The famed and wealthy often take their mistakes in stride. They are used to being watched, and they are used to being talked about on all corners of online space. If something is simply ignored, another rumor or complaint will soon replace it, and the original error may just slip from collective memory. But once in awhile, the issue at hand is too big to ignore. The Notes app, in its gray and foreboding blank space, acts as a confessional for all celebrities. Frenzied text will be typed out, screenshotted, and posted for us to pick apart.
Last night, Drake paused what he described as “the circus” to take a minute to explain himself. After being absolutely low-blowed and bodied by Pusha-T’s diss track “The Story of Adidon,” where he was exposed for having a secret son and was insulted for a number of other things, Drake came forward via Notes app to clear the air about the song’s cover art. According to Pusha, the cover art is completely unedited: a photo of Drake, jazz hands and all, his face aggressively painted in bright lipped blackface. On his Instagram story, Drake clarified that the image was from 2007, during his acting heyday, as part of a project to “bring awareness” to the fact that black actors struggle with being typecast and acceptance in the film industry as a whole.
In the usual fashion of the medium, the statement did not include any overt apology; instead it offered up a somewhat iffy explanation for his past behavior. We can assume that Drake is still in the process of drafting up a musical response to Pusha. The image is slaphappy; Drake appears young and careless, naive to the fact that years later Pusha would emblazon the image on a roast addressed to him, forever burning it into our minds.
While it is not a white flag waved at Pusha, it did bring attention to the astonishing fact that Drake is rarely embarrassed in public. I can’t recall many times where the rapper was left looking awkward by his actions, and even less where he was made to apologize for it. Still, he’s not completely invincible, and below you can enjoy a brief history of his lowest moments.
2009 — Falling down while performing “Best I Ever Had” with Lil Wayne
During the New Jersey stop of Young Money’s “America’s Most Wanted Tour,” Drake decided to ignore the fact that he had recently tore his ACL. Things took a turn for the worst when he started jumping around to the intro of his song “Best I Ever Had,” yelling “Baby you my everything!” and then swiftly collapsing onto the floor. This was perhaps the first time he realized it doesn’t always pay to have fun.
2014 — Airballing at the Kentucky basketball team practice
Being a huge fan of University of Kentucky basketball, Drake was offered the chance to warm up with them at Big Blue Madness, a kickoff event for the team that October. Visibly excited, but maybe feigning confidence, he stepped out of the layup line to throw an awkwardly arching shot. The instrumental to his song “Forever” blared as the ball flew into no-man’s land. The basketball did not make into the basket; it wasn’t even close. He brazenly waved for another shot, realizing just how poorly he’d fared.
2015 — The Madonna Kiss
Back in April 2015, Madonna performed with Drake at Coachella. This already sounded like an odd match, but then things got even stranger when she grabbed his face with reckless abandon and made out with him. She didn’t seem to give him any reasonable cues that this would occur; Drake flails around, clearly disgusted. Madonna just pulls his hands away, which is wildly uncomfortable to watch. He even throws his face onto his palms afterwards, looking like he could puke up his last $300 steak meal. Whether this was a planned stunt or a spur of the moment thing is unclear, but he later backtracked on his nausea later, thanking Madonna for the kiss.
