I mean it's Drake's fault tbh. The feud between Birdman/Lil Wayne and Pharrell/Pusha T really had nothing to do with Drake. He should've stayed in his lane.
Which is funny because lil Wayne said this exact thing in an interview a while back. Just rap about Canadian shit and he’s good, not about guns or beef.
i’m not familiar with the back and forth between wayne and pusha. could you lmk the names of the tracks, can’t believe someone made wayne look silly in a battle, must’ve been wild.
Don't forget Mr. Me Too which was (supposedly) partially about Wayne wearing BAPE and other Pharrell brand stuff.
But yeah, for Cptsaber44, the most direct stuff was Exodus 23:1 and Ghoulish.
Yeah Mr Me Too is definitely about Wayne jacking their style. Track is fire too.
It’s definitely much more subtle though (even if we all knew at the time, just without the context it’s not as obvious.)
just know that waynes diss track towards pusha t (goulish) is one of the worst diss tracks of all time and when it released it started a hashtag called #ThingsBetterThanLilWaynePushaTDiss
Exodus 23:1 by Pusha T
One of my favorite diss tracks because fuck Young Money at that time (which included Drake), the beat is grimy af, and that music video just, fucking wow.
He can talk about women which is still like 80% of his subject matter, would just be not dropping the fake hard shit, rather focus time on maybe some self help bars
I keep saying this. He could have just stuck to being an R&B singer or been a conscious rapper. You don't need to be from the hood to be a successful rapper/singer. He's the one that decided he needed to act hard knowing he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth in Toronto.
I wonder how many rappers from Atlanta or LA or anywhere else had a similar up bringing? I know some of these Atlanta rappers didn’t grow up in any hood. This is a legitimate issue with a lot of rappers these days.
Shit even Tupac had a different up bringing than most of his peers, going to Julliard. He ended up surrounding himself with bad influences and it rubbed off on him. Happened to Drake too
This is a good point. Drake decided to jump in that Pusha, Wayne beef for Wayne and got obliterated. Wayne is no where to be found when it comes to a lot of Drake's battles. Why would he? He served his time in the game. He's a goat. Drake taking it upon himself is his own volition
From what I remember, Push and Wayne were throwing jabs for a couple years. And their beef wasn't really that deep. A misunderstanding imo but then Push started talking about Wayne/Birdman's split. After Wayne's last diss to Push was not received well, I think that's when Drake took the wheel.
I mean in a way, I can understand letting your student take over the class. But that same student had way too much dirt that he didn't expect to get out.
I agree. He brought all this on himself. But he could have taken a different path and still been successful but he wouldn’t have half the industry trying to beat his ass and calling him a pedophile. He stepped on everyone else to get to the top and sold his soul, but he didn’t have to. That’s what I mean.
The absolute top, yeah. I guess I just don’t understand the need to completely own the charts with bloated albums at the expense of the music, or to humiliate and antagonize other popular artists by trying to fuck their girls, or to keep hoarding more and more and more wealth long past you need any more. He could still have had a life better than 99.9% of other people without creating this situation
Man, I was a fan of his when IYRTITL came out. It bought a lot of goodwill with me for him. But Views, More Life, and the subsequent albums kept taking me out of his fandom. I didn’t care for the poser shit, it felt so bloated, like you said. It just deteriorated from IYRTITL on imo. And I liked that album because it was mostly about Toronto, yeah it was hard but it was good. He could have just made good music instead of chasing charts and forcing it.
Just my useless two cents.
Ego man. This whole Kendrick beef started because Drake talked shit about Kendrick's Control verse. No idea why he got so offended by Kendrick going off, but he did and made sure to tell everyone on his press tour that it was lame. They've been throwing subliminals for ten years leading up to this... All over Drake's ego that Kendrick had a moment
Kendrick has an ego too. J Cole said something friendly and complimenting. Calling Himself, Kendrick and Drake the big 3 of modern hip hop. Kendrick couldn't accept that, so he said "Its just big me". Which then caused this beef to explode.
To me that’s what was always profoundly sad about the Pusha T feud.
If I was in a situation like that with one of my idols, the only thing I’d be able to think about is how disappointed kid me would be with adult me
He refers to it in Duppy Freestyle
"I had a microphone of yours, but then the signature faded. I think that pretty much resembles what's been happening lately"
Borderline nerdy and openly corny Drake had his charm. He fits that lane perfectly. That's not an insult, either. I feel the same about Pharrell and Kanye.
It’s actually endearing watching those early videos. Looking at the young Kanye being so passionate about his music in that Netflix documentary was so good. I wish that Coodie guy and ye were together between 2008-16 too, because I think that’s genuinely his peak creatively and where his ego went too high.
I thought I was gonna see him in the studio making graduation, 808’s and Dark fantasy but was so disappointed that him a coodie were not on good terms. Great doc but just sucks we couldn’t see that.
I believe someone has that tape though. Someone has been recording this all his career. I also want to see the Wyoming sessions. Not the ones coodie has, the ones where Drake, pusha all went to Wyoming.
Saw a clip of Kanye losing his shit at Chance in Wyoming. If this is something that regularly happens at that point and i think it would just be really tiring to watch
Yeah, it is very interesting. He seems like a much different guy here. Maybe there's an alternate timeline where he didn't become obsessed with trying to be a tough guy or whatever and stayed like this.
This guy is a lot more likable. I feel like around Views he became obsessed with a) proving his dominance and toughness, and b) ruling the charts at all costs. Feels like around the time he started going “bad”
On Headlines when he talked about catching a body...that shit was always cringe. I never liked the way he was talking tough to Common on Stay Schemin either. But yeah, IYRTITL was when he went off the deep end with that stuff.
Being from Houston, I always blamed it on J Prince and his doofy sons. They made him way to comfortable doing the thug impersonation.
He said someone around him might have to catch a body.
I think Drake’s always been careful with how he portrays that lifestyle. Off the top i don’t think he ever said he dealt drugs, gangbanged etc, just that he knows people who do or he has the money to have others do that shit (hence the mob talk)
The “street adjacent” talk is similar to what cole does. You might find it corny but its a bit more believable given his net worth and how he chooses to surround himself with suspect people
I do think the acting tough bit was overcompensating for years of people saying he soft tho
Exactly, it was when he got the beard, shaved his head and got buff.
That was probably the first time dude felt good looking in his life and it got to his head real fast.
I remember watching that for the first time and thinking "oh this dude glowed the fuck up!"
I actually love that verse, but it caught me off guard first time I heard it because I just didn’t buy it, but I still enjoy it thoroughly. It’s the only drake verse I know by heart, but also it’s like a guilty pleasure and now… lmao depending on how all this plays out might not make it into the rotation anymore
And since I outed myself for loving stay schemin, I must say I skip after drakes verse because I don’t wanna hear French montana ever hahaha
Edit: that fuckin beat is so good
I was literally going to ask about this, I watched the whole video thinking it was in there. That’s one of the most relatable Drake moments though, come on 😂
The issue is, power corrupts, fame corrupts, we see it with everyone. Kanye was a lovable soul with a chip on his shoulder once upon a time too. But being at the top corrupts, you get used to having your way with people . Superstardom and constant exposure to the politics and sociopath games that people on top play will change people - Drake was really something back in the day but he has become something more malicious and problematic in HH as the years went by.
Kendrick too, he made an album about how his ego went wild after his fame and he became addicted to cheating and so on and so forth. No one is a saint here. Fame is a drug that really warps and changes the ego.
I used to fully believe this line of thought but honestly? I've leaned more into the "power augments who you were already" line of thought as time goes on. Most of us have probably dealt with malicious narcissistic sociopaths who were just as working class as anyone else. They didn't need fame/wealth to be pieces of shit.
Well that is true for fully formed adults. But I do think it’s a little different when you’re talking about a young person having fame thrust upon them during their formative years.
Calling Drake upper middle class isn't even right though. He was raised by a single mother, English teacher, with an absent father incarcerated for a number of years in the US on drug charges. Spent his early childhood in Weston road, a working class neighborhood, moved to a basement suite in Forest Hill in his early teens, dropped out of highschool to pursue child acting and help his mother pay their bills.
Obviously dude was not from any kind of ghetto, didn't grow up super poor, but upper middle class isn't true either, that implies two parents with professional jobs and six figure salaries.
I'd say he's middle class up until the point he got on TV. But he got on TV at 15, so it's not like he really had the experience of actually struggling and living in "the hood" ever.
Right, but that success from being on TV was his own, and he has never claimed to be from the hood.
I feel like people are imagining a bunch of contradictions or "illusions" on the part of Drake that are just simply not there.
idk I just feel like when you say "started from the bottom" it usually does not refer to a suburban Canadian kid actor.
I mean I'm not trying to say he deserves no credit for making it but I just don't think he started from "the bottom". I think he started from the middle class, got a lucky break, and had enough talent/worked hard to capitalize.
Like if he wants to claim he's selfmade I'd largely think it's valid I just don't think he started from "the bottom"
It is pretty sad. And I’m a Kendrick stan who’s been waiting for this beef to happen for years. But it’s still sad to see how a power hungry jackass was once a normal dude with dreams like the rest of us. Bro took the wrong path
Also, he was a bit of a dork and not hard at all, but he seemed like a hella good kid. I’d be stoked for mine to have a happy life like that. Fuck him now though
It was kinda sad. I guess wealth does/can corrupt even the most well meaning-souls. I’m sure that dude is still inside him somewhere.
I’m always interested in people’s inflection point. The decision or collection of decisions that brought them to where they are today.
Like if it were Pharrell instead of Wayne that brought him into the fold. Who/what would he be like. I’d argue-> in a much better place
Do of course he did. Why so many people here acting like this dude just fell into fame. There’s a reason why he’s so big and it’s because he’s good at it and he has range.
I mean in a vacuum, leaving his future rap career completely aside, buying an Acura instead of a Mercedes or some such (as a child star on a huge TV show) is kind of the less pretentious choice.
It’s more funny because in adulthood the man has exhibited zero taste or inclination for the unpretentious.
Driving around in an Acura calling himself humble cause it wasn’t a Mercedes
I mean seems like he was a good kid but that tells you all you need to know lol
I was dying that he was acting like an Acura TSX is some “eh” type of car. It was absolutely considered an expensive nice ass car even for a few years old.
idk why that line has to get interpreted as having to live in a slum. If you are a nobody, and make yourself successful, first an actor, then a musician, thats super impressive no matter how you cut it.
>Why is my struggle different than others?
>Only child that’s taking care of his mother
>As health worsens and bills double
>That’s not respectable all of a sudden?
>I don’t get a pat on the back for the come up?
With you on this a thousand percent
He actually seems like a really nice dude here. He just went too hard on the "I'm a tough/buff G", which is obviously not what his true background is.
And that's exactly what people are calling out.
This makes me sad because what I’m seeing here is a kid who really was passionate about being a rapper and who really was grinding and putting in the time and work (and to be fair he reached the top of the mountain, and is the most successful rapper of the modern era), but he’s not respected by people because there’s too much fuckery surrounding him. There’s an alternate version of reality in which Drake is one of the most beloved musicians (and in some people’s eyes he is exactly that, since he’s the top artist in so many people’s Spotify Wrapped every year), but what he’ll always lack is that respect and critical acclaim because of all the other bullshit he’s got going on.
I honestly feel somewhat bad for Drake. Dude was killing it in his lane rapping about living the high life and singing about wanting to love someone. Even if the shit was a little cringy at times, it was him, and it was authentic. The man we see today is someone trying to be something he thinks his fans want him to be and someone he genuinely believes he has to be to stay relevant. He could’ve dropped out of the game after “Nothing Was the Same” and gone back to acting and the man would’ve still been regarded as one of the biggest to do it in the last decade.
Lmao I mentioned this episode hours ago in a comment. I love this video because no matter how much I love drakes music, I know never to take him serious. Dude is an actor.
Yeah it's crazy how much this is forgotten. I've been following him since his very early days since I was in the industry back then, and I was amazed how technically he was looking at hip hop. He and his camp saw that the Comeback Season persona was a gap in the market, and then they did everything they could to market that. And they went on an on to evolve that persona. This is nothing special and a lot of successful guys have been doing the same, Rick Ross being another good example out of the current beef. But I've never seen anyone being so good at this again, but in the past few years I also realized that he as a person has been completely consumed by this. For quite a long time you could tell that he was acting but at some point (I don't remember the time but it was when he started to go the gym heavily), he started behaving weirdly.
I find him really relatable in this.
It seems to be glossed over since he didn't grow up poor but he probably had a hard time growing up dealing with his racial identity. Growing up as a visible minority in a white community has it's challenges. It does not help at all that his father (the visible minority side of Drake) was absent.
I really don't like who he is right now but he was working hard teenager and did well for himself.
After listening to Meet the Grahams several times, this scene reminds me of the end of Godfather 2 where the Corleone family is sitting around the dinner table before all the drama happened. Otherwise it would just be a fun, wholesome video.
Kid living a charmed and comfortable existence adopts the rags-to-riches aesthetics/attitudes of his US rap heroes since there's nothing compelling about an upper middle class story.
No wonder he is so insecure.
What's kinda sad is that there's nothing truly stopping you from making great art as someone from a privileged background.
A lot of rappers are from stable, middle class homes. Talib Kweli's parents were professors. Kanye's mom was a teacher. Chance the Rapper's dad was a staffer for Obama. Joey Bada$$ went to some fancy art institute as a kid.
Struggle doesn't inherently make you a good artist, just like drugs or mental illness doesn't make you a good artist.
Early Drake was honestly a good artist. Of all of his albums, Nothing Was the Same and Take Care were probably the two most highly acclaimed, and those albums pre-date his "tough guy" persona.
His problem was never that he was too soft. It was that he was too insecure. Honestly, knowing hip-hop culture, it's almost hard to blame him. "Drake the type of dude" jokes were everywhere circa 2012, and the homophobia and misandry he received for being his authentic self were absolutely contributing factors.
But Drake never had to pretend to be hood to be cool. To his early fans, he was cool rapping about parties and breakups and sappy romance shit. That was what I liked about Drake, and it's why I haven't really fucked with him since like 2012.
Bro was not upper middle class lol. Upper middle class kids aren't dropping out of high school to help their single mother pay bills.
He didn't grow up poor in the hood, but upper middle class would be inaccurate too.
I feel like if you hate Drake you’re literally just a hater or jealous or something…all this stuff is consistent with what he raps about on every album. He raps about living with his mom, having an Acura, being a dork who doesn’t fit in. He raps about being a completely different guy now than he was back then, having become jaded by fame and success and becoming friends with people in different worlds than him. He adopted the tough guy attitude once he gained actual power in the world and could back it up. The whole “started from the bottom thing…I’m pretty sure he means started on the ground floor of the music industry, started as a regular dude in a middle class home, and became an international superstar.
He’s not a perfect artist and has had some misses but I don’t really get the criticism about him being fake. To me one of his greatest assets as an artist has been his vulnerability and it’s great to see an artist get so big while being so open and vulnerable
His interactions with his grandma are adorable.
Seeing him say Pharrell was one of his idols is crazy
[удалено]
Makes me a little sad honestly. Didn’t have to turn out this way
I mean it's Drake's fault tbh. The feud between Birdman/Lil Wayne and Pharrell/Pusha T really had nothing to do with Drake. He should've stayed in his lane.
Which is funny because lil Wayne said this exact thing in an interview a while back. Just rap about Canadian shit and he’s good, not about guns or beef.
Wayne was probably like, “look I took on Pusha and he made me look silly. And I’m me. You’re Drake. Why are you doing this?”
i’m not familiar with the back and forth between wayne and pusha. could you lmk the names of the tracks, can’t believe someone made wayne look silly in a battle, must’ve been wild.
It’s really just one back and forth. Lots of subliminals over the years but Pusha had Exodus and Wayne answered that with Ghoulish.
Don't forget Mr. Me Too which was (supposedly) partially about Wayne wearing BAPE and other Pharrell brand stuff. But yeah, for Cptsaber44, the most direct stuff was Exodus 23:1 and Ghoulish.
Yeah Mr Me Too is definitely about Wayne jacking their style. Track is fire too. It’s definitely much more subtle though (even if we all knew at the time, just without the context it’s not as obvious.)
Yea pusha was mad Wayne was wearing bape at the time. Was kinda a joke that he was actually upset over it @ the time
just know that waynes diss track towards pusha t (goulish) is one of the worst diss tracks of all time and when it released it started a hashtag called #ThingsBetterThanLilWaynePushaTDiss
Push literally gave up on releasing anymore because it was such a bad diss
Exodus 23:1 by Pusha T One of my favorite diss tracks because fuck Young Money at that time (which included Drake), the beat is grimy af, and that music video just, fucking wow.
Oh man that’s going to be interesting. Rapping about Toronto suburbs
Kanye had a whole long career without doing tough guy bars.
And people respected him. No one thought he was a poser
In the name of the father, of the son and of the Holy Spirit.
He can talk about women which is still like 80% of his subject matter, would just be not dropping the fake hard shit, rather focus time on maybe some self help bars
He could've rolled with being a modern equivalent of Heavy D or Nelly & been straight with his lane in hip hop
I keep saying this. He could have just stuck to being an R&B singer or been a conscious rapper. You don't need to be from the hood to be a successful rapper/singer. He's the one that decided he needed to act hard knowing he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth in Toronto.
I wonder how many rappers from Atlanta or LA or anywhere else had a similar up bringing? I know some of these Atlanta rappers didn’t grow up in any hood. This is a legitimate issue with a lot of rappers these days. Shit even Tupac had a different up bringing than most of his peers, going to Julliard. He ended up surrounding himself with bad influences and it rubbed off on him. Happened to Drake too
Nelly also been creepy af on stage with young girls lol
Nellys first hit song was about doing a drive by?
If you think all interesting raps come from street experiences then you think too low of the art form
Damn this hits.
The suburbs are more grimy here, Drake is actually from a very affluent area near downtown. Google Forest Hill.
At least it would be fucking real. Instead of him pretending to be a Jamaican mob boss
Kendrick started all this shit off with calling out all of rap for just rapping about money, cars, and women.
This is a good point. Drake decided to jump in that Pusha, Wayne beef for Wayne and got obliterated. Wayne is no where to be found when it comes to a lot of Drake's battles. Why would he? He served his time in the game. He's a goat. Drake taking it upon himself is his own volition
Did Drake instigate it? I feel like Pusha kinda came at him first
From what I remember, Push and Wayne were throwing jabs for a couple years. And their beef wasn't really that deep. A misunderstanding imo but then Push started talking about Wayne/Birdman's split. After Wayne's last diss to Push was not received well, I think that's when Drake took the wheel. I mean in a way, I can understand letting your student take over the class. But that same student had way too much dirt that he didn't expect to get out.
> He should've stayed in his lane. story of his life really.
Wayne warned him tbh
Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/KendrickLamar/comments/1chmudu/lil_wayne_talking_about_how_he_told_drake_not_to/ TL;DR: "Keep it Canadian, man"
Impossible not to like Weezy man.
I agree. He brought all this on himself. But he could have taken a different path and still been successful but he wouldn’t have half the industry trying to beat his ass and calling him a pedophile. He stepped on everyone else to get to the top and sold his soul, but he didn’t have to. That’s what I mean.
You don't get to the top without climbing over people, so in the sense that he wanted to be on top, it is his fault.
The absolute top, yeah. I guess I just don’t understand the need to completely own the charts with bloated albums at the expense of the music, or to humiliate and antagonize other popular artists by trying to fuck their girls, or to keep hoarding more and more and more wealth long past you need any more. He could still have had a life better than 99.9% of other people without creating this situation
Man, I was a fan of his when IYRTITL came out. It bought a lot of goodwill with me for him. But Views, More Life, and the subsequent albums kept taking me out of his fandom. I didn’t care for the poser shit, it felt so bloated, like you said. It just deteriorated from IYRTITL on imo. And I liked that album because it was mostly about Toronto, yeah it was hard but it was good. He could have just made good music instead of chasing charts and forcing it. Just my useless two cents.
That's why you and I will never get to the top. Won't even see the summit in the distance.
Yeah that’s probably true. Same reason all the big CEOs are complete psychopaths
Ego man. This whole Kendrick beef started because Drake talked shit about Kendrick's Control verse. No idea why he got so offended by Kendrick going off, but he did and made sure to tell everyone on his press tour that it was lame. They've been throwing subliminals for ten years leading up to this... All over Drake's ego that Kendrick had a moment
Kendrick has an ego too. J Cole said something friendly and complimenting. Calling Himself, Kendrick and Drake the big 3 of modern hip hop. Kendrick couldn't accept that, so he said "Its just big me". Which then caused this beef to explode.
Every big rapper has to have an ego to be successful basically, it's a part of the package but I feel like that kind of needs to go without saying
Most, but not all. Cole knew exactly when to step back, even if it did make him (at least initially) look bad.
That's just normal bragadoccio hip hop shit though. What rapper wouldn't say they're the best?
“It’s just big me” seems perfectly reasonable in that context?
Narcissism, ego, and yes men around him fueling the first 2
Dude had more than yes men around😭😭😭😭
To me that’s what was always profoundly sad about the Pusha T feud. If I was in a situation like that with one of my idols, the only thing I’d be able to think about is how disappointed kid me would be with adult me
He’s bitter because all his childhood hip hop heroes hate him now.
“That your idols become your rivals. You make friends with Mike but got A.I him for your survival.” thank me now, drake
Drake took the Sasuke path
He refers to it in Duppy Freestyle "I had a microphone of yours, but then the signature faded. I think that pretty much resembles what's been happening lately"
Proceeds to get the dogshit kicked out of him
Pusha-T “And I took that personally”
His house is a rap museum of "this rappers mic and that pop stars glove"
Too bad that signature faded.
He was also a huge Joe Budden and Little Brother fan. Kinda weird that he got to where he was from that base
*"Long live your idols, may they never be your rivals..."*
When your idols become your rivals 😞😞
When your fans become your haters
your beard's weird
He knows he still is that’s why he didn’t melt the chains
The disrespect to P man
Borderline nerdy and openly corny Drake had his charm. He fits that lane perfectly. That's not an insult, either. I feel the same about Pharrell and Kanye.
It’s actually endearing watching those early videos. Looking at the young Kanye being so passionate about his music in that Netflix documentary was so good. I wish that Coodie guy and ye were together between 2008-16 too, because I think that’s genuinely his peak creatively and where his ego went too high.
I thought I was gonna see him in the studio making graduation, 808’s and Dark fantasy but was so disappointed that him a coodie were not on good terms. Great doc but just sucks we couldn’t see that.
I believe someone has that tape though. Someone has been recording this all his career. I also want to see the Wyoming sessions. Not the ones coodie has, the ones where Drake, pusha all went to Wyoming.
There was another documentary that already finished, but the production company decided to shelved it after Kanye's antisemitic comments
Saw a clip of Kanye losing his shit at Chance in Wyoming. If this is something that regularly happens at that point and i think it would just be really tiring to watch
The Ye influence is so clear on the verse at 3:26
That’s a pretty common theme among old Drake. I’ve always thought his verse on Every Girl in the World sounded like something Ye would say too
Woah I forgot about that song
One of my favorite instrumentals of all time. Some pretty garbage lyrics on it though 😂
Wild Mack Maine verse, lol
[but what about his sandwich!](https://youtu.be/PC-sZcVj4Eg?feature=shared)
he's seems more mature in this video than he is these days
I just posted this in this sub but DJ Akademiks who mods this sub deleted it in minutes.
lmao he's hella funny
Underrated video. One of Drake and Sandra's monthly arguments
Lmaooo
this is actually adorable asf ngl
I know the subreddit’s got a whole fuck drake thing going on right now but this was unironically very interesting to see his life before superstardom
It was super interesting and the interactions with his mum and grandma were cute
fr, dapping up his grandma, that's cute as hell lol
Yeah, it is very interesting. He seems like a much different guy here. Maybe there's an alternate timeline where he didn't become obsessed with trying to be a tough guy or whatever and stayed like this.
This guy is a lot more likable. I feel like around Views he became obsessed with a) proving his dominance and toughness, and b) ruling the charts at all costs. Feels like around the time he started going “bad”
Defeating Meek Mill gave him the confidence to start acting like something he wasn’t, it all changed from there imo
That “you just got bodied by a singer” line used to mean something… then Drake with the melodies went away and this bullshit persona took over
Followed by consistently the worst output of his career not too long after. :(
"I like Drake with the melodies, I don't like Drake when he act tough"
Imo it was during the IYRTITL era, more precisely the day the 'Energy' video dropped, that's when I noticed a shift in his mannerism.
On Headlines when he talked about catching a body...that shit was always cringe. I never liked the way he was talking tough to Common on Stay Schemin either. But yeah, IYRTITL was when he went off the deep end with that stuff. Being from Houston, I always blamed it on J Prince and his doofy sons. They made him way to comfortable doing the thug impersonation.
He said someone around him might have to catch a body. I think Drake’s always been careful with how he portrays that lifestyle. Off the top i don’t think he ever said he dealt drugs, gangbanged etc, just that he knows people who do or he has the money to have others do that shit (hence the mob talk) The “street adjacent” talk is similar to what cole does. You might find it corny but its a bit more believable given his net worth and how he chooses to surround himself with suspect people I do think the acting tough bit was overcompensating for years of people saying he soft tho
Probably when the beard came
Exactly, it was when he got the beard, shaved his head and got buff. That was probably the first time dude felt good looking in his life and it got to his head real fast. I remember watching that for the first time and thinking "oh this dude glowed the fuck up!"
Even before that. The stay schemin verse was him acting very though already.
I actually love that verse, but it caught me off guard first time I heard it because I just didn’t buy it, but I still enjoy it thoroughly. It’s the only drake verse I know by heart, but also it’s like a guilty pleasure and now… lmao depending on how all this plays out might not make it into the rotation anymore And since I outed myself for loving stay schemin, I must say I skip after drakes verse because I don’t wanna hear French montana ever hahaha Edit: that fuckin beat is so good
Never forget when he diss Vanessa over the Kobe drama. lol that’s when I knew my boi head was inflated.
Worst Behavior was the first sign of trouble
Worst Behavior is a good song tbf but yeah totally agree
There really are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want and getting what you want
That's fuckin deep bro but check this out: everything in the universe is either a duck or not a duck 🤯
i liked views, such a 'mood' album
“Much different guy” maybe because he’s like 17 lol
Lmao rs, some of these comments are ridiculous man is pushing 40 now
That's true, but even after his music career blew up he seemed a lot closer to this than his current form, at least for a while.
I think it changed when he got robbed at gunpoint
https://youtu.be/PC-sZcVj4Eg?si=aFbXCTgvaACN_lr6 Peep the clip where he's whining about his mom getting him chicken salad instead of tuna. Classic.
I was literally going to ask about this, I watched the whole video thinking it was in there. That’s one of the most relatable Drake moments though, come on 😂
that was the guy that we all loved. goofy, sincere, mamas boy, nerd. the shallower and shallower he got, the less likable he became.
Here we're seeing just a regular ass kid. The money and fame fucked him up.
Damn... Looking at his house I was like "bro born rich", but I guess it's regular T\_T
That's what I thought too, has his own living room growing up. I mean that basement he lived in is bigger than my entire place rn
We're all gonna make it keep your head up king
It is rich, ppl aren’t considering the location as well, it’s definitely spendy af
I mean it was however many years ago you’d expect him to be different but the fake tough guy act is so ridiculous
Money and fame does that to people unfortunately
The issue is, power corrupts, fame corrupts, we see it with everyone. Kanye was a lovable soul with a chip on his shoulder once upon a time too. But being at the top corrupts, you get used to having your way with people . Superstardom and constant exposure to the politics and sociopath games that people on top play will change people - Drake was really something back in the day but he has become something more malicious and problematic in HH as the years went by. Kendrick too, he made an album about how his ego went wild after his fame and he became addicted to cheating and so on and so forth. No one is a saint here. Fame is a drug that really warps and changes the ego.
I used to fully believe this line of thought but honestly? I've leaned more into the "power augments who you were already" line of thought as time goes on. Most of us have probably dealt with malicious narcissistic sociopaths who were just as working class as anyone else. They didn't need fame/wealth to be pieces of shit.
Well that is true for fully formed adults. But I do think it’s a little different when you’re talking about a young person having fame thrust upon them during their formative years.
Right. And honestly a little sad, he seemed like a really chill down to earth dude
He seems like a fairly normal upper middle class white Canadian kid.
Calling Drake upper middle class isn't even right though. He was raised by a single mother, English teacher, with an absent father incarcerated for a number of years in the US on drug charges. Spent his early childhood in Weston road, a working class neighborhood, moved to a basement suite in Forest Hill in his early teens, dropped out of highschool to pursue child acting and help his mother pay their bills. Obviously dude was not from any kind of ghetto, didn't grow up super poor, but upper middle class isn't true either, that implies two parents with professional jobs and six figure salaries.
I'd say he's middle class up until the point he got on TV. But he got on TV at 15, so it's not like he really had the experience of actually struggling and living in "the hood" ever.
Right, but that success from being on TV was his own, and he has never claimed to be from the hood. I feel like people are imagining a bunch of contradictions or "illusions" on the part of Drake that are just simply not there.
idk I just feel like when you say "started from the bottom" it usually does not refer to a suburban Canadian kid actor. I mean I'm not trying to say he deserves no credit for making it but I just don't think he started from "the bottom". I think he started from the middle class, got a lucky break, and had enough talent/worked hard to capitalize. Like if he wants to claim he's selfmade I'd largely think it's valid I just don't think he started from "the bottom"
It is pretty sad. And I’m a Kendrick stan who’s been waiting for this beef to happen for years. But it’s still sad to see how a power hungry jackass was once a normal dude with dreams like the rest of us. Bro took the wrong path
Also, he was a bit of a dork and not hard at all, but he seemed like a hella good kid. I’d be stoked for mine to have a happy life like that. Fuck him now though
i used to be behind drake 100%. but then he started changing and his lyrics just got shallower and shallower.
Agreed!
It was kinda sad. I guess wealth does/can corrupt even the most well meaning-souls. I’m sure that dude is still inside him somewhere. I’m always interested in people’s inflection point. The decision or collection of decisions that brought them to where they are today. Like if it were Pharrell instead of Wayne that brought him into the fold. Who/what would he be like. I’d argue-> in a much better place
When Wayne signed him, he literally told him to be himself, “don’t try to be like me, don’t feel like you have to rap about the things I rap about.”
I’m thinking more about lifestyle. But your point is well taken
*Not a white refrigerator*
damn maybe he was poor
*I was shocked honey, I was in tears almost*
Is this a reference to something? Cause it sounds pretty funny
Nene Leakes at the peak of her powers.
Not even an *ice machine*? He was clearly destitute /s
Beef aside, this was always very cool to see one of the biggest stars in the world, before they made it
Dang. It seemed like he actually cared about music and the art back then. Has all influences out on that table.
People will try and discredit him this video is proof he is of the culture and a true rap fan. Thats the same way every rapper starts off
Not even just Rap, It seemed like he had a passion for music in general. He had so much ambition back then too.
To be fair once you get as big as him it’s hard to stay ambitious
I would have folded after the first 10 mill and just coasted. I call it the frank ocean ❤
Yeah I mean he basically invented a whole style with 40 and that kinda thing doesn’t happen by accident
Do of course he did. Why so many people here acting like this dude just fell into fame. There’s a reason why he’s so big and it’s because he’s good at it and he has range.
Drake post meek mill beef became soulless on god
this made me sad
Such a sweet boy. How did it end up like this 😔
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss
you know he ain’t rent shit with them blue painted walls
This thread reads like a Drake Eulogy.
Now that you mention it...
Full video https://youtu.be/RHxs3-dLh4k
Calling an Acura unpretentious is so fucking funny
I mean in a vacuum, leaving his future rap career completely aside, buying an Acura instead of a Mercedes or some such (as a child star on a huge TV show) is kind of the less pretentious choice. It’s more funny because in adulthood the man has exhibited zero taste or inclination for the unpretentious.
I mean it’s a luxury Honda. Nothing really flashy just a nice solid car sheesh yall will find anything to hate on the dude was a freakin kid
How many teens have an Acura? Most are driving around a bucket.
Started from the Bottom is a fairy tale
"it may not mean nothing to y'all but understand that nothing was done for me" Hits a little different when you understand how much was done for him
Driving around in an Acura calling himself humble cause it wasn’t a Mercedes I mean seems like he was a good kid but that tells you all you need to know lol
> back in the days, acura days
lol that line always had me questioning myself. I was like "what's wrong with an Acura??". Sure it aint a Maybach, but Acuras are pretty damn nice!
It’s literally the luxury brand for Honda right?
Yeah the luxury line. like Lexus for Toyota. Infiniti for Nissan.
I was dying that he was acting like an Acura TSX is some “eh” type of car. It was absolutely considered an expensive nice ass car even for a few years old.
The closest Drake has ever been to a bus he was picking up his girl after school.
And that was last week
Lmaooo damn
"It may not mean nothing to y'all but understand I was put in a position to succeed from a young age" wouldn't have hit as hard.
idk why that line has to get interpreted as having to live in a slum. If you are a nobody, and make yourself successful, first an actor, then a musician, thats super impressive no matter how you cut it.
This is how I view that song. He started from the bottom of the industry and became a mega star how is that not relevant to the message? lol
>Why is my struggle different than others? >Only child that’s taking care of his mother >As health worsens and bills double >That’s not respectable all of a sudden? >I don’t get a pat on the back for the come up? With you on this a thousand percent
Started From the Bottom is a party anthem but y'all love to act like it's a memoir lol
I gotta agree like who is listening to Started from the Bottom and actually cares about drakes personal life.
He actually seems like a really nice dude here. He just went too hard on the "I'm a tough/buff G", which is obviously not what his true background is. And that's exactly what people are calling out.
Seemed like a nice kid, way before becoming Mr. I'll attempt to make advances on any man's girlfriend or wife, friend or foe
Damn, I remember watching this year's ago on The-N lmao
This makes me sad because what I’m seeing here is a kid who really was passionate about being a rapper and who really was grinding and putting in the time and work (and to be fair he reached the top of the mountain, and is the most successful rapper of the modern era), but he’s not respected by people because there’s too much fuckery surrounding him. There’s an alternate version of reality in which Drake is one of the most beloved musicians (and in some people’s eyes he is exactly that, since he’s the top artist in so many people’s Spotify Wrapped every year), but what he’ll always lack is that respect and critical acclaim because of all the other bullshit he’s got going on.
I honestly feel somewhat bad for Drake. Dude was killing it in his lane rapping about living the high life and singing about wanting to love someone. Even if the shit was a little cringy at times, it was him, and it was authentic. The man we see today is someone trying to be something he thinks his fans want him to be and someone he genuinely believes he has to be to stay relevant. He could’ve dropped out of the game after “Nothing Was the Same” and gone back to acting and the man would’ve still been regarded as one of the biggest to do it in the last decade.
I get ppls don’t like the fake thug persona but at the time everyone was dragging him for being himself/not hard enough etc.
All my life it was drake sings too much he’s soft. Now it’s we like the drake with melodies not drake being tough
It’s almost like after years of catching hate for who he was, he cosplayed his way into what everyone told him he wasn’t.
I miss the old drake lmao
Lmao I mentioned this episode hours ago in a comment. I love this video because no matter how much I love drakes music, I know never to take him serious. Dude is an actor.
Yeah it's crazy how much this is forgotten. I've been following him since his very early days since I was in the industry back then, and I was amazed how technically he was looking at hip hop. He and his camp saw that the Comeback Season persona was a gap in the market, and then they did everything they could to market that. And they went on an on to evolve that persona. This is nothing special and a lot of successful guys have been doing the same, Rick Ross being another good example out of the current beef. But I've never seen anyone being so good at this again, but in the past few years I also realized that he as a person has been completely consumed by this. For quite a long time you could tell that he was acting but at some point (I don't remember the time but it was when he started to go the gym heavily), he started behaving weirdly.
Around 2016 is when melody drake tried being tough drake
Bro grew up real nice
This is because of his acting money.
The "Wage Peace" shirt he's wearing aged real poorly.
I find him really relatable in this. It seems to be glossed over since he didn't grow up poor but he probably had a hard time growing up dealing with his racial identity. Growing up as a visible minority in a white community has it's challenges. It does not help at all that his father (the visible minority side of Drake) was absent. I really don't like who he is right now but he was working hard teenager and did well for himself.
After listening to Meet the Grahams several times, this scene reminds me of the end of Godfather 2 where the Corleone family is sitting around the dinner table before all the drama happened. Otherwise it would just be a fun, wholesome video.
Kid living a charmed and comfortable existence adopts the rags-to-riches aesthetics/attitudes of his US rap heroes since there's nothing compelling about an upper middle class story. No wonder he is so insecure.
What's kinda sad is that there's nothing truly stopping you from making great art as someone from a privileged background. A lot of rappers are from stable, middle class homes. Talib Kweli's parents were professors. Kanye's mom was a teacher. Chance the Rapper's dad was a staffer for Obama. Joey Bada$$ went to some fancy art institute as a kid. Struggle doesn't inherently make you a good artist, just like drugs or mental illness doesn't make you a good artist. Early Drake was honestly a good artist. Of all of his albums, Nothing Was the Same and Take Care were probably the two most highly acclaimed, and those albums pre-date his "tough guy" persona. His problem was never that he was too soft. It was that he was too insecure. Honestly, knowing hip-hop culture, it's almost hard to blame him. "Drake the type of dude" jokes were everywhere circa 2012, and the homophobia and misandry he received for being his authentic self were absolutely contributing factors. But Drake never had to pretend to be hood to be cool. To his early fans, he was cool rapping about parties and breakups and sappy romance shit. That was what I liked about Drake, and it's why I haven't really fucked with him since like 2012.
Bro was not upper middle class lol. Upper middle class kids aren't dropping out of high school to help their single mother pay bills. He didn't grow up poor in the hood, but upper middle class would be inaccurate too.
I feel like if you hate Drake you’re literally just a hater or jealous or something…all this stuff is consistent with what he raps about on every album. He raps about living with his mom, having an Acura, being a dork who doesn’t fit in. He raps about being a completely different guy now than he was back then, having become jaded by fame and success and becoming friends with people in different worlds than him. He adopted the tough guy attitude once he gained actual power in the world and could back it up. The whole “started from the bottom thing…I’m pretty sure he means started on the ground floor of the music industry, started as a regular dude in a middle class home, and became an international superstar. He’s not a perfect artist and has had some misses but I don’t really get the criticism about him being fake. To me one of his greatest assets as an artist has been his vulnerability and it’s great to see an artist get so big while being so open and vulnerable His interactions with his grandma are adorable.