Drake has been moving in slightly puzzling ways since the Kendrick Lamar battle. Some of his moves have worked. The “100 Gigs” drops have been major online events. They’ve also given fans insight into some of their favorite Drake albums. Other moves have left us collectively puzzled. “Wah Gwan Delilah” is at the top of this list. The 6 God decided to team up with comedian/artist Snowd4y for a Plain White T’s cover so baffling that the band thought it was a parody. And now we have a music video for it.
Drake and Snowd4y didn’t shoot a live action video for their cover. That would have been pushing it. They did, however, decide to drop an animated music video as ridiculous as their accented take on the song. An animated Snowd4y strums an acoustic guitar amidst various landmarks in Toronto. The video real kicks off, though, when animated Drizzy shows up. The rapper is inexplicably styled to look like he did during his Views era, rather than his current day vibe. He’s even rocking a vintage OVO hoodie. It’s unclear why Drake didn’t want his braids and bulky 2020s fits animated, but we digress.
The music video has some genuinely funny moments. Drake and OVO Chubbs freaking out over text messages the former received, and Drake posted up on a bed with the titular Delilah. The animation style is reminiscent of South Park, right down to the minimal movement and facial expressions. To further sell the Views-era, though, the music video decides to perch animated Aubrey on top of the CN Tower that graces the album cover.
Drake has been dropping lots of loosies over the last few months. He’s had collabs with Latto, Playboi Carti and Lil Yachty. Some of them have well-liked by fans. It’s baffling, then, that “Wah Gwan Delilah” is the one that got a music video. Sure, it’s animated, but the song came out months ago. It’s a puzzling for Drake to bring attention back to the least-liked song he’s dropped in 2024. That said, he’s doing his own thing. We just hope that Drizzy and PARTYNEXTDOOR album is coming soon.
Drake has officially begun his post-beef era with the recent outing “Wah Gwan Delilah.” The track is a bizarre parody/remix of the Plain White T’s 2005 hit “Hey There Delilah.” It’s been turning heads all across social media. To create “Wah Gwan Delilah,” Drake linked up with a virtually unknown artist by the name of Snowd4y. This left many fans to believe that the song was created using artificial intelligence. As it turns out, the song is all too real. That’s right, Drake really crooned lyrics about being “so cheesed” in an extremely odd fake patois. The track serves as the second release Drake has put out since the Kendrick Lamar feud settled down. The first post-beef track was another poorly-received collaboration with Sexyy Red, titled “U My Everything.”
So who exactly is Snowd4y? How did he get the chance to craft “Wah Gwan Delilah” with one of the biggest artists on the planet? With fans far and wide looking into the TikTok troll, it seems that this song may be his big break into the mainstream. Here, we’ll examine what we know about Snow, and try to understand what compelled him and Drake to produce and release this incredibly misguided track.
Before landing this massive Drake feature, Snowd4y was primarily known for his skits and jokes across social media. Users on Drake’s official subreddit were quick to track down the “Wah Gwan Delilah” vocalist’s socials. Through their research, they confirmed that Snowd4y is a Toronto native. As such, the internet comedian produces a lot of content relating to everyday life in Toronto. He often utilizes characters satirizing the people of the Canadian city. Most of the skits on Snow’s TikTok page consist of different situations involving “Toronto man.” Others lean on common local stereotypes and tropes of the city.
While Snowd4y was not well known outside of Toronto before the release of “Wah Gwan Delilah,” the social media personality does have a solid base of fans, with nearly 40,000 followers on TikTok alone. This number is expected to keep growing, particularly if the Canadian humorist continues to collaborate with big name entertainers like Drake.
While most Americans likely aren’t aware of Toronto’s mixed cultural diaspora, the city does have a large portion of residents of Caribbean descent. This explains why Drake and Snowd4y approached their “Wah Gwan Delilah” track with such a heavy island-inspired accent. Jamaican patois is even used within the title of the song. “Wah gwan” is island shorthand for “what is going on.” There are multiple bars across the song that lean on this gimmick, including Drake’s strange admission that he is “so cheesed” at the notion of Delilah having been sexually active with other men in her past.
Kendrick Lamar even referenced this Toronto dialect in his Drake diss track “Euphoria” back in May. On “Euphoria” Kendrick raps “I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and blammy, crodie/ Tell me you’re cheesin’, fam/ We can do this right now on the camera, crodie.” These lyrics left many listeners baffled at first. Fans quickly determined from context clues that “cheesed” means confused, baffled, or angry, depending on its use.
While Snowd4y is known for his comedy skits, his release of “Wah Gwan Delilah” didn’t come completely out of nowhere. Just a few weeks ago the Toronto native released the track “Banned From Toronto,” which sees him humorously interpolating multiple flows and lyrics from Kendrick’s “Euphoria.” While his primary function is to craft jokes, the “Banned From Toronto” single is much more musically enjoyable than “Wah Gwan Delilah.” Clearly, Snow has some genuine musical talent, though it’s buried under a thick layer of sarcasm and post-ironic humor.
After creating “Banned From Toronto,” many content creators have asked if Snowd4y would like to work with prominent Toronto artists. In one particularly prophetic interview, a podcast host asks Snow point-blank if he’d like to collab with Drake on a track like “Wah Gwan Delilah.” Snowd4y played it cool, suggesting he would only do the collab if Drake comes with some heat. Still, it was obvious that the young comedian would be excited at the prospect of sharing the mic with Drake, leaving some to say that the interview manifested the collaboration.
Why Would Drake Release This Song Right Now?
While nobody is suggesting that Drake isn’t allowed to have fun with a silly parody record, the release of “Wah Gwan Delilah” does have fans scratching their head in confusion. You might even say that Drake fans are cheesed themselves, regarding the whole ordeal. Releasing the track so shortly after being clowned by Kendrick Lamar on wax makes Drake look quite unserious. It also seemingly strengthens Kendrick’s argument that the Toronto MC is simply an actor cosplaying in different cultures.
For now, it seems unclear when exactly “Wah Gwan Delilah” was initially recorded. It is entirely possible that Snowd4y could have released the song without directly consulting Drake first. Drake did repost the track on social media, which assured fans that it wasn’t made using AI (Even Plain White T’s were in disbelief). Still, little is known about “Wah Gwan Delilah’s” production outside of that. Either way, this parody seems 20 years too late, and more unintentionally funny than purposefully satirical. The only major upside of “Wah Gwan Delilah” is that Snowd4y’s internet comedy has been exposed to a whole new audience of potential fans.
Regardless, it exists. And Plain White T’s have thoughts.
On Wednesday, June 5, Plain White T’s posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) showing the band reacting to “Wah Gwan Delilah.” The video is captioned, “The T’s were too stunned to speak…” In the 42-second video, lead singer Tom Higgenson can’t suppress his displeased facial expressions. He bobs along to the familiar instrumentals but shakes his head before saying, “That’s not Drake. It’s crazy that everybody thinks that it’s real. It seems like it’s very obvious. I don’t know, but it’s cool. Whatever.”
If you haven’t yet figured it out, “Wah Gwan Delilah” is a cover of Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah,” the band’s biggest hit that peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007. To really drive home the early-2000s of it all, Higgenson has confirmed that the song was inspired by a real girl named Delilah whom he kept in touch with through AOL Instant Messenger.
And for his next trick, after turning J. Cole into a horny mess on Cash Cobain’s “Grippy,” Kendrick Lamar will turn this Toronto superstar from “Mob Ties” to small fries. At least, that’s what a lot of fans think about these new features from the Compton creative’s rivals, especially Drake’s recent remix of “Wah Gwan Delilah” by the 6ix’s hot new Internet personality, Snowd4y. People are clowning the “Hey There Delilah” cover endlessly online, and while we completely understand why given the context of the rap beef, we also don’t think it’s as bad as some might say.
After all, this is far from Drake’s first foray into putting on local Toronto culture in a cheeky way, and far from his first “bad” song. Remember when he included “Ratchet Happy Birthday” on 2018’s Scorpion right after losing to Pusha T? Well, this kind of invokes that dissonance, but in a way that’s much more on the nose and impossible to ignore. As for what The Boy’s future holds in the short and long term, we can only guess at what shifts and switch-ups will happen next or when he will return to straight-up bars. But right now, we can assess that “Wah Gwan Delilah” doesn’t deserve your ire: just a chuckle before you move on to something else.
It’s Still A Cover
You’re telling me that, meme status or not, “Hey There Delilah” by The Plain White T’s isn’t one of the most recognizable and beloved cheesy 2000s hits? At least the catchiness is still there, and Snowd4y even plays with it by fitting a comically long list of Canadian financial institutions to scam in one of the chorus melodies. Drake is a master of the earworm, and this song provides a killer set of tunes for him to show off with. For some, maybe the fact that this is a cover and not an original song about Toronto is what makes it so corny and cringe; after all, the T’s are from Illinois. But if it was an original song, people might not have been able to see it for what it is: just a fun meme song that, more likely than not, only the 6ix will understand.
Lol kev don’t listen to anyone it a parody jokey joke song and everyone from Toronto been on it for a while now plus this is the first time in a long time Toronto love drake since sweeterman pic.twitter.com/iiPlFBJcZO
— morally guided dickhead (@skyhighsunny) June 4, 2024
Toronto is not like us, and that’s totally fine. In fact, it’s cool to see the city get a huge, overt, albeit comically exaggerated ode to the city and its culture, and if you disagree, think of all the cornball traditions that you’re so proud of your hometown for. What makes “Wah Gwan Delilah” carry particular weight (in both the positive and negative sense) is that it came out a month after Kendrick Lamar made fun of the 6ix and its slang and accents on “Euphoria” and then repped his origins with a West Coast banger. If nothing else, Drake’s decision to stick to Toronto this time around (or to his close collaborator Sexyy Red) seems impossible to interpret as anything other than him reclaiming this narrative. However, while he’s embracing his identity, hopefully, this parody-bordering auto-crooning isn’t all he does to present this to the world these days.
Drake’s Timing
These are the “summer vibes” Drake was talking about when the Kendrick Lamar beef ended… at least, presumably. As we mentioned before, “Wah Gwan Delilah” and the “BBL Drizzy”-sampling “U My Everything” feature for Sexyy Red see him really lean into the negative perception around him that tracks like “Euphoria” propelled to the forefront of conversation. If Drizzy can’t out-rap you, he’ll definitely try to out-moment you or go viral to get himself back to his usual path. But this release right after the beef cleanses the palate, reminds us of his poppier side, and oddly enough, sets up his eventual return to rap. We know that Aubrey will get back to subliminal disses and hard barwork eventually, but he thrives off of the push and pull of his duality. He’ll make you dance and wave your hand, threaten you, and dance again to make you forget.
Drake features on a troll song for the city of toronto to purely have fun and be part of the meme, since no one more toronto (world wide) than him, and everyone hating it. This is EXACTLY how I was hoping he’d move
Be it mockingly or genuinely, there’s something pretty funny about Drake’s bars, the autotune on both performances, and the raw plainness and simplicity of the cover. If you think this was at all a serious effort, just go look at his IG Story. The 37-year-old raps about being cheesed over a girl’s ‘Gram and going on double dates with his friend in a shiesty… come on. Snowd4y himself is also unsurprisingly gut-busting here, even if you might be laughing at his vocals more than you might be laughing at his lyrics. There’s an inherent meme quality to covering “Hey There Delilah” in this fashion and attaching someone as big as Drake to it, and we can’t deny that it’s entertaining. Can’t we let the 6ix God have some unserious fun, or at least joke about literally anything that isn’t serious culture vultures and grooming allegations?
Drake may not be going hard on “Wah Gwan Delilah” or trying to best himself, but it’s a crime how good he can sound without breaking a sweat. Say what you will about his technical performance and vocal effects, but you can’t deny that he has one of the most distinct and recognizable voices in popular music that takes up a lot of space whenever it appears. The “Virginia Beach” artist is a rare instance of a tone and delivery that works so well across most things that you throw at it, especially with melodies as infectious as those on “Hey There Delilah.” But the sad reality is that it feels like he wants to test these limits and see just how far fans will go for it. This is just the latest of many examples in which these experiments resulted in a bad song… but not a terrible moment.
Snowd4y, a comedian and TikTok star, managed to pull some strings and get Drake on his now viral “Wah Gwan Delilah” song. The two Canadians dropped the track yesterday on Soundcloud and it has already stirred up a lot of controversy. The “Hey There Delilah” cover had some people thinking that Drizzy’s voice was just AI, especially because of how the vocals are mixed. However, this song is in fact the real deal and people started to catch one once they figured out what Snowd4y does.
“Wah Gwan Delilah” is clearly here just to troll and run up the streams to get people debating online. So far that is exactly what is happening. In 15 hours, the song has racked up over 228,000 plays. Given the opposite statures of Drake and Snowd4y many have been expectedly surprised that this even reality. However, the latter would tell you otherwise, according to this interview below.
In a resurfaced clip dug up by Drake stan, DJ Akademiks, it sees Snowd4y being asked about if he would want a big-time feature for “Wah Gwan”. The interviewers threw Drake’s name into the conversation and that did intrigue him. However, he would only want him if he was going to come in “neatly” or not with some “soft s***”. While we would not say he came in like a “demon”, he certainly brought a hilarious tongue in cheek performance that surely Kendrick fans will never let him forget.
What are your thoughts on Snowd4y speaking about possibly wanting a Drake feature for “Wah Gwan Delilah”? Did you think this was AI at first, why or why not? Why do you think Drizzy said yes to this collab, especially losing the battle to Kendrick Lamar? Do you enjoy the song, or is it just trying to hard to be funny? We would like to hear what you have to say, so be sure to leave your takes in the comments section. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest news surrounding Snowd4y and Drake. Finally, stay with us for everything else going on in the music world.
This AI stuff has gotten out of hand lately. There’s no telling if any song is real or if someone typed a prompt. And, as if to drive home the point, no less an authority on the subject than Drake (of course) has put in an appearance to either troll fans or prove just how unfazed he is by his recent battle with Kendrick Lamar.
A few minutes ago, someone called Snowd4y dropped a new song called “Wah Gwan Delilah” on SoundCloud, purporting to feature Drake himself. The song is a clear riff on the 2006 Plain White T’s hit “Hey There Delilah,” employing Caribbean patois to replace the standard greeting in from the original’s title.
Either the mixing on Drake’s vocals is weird, or fans just can’t believe that he’d really do something this corny, so X.com (formerly Twitter.com) has lit up with fan responses wondering if the track is authentic or AI-generated. (For what it’s worth, according to the Drake subreddit, Snowd4y’s whole thing is doing a cheeky satire of a Toronto rudeboy, so perhaps the whole thing is meant to be a joke that fans are, of course, taking way too seriously.)
Complicating matters is the fact that Drake himself has posted a screenshot of the song from SoundCloud on his Instagram Story, writing “@snowd4y wake up the city ” Whether this means that he’s amused by the audacious stunt by Snowd4y or that he really does support the track remains unclear.
Instagram
You can check out the track from SoundCloud below.
Kevin
#FREECONGO (@teeh_kay1) 
(@ByDobson) 
(@RobMarkman) 
” Whether this means that he’s amused by the audacious stunt by Snowd4y or that he really does support the track remains unclear.