2024 is an election year, and the change brewing in the air around us is hard to deny. Though many artists prefer to keep their focus on their artistry as often as possible, some have become politically active in recent years, using their platforms to influence fans on who’s worth voting for in their opinion. For his part, Drake isn’t an overtly political lyricist, but he did find himself caught up in some Texas election drama along with 50 Cent, Chris Brown, and some other creatives this month.
As The Houston Chronicle previously shared, a number of entertainers were falsely registered to vote in the Lone Star State using the same address. The outlet obtained documents from the Harris County Tax Assessor’s Office, listing Drizzy, Fif, The Game, Breezy, and Trey Songz as eligible to vote on August 15th, 2023. The prankster behind the scheme said all five men lived at a “beige $300,000 house in a modest new development,” and signed papers acknowledging their crimes could be penalized with “up to one year in jail, a fine up to $4,000, or both.”
None of the MCs involved cast a ballot in the 2020 election, but as XXL notes, Texas federal law allows people to register to vote in the state without a driver’s license, ID, or Social Security Number. So long as full legal names and birth dates are accurate, the process is likely to be approved, as demonstrated here.
Though the situation is mildly concerning, Drake isn’t letting himself get caught up in things that are out of his control. Rather, the father of one continues to make his generous spirit felt while on the road with J. Cole promoting 2023’s For All the Dogs. Besides that, the Canadian is also working with Yeat again, this month reuniting for a joint effort called “As We Speak.” Tap into that at the link below, and check back later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.
DJ Khaled is once again gearing up to deliver anthems. Hitting Instagram, Khaled teased two new Drake singles as a part of his project “in the works,” vowing the singles will be sung word-for-word.
Drake has unveiled the captivating visuals for his latest track, “Rich Baby Daddy,” featuring Sexyy Red and SZA. Released on Valentine’s Day, the video serves as a heartfelt portrayal of love in romantic relationships and friendships.
In a nostalgic VHS style, the video encapsulates the trio’s cherished memories, showcasing Drake’s affectionate role as Sexyy’s “rich baby daddy.” From festive celebrations to tender moments of support, the video paints a vivid picture of their bond.
As the narrative unfolds, the trio joyfully welcomes the arrival of Sexyy’s second child. Drake and SZA stand by her side with supportive friends, showering her love and affection.
Following the release, Drake thanked Sexxy Red and SZA: “Thanks to the girls for trusting me when they showed up and their was no trailers and no lights it was just me holding a camcorder saying I promise this will work shot to @suavefilms and @notmrblue on the additional camera work”
Back in 2023, Drake, Sexyy Red, and SZA all joined forces for the Canadian rapper’s For All The Dogs track “Rich Baby Daddy.” Most recently, a new music video for the song dropped, which has an interesting premise. In it, Drake and Sexyy Red play a suburban couple who are expecting a child together — and it perfectly works out, as Sexyy Red was actually pregnant when filming the video.
Reminiscent of a home video recording, he then films as Sexyy Red goes into labor (in real life, perhaps) which leads to a tense conversation between the two. “Put the camera down!” she shouts, halfway through the music video, after telling him her water broke. “Are you f*cking dumb? Can you stop,” SZA adds.
Because of the video’s realistic-seeming content, some might be wondering if Drake is really the father. Here’s what to know.
Is Drake Sexyy Red’s Baby Daddy?
Drake is… not the father! Although Sexyy Red has a song called “Bow Bow Bow (F My Baby Dad),” she was not referring to Drake. She gave birth to her second child, which she announced through an Instagram post. “Me waitin to get discharged from the hospital so I can hit da block wit da guys,” she captioned at the time.
Last month, she also revealed (sort of) who the child’s father was, as he posed with her for a maternity photoshoot. Although The Shade Room blurred out his face, fans can very clearly see that it’s not Drake. Check out Sexyy Red’s shoot with the father here.
Sexyy Red gave birth recently, and she, Drake, and SZA decided to make that the foundation for their new “Rich Baby Daddy” video that dropped last night (February 14).
The Drake-directed clip starts with himself behind the camcorder, showing off his suburban neighborhood before heading inside to his pregnant wife, Red. The music kicks in at around 45 seconds and shows Drake, Sexyy, and SZA enjoying a holiday celebration in their humble home. The music cuts back out at 2:17 into the video, when Red shouts at Drake from across the house, letting him know that her water broke.
The music returns as the three head to the hospital, where the video shifts away from its VHS style and starts looking more modern, as Sexyy gives birth and friends and family celebrate the new arrival. Before the video ends, we see footage from after Red’s actual, real-life childbirth, as she holds her baby and on-screen text reads, “Congratulations Red!!! We Love You.”
Speaking of hospitals, at a recent St. Louis concert, Drake offered to pay for a fan’s upcoming operation, saying from the stage, “You got a sign out that says, ‘Please help me with my surgery.’ I don’t know what kind of surgery you need, sir. I really don’t, but I’ma let you know: From me to you, St. Louis love, we gonna take care of whatever the surgery is.”
Despite recent news to the contrary, Drake may be gearing up to drop new music. Last October, he teased that he would be going on hiatus following the release of his For All The Dogs album. However, it seems he may be wrapping up his hiatus early (or not starting it at all, really). At a St. Louis stop of his and J. Cole’s It’s All A Blur Tour, he teased new music — coming sooner rather than later.
When he felt the energy of the crowd, he couldn’t help but resist the urge to give them something back. He spoke to the audience, saying he is loving being back on the tour.
“You know, I said I was taking a break and all that sh*t, but I’m right back on the road again,” he told the crowd. “It’s hard for me to stay away from y’all — I really do love you.”
Also during the show, Drake said he may begin recording his next album while on tour.
“You never know, I might get bored and start making some new music on the road, see where it goes in the next little while.”
The two St. Louis shows seem to have been filled with love. At the show, he offered to pay for a fan’s surgery, under the condition that he continues to see the fan showing out at future shows.
Drake and J. Cole‘s It’s All A Blur Tour — Big As The What? tour has had quite a buzzy start. In the first few days, Drake prompted some laughs online for wearing a skeleton costume. The tour has also coincided with a shocking video leak.
But in a more heartwarming story, the “First Person Shooter” hitmaker made a special promise to a fan in the audience at his St. Louis concert last night (February 13). While on stage, Drake noticed a fan carrying a sign, asking Drake for assistance with medical costs.
“You got a sign out that says, ‘Please help me with my surgery.’ I don’t know what kind of surgery you need, sir. I really don’t, but I’ma let you know: From me to you, St. Louis love, we gonna take care of whatever the surgery is.”
Drake continued, noting that he does have one special condition for the fan — he must show out once again the next time Drake performs in St. Louis.
The It’s All A Blur Tour — Big As The What? tour is set to continue through the end of March, and will wrap on the 27th at The Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
Without question, Jamaica’s greatest export is reggae music, as embodied by the genre icon Bob Marley. Even if you’ve never had the fortune to visit the Caribbean country, Marley’s influence can be felt around the globe. Regardless of the genre, the late musician’s groundbreaking discography is the undercurrent for some of the world’s biggest acts, including Burna Boy, Bruno Mars, Janelle Monáe, Nas, Stevie Wonder, and The Police.
In Paramount Pictures’ biopic Bob Marley: One Love, starring Kingsley Ben-Adir (as Bob Marley) and Lashana Lynch (as Rita Marley), audiences are reminded of Marley’s musical greatness. However, the overlooked takeaway from the film is the cultural significance of reggae music. Born out of multiple diasporic sounds (mainly ska, rocksteady, and calypso), its mento (folk) core is what curated the art form into a calling card specific to the people of Jamaica.
As was the case for hip-hop, reggae’s rise had everything to do with its alluring instrumentation as well as the profoundly political and social commentary heard throughout each record’s lyrics. Somewhere along the way, that rebel spirit has been lost (or at least on the mainstream front). So, how did the genre go from Bob Marley And The Wailers’ 1977 version of “One Love” to Drake’s “One Dance” in 2016? Similar to the music itself, the answer to this question is quite layered. The decentering of religious obligations, commodification of Jamaican culture, and leniency of gatekeepers have all contributed to the erasure of reggae music’s social & political commentary roots.
First, you must examine Marley, the man and musician, to dissect why he’s revered around the globe. The person behind those poetic pieces was a spiritually rich man far before his tangible wealth set in. In journalist Vivien Goldman’s 2006 The Book Of Exodus, she recounted one of her many conversations with Marley before his death, where he detailed his faith journey into Rastafarianism. Having a vision of Jah (God) in 1966 while living in America prompted him to return to Jamaica “with a clear vision” of his life’s purpose. Marley’s unwavering tether to his religious obligations led him to inherit the moral responsibilities of a messenger.
Reggae or, as he referred to it, “the king’s music” (quoted by Timothy White in his 1983 biography, Catch A Fire: The Life Of Bob Marley), each time Marley touched a microphone, his duties were to lead his people toward’s God favor pushing back against the wickedness in the world. With Dancehall being the dominant sound coming out of Jamaica presently, long gone are the days when reggae acts could break through for simply speaking truth to power. To borrow a line from the 1993 film Menace II Society, ‘Don’t nobody wanna hear that sh*t, Sharif.’ Well, unless you count Koffee (the youngest musician to win a Grammy in the reggae category). That’s not to say that rising stars Byron Messia, Jada Kingdom, or Dexta Daps don’t sprinkle spirituality into their music. It’s just not their primary focus. Nor does it pick up steam outside the country’s parishes in days past.
The commodification of Jamaican culture has played the most significant role in the erasure of reggae music’s social & political commentary roots. Globalization is a b*tch. As quickly as Marley’s music traveled, so did the industry’s urge to convert this newly found popularity into a steady income stream. From labels’ rush to extract reggae’s musicality (native instruments, production techniques, etc.) to companies’ mass production of “Rasta-inspired” tchotchkes, an influx of items hit the market to give those obsessed with the country’s superstars a piece of Jamaica on-demand.
We’re not talking just about the white tourist wearing tams with faux dreadlocks (zatavi) crocheted into them. Most certainly, it includes non-natives cosplaying cultural ambiguity. This ushers in the music industry question equivalent of whether Black folks can or can not be racist. So, can Black people appropriate other sectors of Black culture? When you boil it down to semantics, the answer is no. But are Black people (including bi-racial or multi-racial) often seen exploiting Caribbean cultures in stereotypical ways? The answer is, without a shadow of a doubt, yes. Is reggae music a monolith? No. But it’s okay to admit that we’re losing the plot.
Rihanna’s 2005 “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want” to 2009 “Rude Boy” pipeline isn’t precisely how reggae music was intended to evolve, but does that mean it should be stripped from the rolling credits? Drake’s “One Dance” is inspired by reggae music. This development is a game of telephone set to music where the subject matter drastically changes, and the instrumentation refuses to give in to eroding. What happens when the money means more than the message? I don’t know. Ask hip-hop.
Its gatekeepers were the last line of defense in reggae music to retain its social & political commentary roots. Unfortunately, their leniency inadvertently contributed to the genre’s now dull bite. When talking about music families, there’s no one above the Marleys in reggae. Starting with the paternal figures to the children and now grandchildren (hi, Skip), several generations of the Marley bloodline carry the torch both in the booth and label boardrooms. Other key players, including producers, songwriters, DJs, and more, continually fuel the genre’s progression on the ground in Jamaica.
Still, as far back as the 1990s, the barrier enforced based on socioeconomic upbringing nearly pushed Sean Paul out of music. In a 2022 documentary with Vice, Paul confessed that during the early days of his career, he desperately wanted to make “cultural records” that spoke to the economic and living conditions of Jamaica’s ghettos harkening to reggae’s foundation. However, producer Jeremy Harding (one of the most impactful music professionals in reggae) advised against it. “[Harding] was like, ‘You know nobody believes you. You know that, right? You’re not the person that will be able to ‘preach.’ So, why don’t you sing about who you are… sing about girls. Sing about parties.’”
Ultimately, Paul’s success doing so helped kick off Dancehall’s international resurgence in 2000 (so thanks for that). Still, now the public is left to fantasize about what artist Paul could’ve been if given the space to craft the art he originally intended. In the same video piece, Harding shed further insight into the divide in Jamaica on who can be the vocal authority in reggae.
“As I started to work with Sean, we realized that we shared a similar background — the way that we describe it, we were Uptown kids,” he said. “So, the friends and family that we had around us were looking at us strangely. Like, ‘Why do you want to get involved with Dancehall? Dancehall is nasty, dutty, ghetto music?’ And at the same time, you’re struggling against the other side of the community, saying, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be here because you don’t have a place in this music’ and ‘You’re not from the ghetto; therefore, you are not authentic.’”
“Everyone was challenging [me], [saying] ‘You can’t express for us,’” added Paul.
Yet, that same protective energy disappeared when given the breakout moment to promote Bob Marley: One Love during the 2024 Grammys; Ziggy Marley laughed along as host Trevor Noah poked fun at the Jamaican accent and many of their easygoing personalities instead of focusing on the richness of the culture.
What good are gatekeepers if they aren’t keeping the culture when it matters the most? You tell me. Are Afrobeats and amapiano tastemakers taking heed?
Where do we go from here? Nowhere. As with hip-hop, the damage is already done. A complete gutting would have to take place to undo what has been done, which economic players likely won’t let happen. In short, Bob Marley: One Love is a painstaking reminder of what was and how the decentering of religious obligations, commodification of Jamaican culture, and leniency of gatekeepers have all contributed to the erasure of reggae music’s social & political commentary roots.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
St. Louis celebrated the trio of Drake, J. Cole, and Lil Durk who pulled into the Enterprise Center for their It’s All A Blur – Big As The What? tour. The arena presented a massive golden owl cake, accented by cupcakes around the base. You can see the cake below.
(@pepesgrandma) February 14, 2024
shot to @suavefilms and @notmrblue on the additional camera work”
