All About Laughs
Could Drake’s reign over music and the charts over? According to Charlamagne Tha God, yes. It is no secret that the global superstar and the radio host/author of Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me aren’t the best of friends, nor do they have the best relationship, as it’s been played out radio waves and Drake’s music.
Part of Charlamagne’s job is to be critical of music and entertainment, as he provides his objective opinions on them that may prove divisive. Perhaps his views on the Toronto rapper’s material has hit quite a few nerves within Drake, making their history a shaky one.
There was a moment in time, however, where it seemed as though the two figures in entertainment may have made amends. In the midst of Drake’s beef with Meek Mill after the Philly native accused the “Back to Back” rapper of using ghostwriters for his material, Drake name-dropped Charlamagne in his diss popular diss track directed to Meek Mill.
“You gon’ make me step out of my f–kin’ frame/ You gon’ make me buy bottles for Charlamagne,” raps the Toronto emcee. To the Breakfast Club host’s surprise, he was gifted six bottles of Dom Perignon with a note: “Let’s be friends, Aubrey Graham.” Taking to his radio show that he hosts alongside DJ Envy and Angela Yee, Charlamagne admits that the record was a “tough, tough tune.”
“When it comes to rap battles we wanna see bars, and Drake gave us bars,” he said as he praised the rapper on-air. Things seemed to be shifting for them, until when Drake dropped his double-disc album Scorpion and Charlamagne appeared again in one of his bars on “Sandra’s Rose”. “Like Charlamagne I see the light and see the darkest patches,” he raps, referring to rumors of skin bleaching.
While the “6 god” is gearing up for his latest album Certified Lover Boy, he’s been releasing standalone singles, including his recent mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes. Included on the latter was his #1 single “Toosie Slide”, which blew up on TikTok and other social media platforms and birthed the accompanying dance move. Many of his fans, however, weren’t feeling the new tune, and Charlamagne couldn’t have agreed more.
“I think it’s wack and I think it’s beneath Drake,” he expressed said around the 1:43:30 mark in an episode of his Brilliant Idiots podcast. “I think that when you’re the biggest artist in the world… when you’re the biggest rapper in the world, I don’t like to see you chasing trends. It’s like, why be a surfer when you’re a f—g wave? I just didn’t respect it.”
He added: “The s—t might still work but it just don’t seem organic. A lot of times with those TikTok dances, it’s just organic. It’s a song people like and somebody does something to it and it goes. It was like it felt too forced. Too corporate. Too industry. I just feel like Drake has built himself up into such a way that he don’t have to do that s—t, man.”
Charlamagne says Toosie Slide is wack 👀 pic.twitter.com/bSVjkLsebj
— DatPiff (@DatPiff) April 20, 2020
What has been an undeniable fact within the last decade is Drake’s hit making ability and tight grip on the charts. His dominance in hip-hop has pushed limits, with many comparing his star-power to that of legendary icons such as Michael Jackson. But some people are beginning to feel like his reign is drawing to a close, such as R&B singer YK Osiris who made recent comments on Clubhouse that a number of people worldwide don’t know who the rapper is. “You can do that with Michael Jackson,” he stated to the panel. “Some people don’t know [Drake and Wayne], I’m telling you that.”
YK Osiris says Michael Jackson was one of the only Universal artists. Says not that many people know Drake or Lil Wayne outside of the US pic.twitter.com/1P5mmSc7Zs
— 👨🏾💻💫 (@lowlifejoe_) December 28, 2020
Charlamagne feels as though it’s an end of an era for the superstar as well. “Let me ask y’all a question: Are we still in the ‘Drake era?’” he asked on the latest episode of the podcast. “Is radio such a prehistoric form of media that it hasn’t changed the temperature to what’s actually going on out here in these streets?”
After differing answers from his co-hosts, including one who claims we are now in the “Lil Baby” era, Charlamagne then states that it is radio’s fault for making the public believe that Drake is still on top, although we are not. “Radio — they haven’t caught up to what’s actually going on in the streets yet,” he said. “They haven’t changed the temperature. So, it still feels like we’re in a ‘Drake Era’ — I don’t think we’ve been in the ‘Drake era’ for the last two or three years.”
Charlamagne believes that Drake’s music hasn’t shown much growth within the last few years and that listeners may just be fatigued with the inundation of his music. “Drake has given us so much music that I don’t know if he has another gear,” he said. “We know Kendrick has another gear. He shows us that with every project. Drake has given us so much, I don’t know if he has another gear so, therefore, I’m not looking forward to anything.”
Safe to say, they may not be friends anytime soon.
