Drake

About

Drake is the stage name used by Canadian actor and recording artist Aubrey Drake Graham, best known for his role as Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation and post-acting career as a recording artist.

Online History

On March 14th, 2007, the official @Drake^[2] Twitter feed was launched for the then-cast member of Degrassi: The Next Generation. On May 23rd, 2009, the official Drake Facebook page^[4] was created. On June 6th, the official Drake website^[1] was launched, featuring biographical information, tour dates, music and videos of the artist. As of October 2013, Drake's social media presence on Twitter and Facebook command more than 12.7 million followers and 31 million likes, respectively.

Music Videos

On November 25th, the music video for the song “Forever” was released on the DrakeVEVO YouTube channel (shown below, left), raking in over 53 million views and 170,000 comments in the next four years. On April 7th, 2010, the music video for the track “Over” was uploaded to YouTube (shown below, right). In the first three years, the video brought in more than 64 million views and 100,000 comments.

On October 21st, 2011, Drake released the music video for the song "Headlines" on YouTube (shown below, left), receiving upwards of 49.8 million views and 79,000 comments in the following two years. On February 10th, 2012, the music video for the song "The Motto" was released on YouTube (shown below, right), which garnered more than 450,000 views within the first three weeks.

On April 23rd, 2012, the music video for the song "Take Care" was uploaded to the DrakeVEVO channel (shown below, left). In the next 18 months, the video gathered over 91 million views and 76,000 comments. On February 13th, 2013, Drake released the music video for "Started From the Bottom" on YouTube (shown below, right), which accumulated more than 84 million views and 173,000 comments within eight months.

On September 25th, 2013, the music video for "Hold On, We're Going Home" was published on the DrakeVEVO YouTube channel (shown below, left). In the first month, the video gained upwards of 11 million views and 24,000 comments. On July 10th, 2015, Drake released his music video for the song "Energy". Despite being only released on Apple Music, the video did well, getting over 14,000 likes, 2300 comments, and 3500 shares.

Reputation

Feud With Meek Mill

The Meek Mill Drake Beef is an ongoing feud between Drake and rapper Meek Mill. On July 21st, rapper Meek Mill tweeted that he was tired of comparisons to Drake, saying that he doesn't write his own lyrics. The tweet quickly hit over 100,000 retweets. The Twitter storm received coverage around the Internet including Time^[7], Perez Hilton^[8], Billboard^[9], and TMZ^[10].

Later that day, radio host of New York's Hot 97, Funkmaster Flex leaked a reference track for Drake by his ghost writer, Quentin Miller. He later leaked more tracks of Drake's, including R.I.C.O, Know Yourself, and Used To. Drake released two songs in response to the accusations, Charged Up and Back to Back. Both songs were received highly, with Meek Mill's comeback being panned and being labeled as both "Weak" and "Trash" by users of the sites Instagram and Twitter.

"More Than a Meme"

On May 14th, 2016, Drake appeared on the stage of Saturday Night Live as the host of the night. During his opening monologue, the Canadian rapper performed a tongue-in-cheek song titled "More Than a Meme" to address his long-running internet memedom, which highlighted a variety of image macro memes and photoshopped parodies based on his album covers and music videos (shown below).

Feud with Pusha T

In 2006, American rapper Pusha T recorded the song "Mr. Me Too" with his group Clipse. During the song, the group, along with Pharell Williams, who guested on the song, accused rapper Lil Wayne of copying their attire by wearing BAPE apparel. In the song, they rapped, "Wanna know the time? Better clock us / N****s bite the style from the shoes to the watches."^[12]

Lil Wayne later responded to the song, telling Complex, "You talking to the best. Talk to me like you’re talking to the best. I don’t see no fuckin’ Clipse. Come on man."

Five years later, after Drake signed to Lil Wayne's record label Young Money Entertainment, Pusha released a song entitled "Don't Fuck With Me." The song sampled the Drake song "Dreams Money Can Buy" and allegedly mentions Drake in the line "Rappers on their sophomores / Actin’ like they boss lords / Fame such a funny thing for sure / When n****s start believing all them encores."

The following year, Pusha T released the song "Exodus 23:1," which referenced Drake's contract issues with Young Money Entertainment. He raps, "Contract all fucked up / I guess that means you all fucked up / You signed to one n***a that signed to another n***a / That’s signed to three n***as / Now that’s bad luck."

In response to the song, on May 24th, 2012, Lil Wayne tweeted,^[13] "Fuk pusha t and anybody that love em." The tweet (shown below) received more than 43,000 retweets and 34,000 likes in six years.

In 2013, Drake released the song "Tuscan Leather" (shown below, left), in which he defends Lil Wayne. He raps, "I’m just as famous as my mentor / But that’s still the boss, don’t get sent for / Get hype on tracks and jump in front of a bullet you wasn’t meant for."

Three years later, Pusha T responded to the song with "H.G.T.V." In the song, Pusha T raps, "It’s too far gone when the realest ain’t real / I walk amongst the clouds so your ceilings ain’t real / These n***as Call of Duty ‘cause their killings ain’t real / With a questionable pen so the feelin’ ain’t real." The song references accusations that Drake uses ghostwriters on his songs.

In 2017, Drake released the song "Two Birds, One Song." In the song, Drake questions Pusha's history of drug dealing. He raps, "But really it’s you with all the drug dealer stories / That’s gotta stop, though / You made a couple chops and now you think you Chapo… You middle-man in this shit, boy you was never them guys / I can tell, ’cause I look most of you dead in your eyes / And you’ll be tryna sell that story for the rest of your lives."

On May 25th, 2018, Pusha T released the song "Infrared," which references Drake's supposed ghostwriter, Quentin Miller, by name. Pusha raps, "The lyric pennin’ equal the Trumps winnin’ / The bigger question is how the Russians did it / It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin."

Less than 24 hours later, Drake responded to the track with the song "Duppy Freestyle." The song is a direct response to "Infrared" and includes the lyrics "I had a microphone of yours but then the signature faded / I think that pretty much resembles what has been happening lately." He also made reference to the producer of Pusha T's album, Kanye West. He rapped, What do you really think of the n***a that’s making your beats? / I’ve done things for him I thought he never would need / Father had to stretch his hands out and get it from me / I pop style for 30 hours, then let him repeat."

At the end of "Duppy Freestyle," Drake asks Pusha T for an invoice for the "free" album promotion the feud has given Pusha. He later posted the joke invoice on Instagram. The post (shown below) received more than 1.4 million likes in four days.

On May 29th, Pusha T released the song "The Story of Adidon." The song features a photograph of Drake in blackface as the album artwork and makes frequent references to a child Pusha T alleges to be Drake's, but Drake has not acknowledged. The photograph was taken from a 2008 photoshoot with photographer David Leyes but has since been removed from the Leyes's website.

Additionally, Pusha T makes reference to the alleged mother of Drake's child, former adult film star Sophie Brussaux and mocks Drake's producer Moah "40" Shebib, who has multiple sclerosis. He raps:

"Since you name-dropped my fiancee
Let 'em know who you chose as your Beyonce
Sophie knows better, ask your baby mother
Cleaned her up for IG, but the stench is on her
A baby's involved, it's deeper than rap
We talkin' character, let me keep with the facts
You are hiding a child, let that boy come home
Deadbeat mothaf**ka playn' border patrol, ooh
Adonis is your son
And he deserves more than an Adidas press run, that's real
Love that baby, respect that girl
Forget she's a pornstar, let her be your world (yuugh)"

Personal Life

Drake's Son Adonis

After being accused of having a son with adult film star Sophie Brussaux, Drake would neither confirm nor deny having a child. However, on June 28th, Drake released his album Scorpion. On the album, Drake confirms the relationship with Brussaux as well the birth of his son Adonis.^[13] He raps:

"I wasn’t hidin’ my kid from the world/I was hidin’ the world from my kid/From empty souls who just wake up and looked to debate/Until you starin’ at your seed, you can never relate […] Breakin’ news in my life, I don’t run to the blogs/The only ones I wanna tell are the ones I can call/They always ask, ‘Why let the story run if it’s false?’ You know a wise man once said nothin’ at all."

Following the confirmation, some on Twitter posted their support for Drake and his decision to keep the child a secret. Twitter user @OhEmmeG tweeted, "Drake saying he hiding the world from his kids is not even unbelievable. Gucci Mane does it. Beyonce waited till Blue damn near had a drivers license and we still only seen the twins once. Michael Jackson threw a blanket over his baby head so long he start callin him one." The post (shown below) received more than 4,700 retweets and 9,800 likes in 24 hours.

Related Memes

Wheelchair Drake

Wheelchair Drake is an advice animal image macro series that combines wheelchair-related puns with lyrics of music created by Drake, which first appeared on FunnyJunk in August 2010. The image template is based on a photograph of Drake’s wheelchair-bound teen character Jimmy Brooks in the teen drama TV series Degrassi: The Next Generation.

   

Drake the Type Of…

"Drake The Type Of…" is a series of fan-written factoids that are presented as the personality traits of Drake, which typically take the form of tweets, comments and image macros. The earliest known tweet using the phrase "Drake the type of" was posted on Twitter in April of 2011.

YOLO

YOLO is an acronym for the phrase “you only live once”, which is often used as a hashtag to bring attention to exciting events or excuse irresponsible behaviors. On October 23rd, 2011, Drake posted a tweet using the acronym accompanied by a photo of himself standing on a balcony.

Drake Wearing Dada

Drake Wearing Dada is a photoshop meme based on a photograph of Drake taken during the shoot of his music video “No New Friends” in May 2013. The photograph quickly drew attention from his fans and hip hop music communities alike, mainly for the rapper’s wardrobe choice of Damani Dada, an athletic apparel and shoes company that was once popular among hip hop musicians in the 1990s, as well as his leaning posture.

Starbucks Drake Hands

#StarbucksDrakeHands is an Instagram hashtag associated with a series of videos in which people silently gaze at the camera while listening to Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home” playing in the background. The hashtag was inspired by a video by Californian barista Brody Ryan Curtis.

Drake's "All These" Parody Lyrics

On November 6th, 2013, an anonymous Drake fan created @AllThese^[5], a novelty Twitter account which features a series of tweets poking fun at the rapper's pun-driven, melancholic style of lyrics, particularly his frequent use of the phrase "all these…" In the following week, the Twitter account garnered nearly 50,000 followers after a compilation of notable tweets were featured in a BuzzFeed^[6] post titled "These Made Up Lyrics Might Be The Funniest Drake Meme Yet."

If You're Reading This Cover Parodies

If You're Reading This It's Too Late Album Cover Parodies is a photoshop meme parodying the cover of Drake's 2015 mixtape. The images consist of text written in crude block handwriting with the letter "E" tilted at a 45 degree angle, a style created by the street artist Jim Joe, nicknamed "Drakefont."

"Hotline Bling"

"Hotline Bling" is a 2015 R&B single by Drake. Following the release of the song’s music video, which features the artist dancing in a color-shifting cube-like structure, it became popular among fans, spawning parodies, remixes and reaction images.

Drakeposting

Drakeposting refers to the practice of posting reaction images and other still shots from the music video of the Canadian hip hop artist’s 2015 hit single "Hotline Bling" on the imageboard site 4chan, typically to express one’s disdain of the thread topic or something said by another poster in a similar vein to the usage of Costanza.jpg.

Views from the 6 Cover Cover Parodies

Views from the 6 Cover Parodies are images which have been photoshopped to add an image of the rapper Drake sitting on a ledge, which was originally featured in that artists’ fourth studio album cover.

Search Interest

External References