The bird Drake chose for his mascot is the owl. A majestic, mostly nocturnal, solitary bird of prey revered for symbolizing wisdom and foresight. However, his current lyrical squabbles with the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Rick Ross have the topic of conversation centering around if the Canadian rap star might be a different fowl: the vulture. More specifically, a culture vulture.
Rozay inferred the allegation of Drake being an outsider who’s attempting to scavage off the hip-hop culture in the diss song “Champagne Moments,” his response to being shaded by Drake on “Push Ups” where he called out Aubrey’s mixed race.
“Flow is copy-and-paste, Weezy gave you the juice/Another White boy at the park wanna hang with the crew,” Ross raps on the song, implying Drake has been cosplaying for the come up.
Kendrick Lamar’s more recently released “Meet the Grahams” finds K-Dot driving home the point and getting very specific.
“You run to Atlanta when you need a check balance/Let me break it down for you, this the real n***a challenge,” Kendrick raps. “You called Future when you didn’t see the club/Lil Baby help you get your lingo up/21 gave you false street cred/Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head/Quavo said you can be from Northside/2 Chainz say you good, but he lied/You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars/No you not a colleague, you a f**kin’ colonizer/The family matter and the truth of the matter, here’s God’s plans to show you the liar.”
The Debate About Drake Being a Culture Vulture
The argument about whether or not Drake is a culture vulture is not a new one. The Toronto native has been called out for changing his clean-cut, child actor image to fit in for a while. Some rap fans blasted the rapper for years for seemingly jumping on younger artists’ bandwagons to stay relevant. Others have even questioned what Drake’s real speaking voice sounds like since he appears lay on thick accents seeminly depending on who he is with. And as, Kendrick noted, Drake working with certain artist might have ulterious motives.
However, the point must be made, Drake has operated in the rap game for roughly 15 years with the allegation never reaching the fever pitch that it has now that he is involved in WW3. Even the artists who are currently blasting The Boy for cultural appropriation have worked with him multiple times in the past. Director Isaac Hayes III recently questioned the authenticity of the allegations aimed at Drake.
“For the record I’m not anti Kendrick at all,” Hayes tweeted. “I’m just confused as to how Drake, the most popular, successful, number one rap artist in the world is all of a sudden a culture vulture and must be stopped. Plenty of folks had 15 years to say this while y’all were on tour with him and asking to do features with him. The math doesn’t math. If he’s so hated why y’all hop on so many songs with dude?”
Other people are convinced otherwise.
“Drake is getting jumped for being a culture vulture, creep, and cosplay gangsta while simultaneously being lauded as one of the greats when he isn’t even a pioneer and hasn’t had a good album in a decade outside of a few singles,” an X user recently opined. “He should’ve never made it to this point.”
Drake wouldn’t be the first rapper to be labeled a culture vulture. Eminem, Post Malone, Kreashawn and a bevy of others have faced the charge, with the common denominator being they are all White.
Is culture vulture talk about Drake valid or for the birds? Thanks to Drake’s new beef, the debate is only getting louder.
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