White men in rap (pt. 1)

Recently, Aubreigh Drakiana Graham, a white woman from Canada, released their latest project, "Her Loss," and it was a bunch of bullshit, as per usual.

((Let me try to remain as accurate as possible because I have seen this decline coming for a long time. Also, we have to always keep in mind: Aubrey Drake Graham was raised by a white woman. And much like every person raised by white women, Drake is not absolved of being more enlightened to the black experience because his absent father was black. Never ever ever forget this as you're reading.))

[image credit: Insider.com]

I hate to be that person, but I was listening to Drake in '05.

I bumped his "Do What I Do (Remix) ft Cassie" that he premiered on his Myspace page and his OVO blog. I bought the signed copy of Room for Improvement TWICE because I played it out so much, I ruined the first CD. And I was bumping it so much, my sister wanted a copy, so I technically bought the signed RFI mixtape THREE TIMES. I was a die-hard Drake fan. I remember going through the halls of The Bricks in college and telling everyone to start listening to Drake because he was going to be big.

My Sophomore year, Drake released, "Comeback Season" and I just KNEW he was going to be major; "...as big as Slum Village!" is what I thought. I never even considered the possibility of anything different; or anything more.

But when Drake signed with Lil Wayne and released, "So Far Gone," I knew that it was a wrap (pun lowkey intended). Not because Wayne was the greatest rapper at the time, but because I had long understood that "going mainstream" meant the music had to change. I could sense the music industry changing; songs were becoming cornier and artists were becoming obsessed with blending pop into their sound; it seemed inevitable that aligning with YMCMB was going to result in some drastic change in his music. I wasn't sure how, but I was absolutely certain that it would be different.

And then "Best I Ever Had" was released.

(Credit: NOW Magazine)

"Best I Ever Had" is one of the worst songs in Hip Hop History. The music video is trash. The song is trash. Everything was awful.

"Brand New" gave me a little bit of hope, but not a lot. Drake had sold out.

Drake has gone on to be one of the most notable artists in music history. He is a global phenomenon, with connections to every celebrity that you can think of. His fascination with basketball has had him become one of the most recognizable faces on the sidelines rooting for the men he loves. His respect and adoration for men in the entertainment industry makes Drake one of the biggest groupies that could ever exist, and it is this reason why I am so surprised at how he has chosen to sabotage his career with his latest release.

Drake's music has always been widely supported by women. From women getting his lyrics tattooed on their bodies, to men buying tickets to his shows to impress and pick up women. Drake has always created music with women as his core fanbase. However, Drake has always preferred to defer to men.

Sure, it may appear that he is a Certified Lover Boy, but that love does not extend to the core audience that loves him. Women shower themselves in sassy Drake lyrics as captions, but Drake has been using misogyny, light-skinned privilege, and celebrity alliances to express harm against women for years.

I noticed it first on the mixtape So Far Gone, which was released after he signed to YMCMB. "HoustAtlantaVegas" was a sultry testament to the money-making women of Houston, Atlanta, and Las Vegas, Nevada. This was also around the time that Drake had committed to singing more throughout this projects. He starts with:

Hey there, pretty girl

You know exactly what you've got and

I don't blame you at all, you can't resist it

Especially with the lights so bright and

the money so right and it's coming in every single night.

She don't wanna leave...

she's just stuck in Houstatlantavegas

He romanticizes the life of a dancer in saying that she "doesn't ever worry" and projects his own insecurities about his loneliness onto her life by stating that "...she's scared of ending up alone..." Drake takes these subtle jabs over light-skinned beats and began to plant his flag of misogyny in hip hop. But what's hip hop without a r@pe reference, right? Because later in the song he's says, "Carry you inside, get you some water and undress you. I give you my all and the next morning you'll forget who, or why, or how, or when..."

Drake has gotten away with riding the one-drop rule all the way to the top of the charts, and using black women's bodies as his stepping stones.

You don't have to be an Aubrey Drake Graham genius to see how often he weaponizes his "sad mixed boy" antics against women. In fact, following So Far Gone, Drake released Thank Me Later, his debut album under YMCMB with singles, "Over," "Fancy," "Find Your Love, " and "Miss Me."

Throughout the album, Drake makes sure to emphasize how he could never love the women he encounters because they'll meet another rapper and he'll be less loved; or how she only wants him for his money so he can't become too attached; and every other song has a special 2009 essence about it as they all reference bottles being poured, and money-hungry women.

This is important to note, because if you were a Drake fan, like I was a Drake fan, you remember "Come Winter" and how, even when he was up to his most sad of his sad-boy antics, he painted a picture, and carried this woman (fictitious or real) through the song like cradling a baby. She was loved and adored, she was observed but the distance was respected. She was missed and she was understood, but most of all, she was valued.

But by Drake's third album, Aubrey was, in fact, far gone.

When "Hotline Bling" (formerly titled "Cha Cha Remix," shoutout to DRAM) hit the streets, it was wildfire. I can't even lie. That little basura track had some cr@ck in it. But, because I was getting older (as was AUBREIGH), a lot of lyrics felt juvenile to sing.

"Ever since I left the city you got a reputation for yourself now, everybody knows and I feel left out..." The sad-boy antics continued, but now they're more predatory than I remember him being back in '05, '06, '07... This is also around the time that it had been revealed that Drake had a suspicious relationship with a very, very, very underage actress from a Netflix show. But "Hotline Bling" was something especially sinister. He was shaming this woman for moving on with her life when he had done the very same with his. He was giving melody to a specific type of violence that women experience: When men leave and expect you to place your life on pause, and when they feel "left out" and respond with violence.

He continues "You don't need no one else, you don't need nobody else...why you never alone?...used to always stay at home, be a good girl..." and then accuses her of not being herself because choosing to move on with her life and hang out with her friends and travel is, apparently, a sign that she is "someone else."

The ways young men used these songs to shame women after breakups; how songs like these validated the harassment women experienced (always, but especially) at that time. It all felt harmful and like more was on the horizon. I remembered asking, "How much worse can this nigga get?"

I was not prepared for what was to come and what information would come to light.

Drake has created several instances of dating young women far younger than he is, and befriending young women before 18, and then going public with dating them. Drake has used his celebrity and his sad-boy persona to light-skin shuffle away from the very damning allegations that he, much like many of the male celebrities with which he aligns himself, is a predator.

But something good is happening in the industry, the new women entering their rap careers are not falling for the Octaroon Okie-doke.

The new rap girlies are EATING! It is the best thing to happen to music since Cam'Ron popped out with the pink on pink on pink. Megan thee Stallion, Ice Spice, Cardi B, Nezi Momodu, Chika, Flo Milli, Rapsody, etc. The rap girlies are creative and barring these niggas THE FUCK UP. This is one of my favorite things to see. And just like the coattail riding white woman he his, Drake has never missed an opportunity to dick-ride the next wave. The beautiful part about these rap girlies is: they create their own waves.

These women have their own fanbases, create their own trends, acquire their own brand deals, have their own sound, and they absolutely don't need a man to co-sign on SHIT. For the first time in rap history, women don't need a nod from a man to get acknowledged for being talented and creative.

This threatens many male artists, but especially the ones with fragile egos like Aubreigh Drakiana.

It is not surprising that the women who rise above Drake's bullshit always end up the butt of his weird ass lyrics and industry alliances. When Serena chose not to be exploited by the Biracial Bandit, he made sure to name drop her on a song where he's crying about how "muthafuckas never loved [him]":

And it's back to L.A., open the mail, starin' at the check

Enough to make you throw up, man it's gross what I net

I'm with my whole set, tennis matches at the crib

I swear I could beat Serena when she playin' with her left

Not a huge rise in concern, however, when you think about actual abilities, this nigga sound stupid.

After realizing he couldn't get her attention with that bar, he circles the block and comes at her husband on this most recent release:

I swear you don't even mean what y'all say like y'all dubbin' a movie

Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie

He claim we don't got a problem but

No, boo, it is like you comin' for sushi

We might pop up on 'em at will like Suzuki

At what point, does Drake realize Serena from COMPTON, CALIFORNIA is not worried about anything that a Canadian actor raised by a white woman has to say about her. She survived WIMBLEDON IN THE 90s. But even a jab like that is below the belt when it comes to the respect that we all agree our greats deserve. And if you don't consider Serena Williams to be great, you are a misogynist and I can't believe you made it this far (in life and in this article).

Drake took more jabs at women who have slighted him on his album including Megan thee Stallion and Ice Spice.

Ice Spice is an upcoming woman rapper who has some really cute songs that often to go viral on Tik Tok. She is malleable in a way that the industry loves, she initiated her career with sex appeal and fun lyrics, which the industry also loves; and she has carried her celebrity in a way that upholds her youth and allows her to moderate her sex appeal how she chooses (much like Megan).

So it's no wonder that shortly after flying her home, Drake unfollowed her on IG and took time out of his supposedly busy schedule to say, "She a ten tryna rap, it’s good on mute.”

Clearly, the Scorpio of Toronto didn't really rock with Ice Spice like she thought they did back when they'd met and hung out at the OVO fest.

Drake takes a liking to throwing diss shots at women, but never keeps that same energy for the many men who have called him out directly by name (DRAM, Diddy, DMX [rip], Pusha T, Soulja Boy, Kid Cudi). Lil Drakiana Mama likes to throw shots and skirt away from the accountability, especially when being addressed by a man.

Which is why his line about Megan Thee Stallion is so frustrating. Because, for the first time in all of niggas rapping, Drake and his cronies (songwriter Lil Yachty) are avoiding a double/triple entendre. For the first time in the history of niggadom, Drake wants to convince us that he wasn't being coy in his lyrics. It makes his behavior even more sinister because now, all of his beloved misogynistic celebrity friends are cloying for deniability that the bar that references being "shot" and a "stallion" are NOT about the Stallion-named artist who was shot by his miniature villain friend.

Drake chooses to align with violent men because Drake is a violent man. He is an insecure rapper who placed all his eggs in the basket that affords him the most protection. He gets to cosplay a black man, with a whole white mother and white baby mama, and uses the foundation of misogyny in hip hop to take jabs at the women who did not settle for him.

He has built a career that would make Keisha and Alicia jealous (ex girlfriends referenced in his songs), but they both have moved on. They use his name as pick-up lines and conversation starters. He is merely an ornate centerpiece on their tables that they box up and put in the dusty closet when company leaves. He is not a priority to them, and thanks to the wonderful foundations laid by women rappers before, none of these new girlies find him to be a priority either.

This decline is long awaited. The Biracial Beige Bandit is likely going to continue rapping for a bit, but if he were smart, he'd start transitioning back into acting now. Because the last thing we need is an Al. B Sure looking gentrifier in his 40s still talking slick about girls who were born the same year his first mixtape dropped.

[Credit: Amazon.com]