Written By Morgan Delva

Edited By Carmen Faria

Introduction

There is no doubt that Drake is the most commercially successful hip-hop artist of the past decade. He has dominated the Billboard charts with every one of his albums or single releases over the past decade (BillBoard, 2024) and is in the top five highest-selling rappers of all time (Lane, 2023). Drake’s extreme popularity has put him in a position to significantly influence the direction that mainstream rap music takes, a reality the genre has begun seeing the effect of in recent years with the rise of artists inspired by him, like Juice Wrld, Lil Uzi Vert, and Jack Harlow. Many also point to Drake as the main inspiration behind a majority of mainstream rappers now releasing albums with increasingly long tracklists and shorter songs in order to boost their streaming numbers (McDermott, 2018). However, while Drake’s presence in hip-hop did initially inspire promise through his accumulation of a higher proportion of Black women within his fanbase and his detachment from some of the genre’s hypermasculine tendencies (Tyronce, 2018), it can be argued that his artistic evolution has led him to separate himself from this initial direction completely. At first, Drake was ridiculed for being “too soft” by various hip-hop artists and media personalities (VladTV, 2011). Following the criticism, the rapper underwent a gradual but noticeable artistic transition throughout the mid-2010s, one that seemed to stem from feelings of alienation that the artist openly expressed as a reaction to this ridicule in interviews with prominent hip-hop journalists (TheDiamondKShow, 2010; CBC 2013). One of the standout recent examples of this is him stating, “Of course there’s a part of me that wishes I was celebrated a little more” in his 2019 Rap Radar interview (Rap Radar, 2019). Considering this shift, it is important to examine how Drake, as an artist, went from challenging some of hip-hop’s more regressive tendencies to embodying the genre’s misogynistic tendencies in a more harmful version of what they once were. 

Drake’s Artistic Evolution

Before discussing this topic further, it is important to note that this article is concerned with analyzing Drake as an artist, which consists of what he embodies through his music and public appearances, rather than examining him as a human being. Any elements of his personal life that may be discussed will strictly be those that he himself has covered in his music or public appearances rather than speculation about his behaviour in private. With this in mind, to understand how Drake went from a novelty in mainstream hip-hop through his authentic soft-spokenness to a co-opter of artistic Black masculinity consistently taking lyrical jabs at various women (whose identities he either implies or broadcasts), his initial rise to fame must be understood. As is now widely documented, Aubrey Graham (as he was known before taking on his stage name) initially made his name as an actor on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi starting in 2001. Following the end of his stint on the show and his signing to hip-hop stalwart Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records in 2009, Drake would make his rounds through various well-established hip-hop media outlets to make the case for his inclusion in the leaders of rap music’s next generation of artists (TheDiamondKShow, 2010). However, he was often not taken seriously. This discussion about “softness” leads to another point of contention at this stage in Drake’s career (and still today): his social background and racial identity. In a 2013 CBC interview about his then recently-released album, Nothing Was the Same and its more confrontational approach, he responded to a question about street credibility as an asset for hip-hop artists, stating that rapping about guns “is such an easy scapegoat…I can’t rap about that, because I’m not going to step out of my character” (CBC, 2013). Considering the number of references to gang violence and street ties included in Drake’s music in recent years (such as 2018’s “Mob Ties”), it is clear that he deemed a shift in artistic approach necessary. Despite these increasing attempts to artistically embody hip-hop’s fundamental elements and his consistent comments about not being seen as “Black enough” (Smooth, 2011), Drake notoriously does not address Black issues in his music. Specifically, his consistent reluctance to address issues of systemic racism and manifestations of it like police brutality paired with his history of distasteful lines referring to slavery (including the line in his diss titled “Family Matters” aimed at Kendrick where he states “Always rappin’ like you ‘bout to get the slaves freed”) has alienated many hip-hop scholars and listeners (Williams, 2024).  

Another trend representative of Drake’s new artistic tendencies is the consistent inclusion of lyrics portraying toxic relationships with uncomfortable power dynamics. For instance, the one described in Certified Loverboy’s “TSU” tells the story of Drake developing a sexual relationship with an exotic dancer for whom he provides financial support. A recurring theme in his music has been one of age disparities in his relationships, something he zeroes in on in projects like 2018’s Scorpion and his most recent effort For all the Dogs (Battan, 2023), with lyrics like “She was twenty-one, I don’t see a savage…shawty still young, so she don’t know the classics” from the latter album’s track titled “Calling for you.” The kind of subject matter presented in songs like these exemplifies Drake’s overarching pattern of problematic songwriting about romantic relationships, one that is compounded by the bitter subliminal or overt jabs he takes at numerous women in his recent music. These insults include lines about Rihanna and her relationship with ASAP Rocky throughout For all the Dogs as well as in his battle with Kendrick Lamar (Penrose, 2023; Griffin, 2024), his potshot at Grammy-winning jazz artist Esperanza Spalding on “Away from Home” (Fitzgerald, 2023), and finally his insinuation that Megan Thee Stallion lied about getting shot by Drake’s friend Tory Lanez on “Circo Loco” from his collaborative project with 21 Savage titled Her Loss (Hassan, 2022). All of these examples represent how far he has strayed as an artist from his original appeal, a shift that, while gradual, is quite identifiable. The turning point identified by various analyses of Drake’s career is the lead-up to his 2015 release of If You’re Reading this it’s too Late, a mixtape that takes the confrontational approach introduced in 2013’s Nothing Was the Same up a notch. Drake himself admits this was partially a response to the hip-hop world’s attention being dragged away from the 2013 album following the leaking of Kendrick Lamar’s explosive verse on rapper Big Sean’s “Control” (Hot 97, 2013; Neyfakh, 2015). Throughout his artistic transition, Drake’s popularity has undeniably skyrocketed, as his continued reliance on confrontational lyrics garnered immense attention; something that would eventually come to a head in his back-and-forth with Kendrick Lamar (Connor & Yasmin, 2024)

Drake’s Abandonment of His Black Female Audience

When discussing this phenomenon, it is crucial to cover how Drake’s target audience changed along with his artistic approach. During the early 2010s, his audience consisted largely of Black women, an uncommon reality for most mainstream rappers at the time (Tyronce, 2018). This was a point of contention at this point in Drake’s career, as the softer tones of his music, in combination with the large number of Black women that were fans of it, were often pointed to as proof of Drake’s “softness” (VladTV, 2011; Tyronce, 2018). However, one of the most noticeable effects of Drake attempting to gain the respect of the larger hip-hop community through his misguided change in artistic direction was his abandonment of this audience, as his lyrics began taking on a more bitter and misogynistic tone which alienated his female fans (Tyronce, 2018). Many hip-hop critics argue that through this process, his music would begin appealing more towards young white men who felt safer engaging with the music of an artist cosplaying Black masculinity (FD Signifier, 2024). These same critics state this is likely because these fans felt unwelcome in spaces led by the Black men who were actually immersed in the culture that gangsta rap, trap, and conscious hip-hop were birthed from (FD Signifier, 2024; Williams, 2024). 

The New Hip-Hop Misogyny

By turning on the audience that initially brought him success in his music, Drake has become the embodiment of a new form of misogyny in hip-hop. As previously mentioned, his recent albums have been filled with disparaging lyrics towards various women or bemoaning failed romantic relationships characterized by power imbalances. While misogynistic lyrics are nothing new in hip-hop, Drake’s brand of misogyny is undoubtedly different from the more conventional forms of it that dominated the genre in the 1990s and 2000s. The type of misogyny that most commonly appeared in songs throughout these periods was typically a byproduct of commodified Black masculinity (Delva, 2024; Folami, 2016) and consisted of fantastical depictions of rappers living a playboy lifestyle; surrounded by women they would sleep with and then discard (Barnett, 2024; Guyton, 2021). These artists’ lyrics painted an unrealistic picture of their romantic and sexual relationships, and the rappers writing them often did so to supplement overall descriptions of just how unattainable or enviable their way of living now was following years of struggle and uncertainty (Folami, 2016). These manifestations of misogyny stemming from the commodification of Black masculinity in mainstream hip-hop meant that rappers were often just giving the masses what they wanted and expected from Black men in these self-portraits. However, Drake’s misogynistic lyrics are not grand and unrealistic; they are often uncomfortably personal, and they come off as more bitter than tongue-in-cheek. The jab at Megan Thee Stallion on “Circo Loco,” for example, both questions her integrity and trivializes a very real and likely traumatizing act of violence. The lyric in question, “This bitch lie ‘bout gettin’ shots, but she still a stallion,” is a double entendre that simultaneously accuses the artist of lying about being shot while joking about her denying that she has gotten a Brazilian butt lift. Meanwhile, “Bahamas Promises” from his most recent album For all the Dogs is a song dedicated to criticizing a former partner (whose first name he includes in the song) for her behaviour on a vacation getaway with him, stating, “You fucked up my Bahamas trip.” This woman’s young age is hinted at in earlier songs within the album. The song itself represents a recurring pattern of Drake lamenting his partners’ apparent immature behaviour while stating that their young age is no excuse for this immaturity, as he explicitly argues in the “7969 Santa” lyric stating “Blame that shit on being 25, that excuse with me just doesn’t fly.”

Who is the “Real” Drake?

It has been argued that the accumulation of Drake’s new audience can be attributed to the artist’s ability to pick and choose which identity he wants to associate with at a particular moment (Pope, 2016). A poignant example of this is an old video clip of Drake that resurfaced in which he calls Toronto slang “ignorant,” despite the fact that he now uses it regularly in his music and paints it as a manifestation of his pride in being the city’s representing artist (Global Grind, 2023). Hence, many argue that what brought Drake success was treating hip-hop like any aspiring actor would treat Hollywood, playing the role that will gain them the most success (Battan, 2023; Phifer, 2024). This argument is further compounded by the many instances of him piggybacking on popular musical trends and sounds, with a well-documented instance of this being the many tracks on 2016’s Views that either borrow from UK drill or Afro-Caribbean sounds, as well as the various accents he puts on throughout the project (Jacobs, 2021). If this argument is to be taken as valid, it begs the question: which of the versions of Drake that he presents in his music is the truest to his artistic persona? Is it the sensitive underdog, the bitter womanizer with trust issues, or the untouchable king of hip-hop? Given the way Drake has self-identified as each of these interchangeably throughout every stage of his career, one could make the argument that there is no “real” Drake, and what defines him as an artist is his willingness to pick and choose who he wants to be when it benefits him most. However, his immense success has made his self-portrait as an underdog less believable as time has passed, and increasingly leaning on his more “tough” personas has led to the alienation of the audience demographic that helped him reach the success he currently has. Additionally, the influence Drake has gained within hip-hop means that many of his artistic tendencies are often adopted by the up-and-coming rappers inspired by him (Edwards, 2024). Therefore, the implications of the increased misogyny in Drake’s music could cause reverberations throughout the entire industry. So, with him seemingly boxing himself into his tougher personas and other artists potentially following suit, it appears that Drake’s unique brand of misogyny is not going anywhere.

References

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