Drake‘s recent dominance on the Hot 100 charts can partially be attributed to his venturing into the native sounds of foreign regions, especially Dancehall and Afrobeat. He’s worked with artists like WizKid and Popcaan in recent months, and relied heavily on a those sounds on collaborations with PARTYNEXTDOOR and Rihanna; his “Work” collab with the latter was the #1 song in the country for nine consecutive weeks. Even before this recent streak, “Hotline Bling,” one of the biggest hits of 2015 and Drake’s Views bonus track, borrowed the theme of D.R.A.M.‘s “Cha Cha,” which is heavily influenced by Latin culture and music.
However, not everybody is appreciative of Drake’s empirical spirit. Internationally renowned reggae and dancehall artist, Mr. Vegas, known best for his crossover hits “Hot Wuk” and “Tek Weh Yuself,” called Drake “fake” in a recent Facebook video rant, claiming that the Toronto rapper is appropriating their culture unfairly, and has never made a song with any of the reggae or dancehall artists that he shouts out. Infamously, a leaked version of one of the more popular songs on Views, “Controlla,” featured Popcaan, but the final version of the song was comprised of just Drake.
Vegas also made it very clear in his rant that, despite popular belief, Drake’s interpolation of dancehall music has not made life any easier for reggae artists, and that Views is 40-50% dancehall because Drake sees that it’s the hottest genre out right now.
Watch his full rant above.
