Drake might be onto something about the future of celebrity documentaries. On Tuesday, he shared a huge data dump, purportedly 100 gigabytes worth of behind-the-scenes footage and unreleased music, via a burner Instagram account he appears to have kept under wraps for several months. Pilfering through the files feels like constructing a fan-made documentary of Drake’s generation-spanning career. There’s footage of a baby-faced Drake in 2008, reminiscing about the Chevy Malibu with the stained seats he used to drive, a rehearsal video of Drake and Rihanna in the Take Care era, a clip of Drake talking to his mom as he and Rihanna record “Too Good,” from Views (apparently the song is about Serena Williams).
The collection is certainly one of the first times a star as big as Drake has approached this level of transparency. There are moments of goofy celebration and a plethora of scrapped ideas, including an alternate Certified Lover Boy cover that the world should be grateful never saw the light of day. Overall, it’s an effective reprieve from a summer defined by disses made against him. Despite how one might feel about him, Drake has been at the center of popular culture for the better part of two decades, and a window into the moments that got us here is compelling for any music fan.
Still, 100 gigs is a lot, and it could take some time to wade through it all. So, here are some of the big takeaways from Drizzy’s big data dump.
Three Unreleased Songs
The big news from Drake’s drop is the three new songs, “It’s Up,” featuring Young Thug and 21 Savage, “Blue Green Red,” and “Housekeeping Knows,” featuring Latto. The tracks are the first new songs from Drake since “The Heart pt. 6” which found him in an embarrassingly defensive stance. Here, Drake is back in classic form offering up a sampling of different styles, from the gritty, hardnosed raps on “It’s Up,” to the patois-leaning “Blue Green Red,” and the slinky bounce-infused “Housekeeping Knows.” Each track, while being completely different, offers an example of something Drake does well.
Ping-Pong and Pickup With Steph Curry
Among the more enthralling yet mundane footage in the dump (there are dozens of moody shots from hotel windows of trees in the breeze) is a clip of Drake playing ping-pong with Steph Curry, both clearly competitive as hell about it. With the kind of cinema verite style of an A24 film, the scene cuts away to the crew playing a pickup game with Steph, who drains a few buckets while wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
“Hotline Bling” Could Have Featured Future
Buried in the many folders is a bunch of footage from around the time Drake was recording his smash hit “Hotline Bling.” In one clip, Drake’s lying on a couch explaining the origins of the song’s title. Apparently, it’s about a woman he used to have relations with, whose phone would ring so much after they had sex that he saved her in his phone as Hotline Bling … peak Drake. More interesting, however, is the revelation that Drake intended for Future to have a verse on the song, a decision that might have well altered the course of human history.
Unreleased Cover Art
There’s more than audio and video here. Several folders worth of alternate album art give a rare look into the process behind some of Drake’s biggest releases. It’s also the latest example of Drake being perhaps too fearless when it comes to transparency, as some of the covers for Certified Lover Boy—in particular, a drawing of Drake looking through the window at a sea of beautiful women, barely clothed—probably should have just been deleted. But one appreciates Drake’s commitment to the bit.
A Reference For Kanye’s “Yikes”
Since everything Drake does now is somehow related to the various beefs that have, by now, occupied much of his career in more recent years, a clip of Drake making the reference track for what would ultimately become Kanye’s “Yikes,” from his 2018 album Ye. While Drake was properly credited as a writer on the song, footage of the process has reignited controversies over the claims that Drake himself relies on ghostwriters.
Drake Loves Lil Yachty’s Song “Poland”
There are many BTS clips of Drake and Co. goofing off in the studio—in one, of Drake recording “Middle of the Ocean,” Lil Yachty can be heard in the background asking: “What the fuck is the Vava?” One of the most interesting, however, shows Drake waxing poetic about Lil Yachty’s surprisingly potent viral hit “Poland.” In the clip, Drake says no other artist could have made the earworm of a single because no other artist is as free-thinking as Yachty. High praise, indeed.
A Euro Tour?
In one of the photos from Drake’s burner page, there’s a stack of promotional materials titled “No One Likes Us” with “Europe 2024” embossed underneath is fueling rumors of a European tour, which would be Drake’s first time back in Europe since 2019. That title would, of course, be a play on Kendrick’s now infamous “Not Like Us” diss, which has spent the past 13 weeks near the top of the charts and which levels an array of personal and professional claims against Drake. If that’s indeed his tour name, it’ll surely spell an interesting few months for rap fans on both sides of the beef.