Talk:Drake (musician)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Drake (musician) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: 3 months

Warning: active arbitration remedies

The contentious topics procedure applies to this article. This article relates to articles about living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, a contentious topic.

The following restrictions apply to everyone editing this article:

This page is protected. You must be logged-in to an extended confirmed account (granted automatically to accounts with 500 edits and an age of 30 days)

Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page. Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator.

This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Drake (musician) has been listed as one of the Music good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
March 20, 2023	Good article nominee	Listed
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on April 28, 2023. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Drake* has the personal approval of U.S. president Barack Obama to portray him in a biopic if the opportunity came?*

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Actors and Filmmakers / Musicians

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers (assessed as Mid-importance).
	This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians (assessed as Mid-importance).

Canada: Ontario / Toronto / Music Mid‑importance

Canada
portal

WikiProject
Canada

Canada
notice board

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Canada, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Canada articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CanadaWikipedia:WikiProject CanadaTemplate:WikiProject CanadaCanada-related

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is supported by WikiProject Ontario.

This article is supported by WikiProject Toronto (assessed as High-importance).

This article is supported by WikiProject Canadian music.

Hip-hop High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hip-hop, a collaborative effort to build a useful resource for and improve the coverage of hip-hop on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.Hip-hopWikipedia:WikiProject Hip-hopTemplate:WikiProject Hip-hopHip-hop
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

R&B and Soul Music Mid‑importance

	R&B and Soul Music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject R&B and Soul Music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of R&B and Soul Music articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.R&B and Soul MusicWikipedia:WikiProject R&B and Soul MusicTemplate:WikiProject R&B and Soul MusicR&B and Soul Music
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Pop music High‑importance

	Pop music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Pop music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to pop music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Pop musicWikipedia:WikiProject Pop musicTemplate:WikiProject Pop musicPop music
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Other talk page banners

This article has previously been nominated to be moved. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination.

Discussions:

RM, Aubrey Graham → Drake (entertainer), June 30, 2010, Moved
RM, Drake (entertainer) → Drake (rapper), February 22, 2013, No consensus
RM, Drake (entertainer) → Drake, June 22, 2013, Moved to Drake (rapper)
RM, Drake (rapper) → Drake (singer), May 27, 2016, No consensus
RM, Drake (rapper) → Drake (musician), June 21, 2016, Moved
RM, Drake (musician) → Drake, July 21, 2016, No consensus
RM, Drake (musician) → Drake, August 26, 2017, No consensus
RM, Drake (musician) → Drake, March 23, 2019, No consensus
RM, Drake (musician) → Drake (vocalist), May 11, 2019, No consensus
RM, Drake (musician) → Drake, December 1, 2022, Not moved
RM, Drake (musician) → Drake (singer) August 31, 2023, Not moved

The Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use require that editors disclose their "employer, client, and affiliation" with respect to any paid contribution; see WP:PAID. For advice about reviewing paid contributions, see WP:COIRESPONSE.

karmaclub (talk · contribs) has been paid by 3QDigital on behalf of Genius.com. Their editing has included contributions to this article.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 5 times. The weeks in which this happened:

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by BorgQueen (talk) 08:35, 17 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that Drake has the personal approval of Barack Obama to portray the U.S. president in a biopic if the opportunity came? Source: Variety
- ALT1: ... that Drake took a hiatus from his musical career to return to television as executive producer of Euphoria? Source: The Hollywood Reporter
- Reviewed: Drew O'Connor
- Comment: Tried to go with lesser known trivia than ‘Did you know that… Drake shattered x record?’ QPQ review coming later as my battery is currently at 6%

Improved to Good Article status by Trillfendi (talk). Self-nominated at 19:30, 26 March 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Drake (musician); consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: No issues with anything as far as the actual hook or article are concerned (I'd definitely go with ALT0 over ALT1 personally) but holding off on giving it the all clear until the QPQ has been done. Turnagra (talk) 07:48, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Turnagra: qpq done now. Trillfendi (talk) 18:10, 1 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks - happy to go ahead and approve this with ALT0 now! Turnagra (talk) 18:53, 1 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Trillfendi, any objection to me getting an image from the article and putting this in the lead slot? theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 00:46, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Errors in Early life section

could be added: Drake's claim at age 14 (2nd source age 16-17)father's cellmate was teaching him to rap

^{Complex Magazine interview (he says age 16 or 17)}

Drake Talks Young Money, Kanye Comparisons & Ghostwriting

https://www.complex.com/music/a/complex/drake-talks-young-money-kanye-comparisons-ghostwriting

This former Canadian TV star has become one of hip-hop's most anticipated rookies. Get familiar with this exclusive Q&A.

BYCOMPLEX

May 29, 2009

Drake: "How I got into rapping was, my dad was in jail for two years and he shared a cell wit this dude who didn't really have anyone to speak to. So, he used to share his phone time with this dude and at the time I was probably 16 or 17, this dude was like 20-22, and he would always rap to me over the phone'it was Poverty, that was his rap name. After while I started to get into it and I started to write my own shit down. And after a while, he would call me and we would just rap to each other. And after my dad got out I kept in touch with dude and kept writing my shit down and eventually I learned from meeting people who were into music, too, the art of making a song and I accepted the fact that I wanted to be in music."

(2ndsource he says probably 14)

Drake’s prison correspondence school of rap

By Chris Lee

June 24, 2010 8:10 AM PT

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/pop-hiss/story/2010-06-24/drakes-prison-correspondence-school-of-rap

“My dad went to jail for, like, a year on – I don’t even know what he was in jail for – an assault charge or a drug charge or something,” Drake recalled in an interview with The Times last month. “When he was in there, he had a cellmate who used to rap, but he had nobody to talk to.

I was probably 14; the guy was probably 21. My dad was like, ‘My son likes to rap so I’ma let you rap for him. I’ma share my phone time with you. I’m going to pass you the phone and here’s my cellmate. Say what’s up to him.” He continued: “The guy’s name was Poverty. He’d be like, ‘Let me spit something at you. I was like, ‘Whoah!’ And he’d spit something. ‘Alright, talk to you tomorrow.’”

Poverty coaxed Drake out of his shell and provided a de facto school of rap – even if the young MC eventually lost track of his hip-hop Yoda.

“Next day, my dad would call me. So I’d pick up and he’d pass the phone and the guy rapped again,” said Drake. “I had been writing raps but never rapped for anybody. I was like, ‘I’ma get my little rhyme book together tomorrow.’ And we’d go back and forth.

Despite being on the list, there is no mention of Drake being recognized as one of the greatest rappers.

Everybody in the top 10 of this list in 2023 is mentioned as being one of the greatest rappers of all time, except for Drake. Shouldn't Drake also be recognized like everyone else on this list to avoid bias? Óskadddddd (talk) 11:44, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. 108.27.60.251 (talk) 02:50, 3 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm interested if any fellow editors can follow up on this topic. It is indeed true, I checked every single rapper's article that was mentioned in this list—Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., Lil Wayne, Drake, Snoop Dogg, and Nicki Minaj—and they all mention them being "one of the greatest rappers of all time" and linking to that specific list. All of them except for Drake, of course. What gives? I'd like to see this tagline added to his article as well, to avoid bias. TheMotto (talk) 01:45, 16 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, drake hate is so forced. 2001:16A4:214:ADED:314A:3E9D:1310:A1EA (talk) 08:08, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 23 April 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

IKeepItAHunnid (talk) 00:44, 23 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Day Creature (talk) 01:09, 23 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

New draft started regarding Drake's Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits

Hi fellow Wikipedians, I have began a draft regarding a List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs garnered by Drake. If you would like to help out, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you. JustTryingToBeSmart (talk) 03:09, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi JustTryingToBeSmart, this to me sounds unnecessary. It is already covered by Drake singles discography. soetermans. ^{↑↑↓↓←→←→ B A TALK} 04:17, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Soetermans, I appreciate your opinion. While it is covered in Drake singles discography, I just thought that I could make a page solely dedicated to a listing of Drake's Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits since Drake currently has 80, the most of any artist. To make the page more useful, I could possibly divide his top-ten hits garnered by each album or list some under a category for top-ten debuts. Then again this could possibly be unnecessary like you said since the peak chart positions are listed in Drake's singles discography page. Thanks again for your opinion. JustTryingToBeSmart (talk) 13:37, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Bias

Ban evasion by User:Giubbotto non ortodosso.

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Beginning the article with "Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time" diminishes the seriousness of the piece, as Wikipedia is not a fan club. J-Majestik (talk) 12:59, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's certainly sourcing out there that could justify this inclusion. I think this is one of those rare statements which warrants a footnote or two in the lead because there are expert opinions that corroborate it. mftp dan ^oops 13:40, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@MFTP Dan: The key question is, "Regarded by whom?"—since there are numerous expert opinions that contradict this statement. I can provide links to these sources if necessary. After the high-profile rap beef in 2024, opinions regarding him being less well-received are now quite easy to find.J-Majestik (talk) 13:47, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yet Wikipedia has a policy against recency bias. Trillfendi (talk) 14:06, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Trillfendi: Exactly, that's what I'm saying. Currently, the article backs that statement with a 2023 list ranking him among the greatest rappers of all time as the source, which doesn't quite serve as the most appropriate opening for this type of article. Isn't that "recency bias"?J-Majestik (talk) 14:15, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's not what you're saying. If the consensus in reliable sources for the past 15 years has been that this rapper is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, and then all of a sudden has 1 "bad" year out of 15 "great" years, you don't unilaterally alter the consensus to reflect that one event. The beef already has an article of its own thoroughly addressing it. The job of Wikipedia is to reflect the full scope of the article subject's life and career in a balanced way. If any one thing takes up too much space it affects the quality of the article and is moved elsewhere. Trillfendi (talk) 14:56, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

it's important to note that in the 15 years we've observed, the core hip hop community has never fully recognized him as one of the greatest. It's not 1 bad year out of 15 great years. His involvement in ghostwriting controversies, his continued struggles in rap beefs (such as with Pusha T), and his pop-influenced style have consistently made him a polarizing figure within the hip hop world. J-Majestik (talk) 15:20, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Per WP:SUBSTANTIATE, I think a more appropriate wording would be "he has been honored as one of the Greatest Rappers of All Time by Rolling Stone."J-Majestik (talk) 14:21, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 16 June 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

I want to update his recent profile photo LemonadeBoy15 (talk) 22:20, 16 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. to what? Cannolis (talk) 00:18, 17 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]