Drake made news this weekend in Houston, but it was not the kind he might have hoped for. The Toronto Napster was at the center of a cultural shit-storm as the surprise guest of country mouse Morgan Wallen at a Wallen gig, joined by the third performer, the baseball legend Roger Clemens. But even if it was conceived as a “big moment,” for many fans, it hit ears like a sour note at an otherwise sold-out concert.
The appearance quickly became controversial and received backlash from all areas, including the Hip-Hop community. Why? It’s not just the unlikely alliance between a rapper and a country singer. It’s history and memory. Wallen is haunted by his 2021 scandal when he was caught on video using a racial slur. He may have commercialized his way back, but the stink of that moment hasn’t dissipated, mainly in Black America for some.
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Something felt off when Drake, an international superstar whose career was born and raised inside Hip-Hop (a genre born out of Black culture)- stepped on the stage alongside Wallen. Social media alighted with searing critiques, and plenty didn’t mince words.
“Drake came out as a guest, for someone calling us n##### a few years ago… Not like us, my ass,” one user wrote, a reference to the chorus of Kendrick Lamar’s now-memorialized diss track to Drake. In that song, Kendrick accused Drake of being a “colonizer,” of thriving at the expense of Black culture and not representing it.
The criticism turned even more personal and sharp. “Drake buddy-buddy with a white man who says the hard -er like he’s part of the joke,” another user wrote, alluding to Drake’s other recent lyrical snafus and his wider pattern of cultural tone-deafness. Meanwhile, others wasted no time comparing Drake to legends like Tupac, writing, for example, “Y’all was comparing Drake to Tupac earlier… Pac had BLACK PANTHERS in his family.”
Although Morgan Wallen has attempted to rehabilitate his public image after his 2021 controversy industry timeouts, public apologies, step-by-step re-entry into the mainstream music scene he’s still an extremely polarizing figure. For many people, especially Black fans and Hip-Hop purists, his redemption arc hasn’t yet been won. Despite the unacceptable behavior, the revelation that someone as universally beloved as Drake was choosing to side with him, to align with him loudly, publicly, and without qualification, felt to some like a betrayal.
For Wallen’s fanbase, it might’ve been a “surprise cameo,” but it felt like a strategic play for Drake o, one that critics say smacks of clout-chasing: a cheap grab at relevance during a slower time in his career. AFTER A VERY PUBLIC L in his lyrical sparring match with Kendrick Lamar, fans think he might be trying to cling to the spotlight however he can.
Intentional or not, that one instant has started a larger conversation about authenticity, loyalties, and the gravity of public decisions, especially from someone of Drake’s international influence. You don’t make a move like this in hip-hop, and you hope it fizzles.
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