever Had" has him singing about a girl who gave him the best sex he ever had.
- Shout-Out:
- In "The Motto":
Shout goes out to Niko, Jay, Chubbs and shout to Gibbo.- In DJ Khaled's "For Free", he pays homage to Kendrick Lamar's song "For Free? (Interlude)" with the following line:
And like ya' boy from Compton said, you know this dick ain't free.- In "Chicago Freestyle", he pays tribute to Eminem by interpolating his song "Superman", but with slightly changed lyrics:
But I do know one thing though
Women they come they go
Saturday through Sunday, Monday
Monday through Sunday, yo
Maybe I'll love you one day
Maybe we'll someday grow
'Til then, I'll sit my drunk ass on that runway
On this one way- “Here For a Good Time (Not a Long Time)” features a mane drop to Ed, Edd n Eddy.
- And "0 to 100" has a reference to Forrest Gump:
I run this shit, they're like, "Go Forrest
Run Forrest, run Forrest, go Forrest" - Siamese Twin Songs: "Wu Tang Forever" segues directly into "Own It", which flips the former songs repeated use of "it's yours" into a more romantic context.
- Singer Namedrop: He does this pretty often, but he usually calls himself "Drizzy". One example is in "Successful" with the line 'Drizzy, oh yeah Trey I fucking feel you"
- Singing Voice Dissonance: Raps with an African American accent, but speaks in a fairly neutral Canadian accent.
- Song Style Shift: Drake's and Travis Scott's “SICKO MODE” is a hip-hop song throughout, but the instrumentation and vibe changes twice — starting off with a rap-sung verse by Drake over a pipe organ, continuing with a bass-driven trap segment led by Scott, and concluding with verses from both over a ringtone rap-esque beat.
- Soprano and Gravel:
- So Proud of You: In addition to "Make Me Proud", he includes a meta-example from his grandmother on "Look What You've Done".
- Spoken Word in Music:
- The end of the album version of "Headlines" stands out as an excellent example.
- Shows up near the end of "Marvins Room", as well as repeatedly in the chorus."Are you drunk right now?"
- Stage Names: Drake is far more famous as a rap superstar under his real middle name of Drake than he ever was for his acting career. The only time he was credited as Aubrey Graham was when he first started out as an actor in Degrassi.
- Take That!: "Charged Up", "Back to Back", and "Summer Sixteen" is this to Meek Mill, who has accused him of hiring ghostwriters to write his own songs.
- Telephone Song: "Hotline Bling" is about Drake angsting that his ex-girlfriend used to call him for casual sex. It inspired an entire telephone-themed project by Erykah Badu.
- True Companions:
- From "Up All Night": "Man I love my team, I would die for them niggas."
- From "Lemon Pepper Freestyle" "We all grateful for Weezy, but no one more than me"
- Turn Out Like His Father: Drake has mentioned similarities between himself and his father several times in his music. Although, in his song "Look What You've Done" he mentions that his mother, who got divorced from his father when he was five, sometimes makes negative comparisons between Drake and his father when she's upset with him."And you tell me I'm just like my father—my one button, you push it"
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Rihanna's "Work" has Drake entering at the 2:20 minutes mark, although it's worth noting that he sings rather than rapping.
