Drake, the Manipulator
now Drake...
It’s taken me some time to figure out if I wanted to even write about Drake. If I were to write about Drake, what angle would I take? Because frankly, I’m tired of reading and hearing Drake-takes; yet, here I am. These words may very likely end up in an extended video format because there’s only so much I can write in a semi-formal way.
Drake’s race problems are showing and becoming more apparent by the second—Karen crashout style. On Tuesday, he dropped his last lawsuit against UMG & Spotify for alleged payola streams towards Kendrick Lamar’s Drake Diss1, “Not Like Us”, something Drake himself is notorious for so obviously participating in said boosting during his Scorpion era (the North remembers). The following day on Jan. 15th, it was released that Drake would be suing his own record label again for defamation from the promotion and distribution of Kendrick’s lyrics that allege that he’s a “certified pedophile”.
What intrigued me most about this wasn’t just simply the fact that he’s suing someone for diss lyrics—which is something completely against the foundations of hip-hop culture—but that he exclusively mentions Black streamers as people who supposedly compromised his safety in opposition to their personal monetary profit. Kai Cenat, Zias, NoLifeShaq, RDC Gaming, and CartierFamily were cited as streamers who were able to monetize their reaction videos to the Drake diss due to UMG not sanctioning the copyrighted content. Aarnesh Shrivastava from Sportskeeda, an Esports Gaming Publication, has a great read about all the non-Black popular streamers/content creators who reacted to “Not Like Us”, including Hasan Abi, Ludwig Ahgren, and Felix “xQc” Lengyel—all who have amassed millions of followers online.
The lawsuit reeks of tone deafness due to one of the foundations of the online reaction community being that copyrighted material or not, they were going to react to it anyway. The battle between Fair Use and content creators has been a fight that stems back over a decade to The Fine Bros’ creation of the REACT franchise in the early 2010s, and Ethan and Hila Klein from popular YouTube channel h3h3 winning their Fair Use case against other YouTuber, Matt Hoss in 2017. Under fair use, reactionists now have the right to use copyrighted material with the intent of it being critical, educational, and/or transformative. So in combination of there being non-Black famous creators who reacted to the song, and with fair use making the content free game— this listing of exclusively Black creators was with malicious intent to who is at the core of hip-hop: Black people.
Here are some reactions of the people listed in the lawsuit:
Mark Phillips, Founder of RCDWorld
This would be racist if Drake weren’t Black. This will not be a conversation on whether or not mixed people are Black, nor will it be a full dig on the politics of being a Black-dad-white-mom mixed-raced person. There are clips of Drake texting Twitch streamer Kai Cenat to stay on his stream, giving him an advantage in listening to his newest music. Yet in the end, Cenat is one of the top mentions in this lawsuit. Drake is overtly calling streamers sellouts for listening to all the music openly and participating in the dialogue of the rap beef. This behavior is abhorrent. Drake essentially got mad that his approach to his beef with Kendrick went wrong; going out of his way in “Family Matters” to say that Kendrick raps like “he about to get the slaves freed”, which inherently addresses Kendrick’s supporters as mindless followers entrapped in deep racialized disillusionment.
Further driving this notion around his poor treatment of his biggest favorable content creators, the relationships Drake has facilitated between Twitch streamer Adin Ross, and hip-hop commentator/music drama reporter, DJ Akademiks2 will be analyzed. Akademiks has been reporting and sharing Drake-centered content for the better part of a decade now. Akademiks has communicated with Drake via text and call, receiving exclusives from him and his team about his newest happenings—yet Drake has never taken the initiative to meet Akademiks. Not a single backstage concert pass, never joining a stream, hell—not even a brunch or house call invite. But Drake does have close ties to Ross, a streamer who’s been known for platforming white supremacists and those from the red-pill manosphere. He’s even gone as far as to participate in a 6.5-hour stream with Ross called “Drizzymas”, chatting about all kinds of irrelevant things. Drake used Black creators as political pawns in his schemes as part of his defense to uphold his righteousness in his insecurities being perceived as an insubstantial cultural contributor to those who study and uphold the true principles of hip-hop.
Drake constantly has held this stance that he’s a victim of being ousted from the culture since he’s not fully Black and that he doesn’t make conscious rap—which isn’t true. Drake’s success was largely due to his beginning involvement in YMCMB. He started with the proper foundations alongside BirdMan, Lil’ Wayne, and Nicki Minaj (to name a few) and had fully established himself as a contributor to Black hip-hop culture with this new flavor in the likeness of Kanye that showed hip-hop a more soft and emotional side, while also sharing solid bars to enjoyable melodies. He’s even known to have championed his beef with Meek Mill in 2015. People started to become more open about their critiques of Drake once hip-hop became the biggest genre in the world and the content of his music became riddled with the same formula: a melodic beat, bars about how his friends were fake, and how he was making more money now, and soft jabs at other more lyrical artists to keep the edge for the fanbase. His music no longer matures with him, and he’s now a content farm for music; stealing cadences, bars, and concepts from other esteemed Black artists such as Shelly FKA Dram with “Cha Cha” and “Hotline Bling”, XXXtentacion with “Look At Me!” and “KMT”, and the well known Soulja Boy moment with “Wuzhannanan” and “Miss Me” ft. Lil Wayne.
Remember this moment? Right…Right…
Drake’s priorities have seemingly always been in disarray. A prime example of this is his relationship with Tory Lanez, the Canadian R&B artist who’s now serving a 10-year prison sentence after being charged with shooting famed female rapper, Megan Thee Stallion. Drake and Tory Lanez had beef in the mid-2010s amid Drake being spotted using Lanez’s flows in songs. At the height of the beef, Lanez had made rounds with his own remix of Drake’s “Controlla”, and Drake had responded by switching around some of his lyrics to “Summer Sixteen” at a festival.
“During his Summer Sixteen pit stop in Austin, Texas, back in June 2016, Drake switched up the Summer Sixteen lyric, “All you boys in the new Toronto want to be me a little” to “All you boys with a fake ‘Controlla’ wanna be me a little”, a dig many perceived was aimed at fellow Toronto rapper Lanez, who released his own remix to Drake’s “Controlla.” - Nerisha Penrose, Billboard
Ultimately, they made up in 2017; even performing “Controlla” together at OVO Fest that year. When it’s lyrics and flow, Drake is ready to stake his claim and defend his honor, but when it’s in defense of Black women, he’s on the front lines fighting against them. Since it was revealed that Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion in 2020, Drake has been seen making multiple Instagram Story Posts and other declarations to free Tory. Drake even went as far as to allegedly mention Megan in his song “Circo Loco” released in 2022 saying3:
“This bitch lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion/She don’t even get the joke but she still smiling.” - Drake, “Circo Loco”
Most recently, Drake said ‘Free Tory’ variations again during the Adin Ross stream “Drizzymas”. It’s disgraceful that the biggest rapper in the world is not in defense of Black women. To be so outwardly against another female artist who’s experienced violence from one of their peers is not an unpopular story, and should be something that fellow rappers should thoroughly be in protection and defense of. Drake’s commercial status allows him to not be responsible to care about how he behaves toward his own community—a community he’s so envious of being recognized as a part of through his actions—because he knows that no matter what he feels about the rap industry or his Blackness, that his main demographic just wants to hear and support the machine.
It’s definitely bigger than a Drake diss. Kendrick knew that when he released it, it would be taken beyond this diss, but as another cultural empowerment moment for Black people. For the essence of this essay, it will be known as the ‘Drake Diss’.
I can’t stand this alleged assaulter. He needs to focus on fighting that assault case that he can’t beat instead of crying and smashing his keys about an artist he rides that he’s never even met after all these years. Nonetheless, he still needs to be part of this discussion for a greater point.
Abhorrent and disgraceful perfectly describe Aubrey’s behaviour. Taking legal action because you lost a beef is absurd. I’ve been unimpressed with him for a while, mainly because his music has always felt like hip-hop cosplay. But now, it’s beyond that—I’m disgusted by his character. Yuck!