Without question, Drake has enjoyed remarkable success as an actor, singer, producer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Since his arrival on the hip-hop scene, he has been well-received by millions of people across the globe, and Drake has proven to be a phenomenal talent that even his harshest critics cannot ignore. Although Drake introduced himself to hip-hop fans in 2006 through mixtapes, 2009’s So Far Gone, his third official mixtape, propelled him to greater success and larger exposure to national and international music fans.
Before hip-hop music fans listened to Drake’s first official studio album, 2010’s Thank Me Later, many were already in love with him and his previously released singles from the album, especially “Successful” and “Best I Ever Had.” We were hearing him featured on several prominent artists’ songs. His presence seemed ubiquitous. His first two official studio albums, Thank Me Later and 2011’s Take Care engendered tremendous sales and achieved several prestigious honors.
Since those first two albums, Drake has released several impossibly successful albums, becoming a resident of the top spot on Billboard’s charts. Hits like “Hotline Bling,” “God’s Plan,” and “In My Feelings” are artistic artifacts that have become ingrained in the American popular cultural imagination. With such success and popularity, unfortunately, comes unwarranted hate.
While Drake and his art should receive informed and scholarly criticism—and they do—a clear difference exists between thoughtful criticism and hate.
Yes, hate comes with success and popularity, but hate needs exposing when it rears its ugly head.
All artists have people who don’t like them and their work. Artists have an understanding that many will not like them and their work.
What’s interesting about a significant percentage of people who don’t like Drake and his music is their reasons. They viciously attack him because they perceive him as being “soft.” These critics pejoratively assail him for not being masculine enough and not exhibiting many of the hypermasculine characteristics and qualities they idolize about gangsta rappers. I call these critics “hyper-masculine critics” because they are men and women who embrace hypermasculinity, which is toxic masculinity, and desire to impose this toxic masculinity on Drake and other artists. The overwhelming majority of these hypermasculine critics of Drake are black men.
In “Drake: Take Care,” a piece published by PopMatters, a prestigious popular culture publication, David Amidon divulges how he immediately responded to hearing Drake’s Thank Me Later: Drake is “soft.” Why? He posits that Drake is “soft” because he sometimes melds rapping and singing.
Huh?
What’s so “soft” about a male rapper choosing to sing? I wonder what he thinks about artists like Usher, Miguel, and Brian McKnight who are singers. Are they “soft” or extremely “soft” because they only sing? Is masculinity exclusively reserved for “pure” rappers? The answer, of course, is no.
Hypermasculine critics evince an unwillingness to exercise rationality.
On Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and sundry other virtual spaces, hypermasculine critics contend that Drake is not a “real” rapper because he has not lived the life of a “real” rapper.
Drake was reared in an affluent neighborhood in Toronto, Canada, whereas many rappers had to navigate abject poverty. Hypermasculine critics want to penalize Drake for not originating from impoverished conditions. They seem to think his middle to upper-middle class upbringing disqualifies him from being a real rapper, considering they appear to believe emerging from poverty is a prerequisite for being a real rapper.
When did being reared in certain socioeconomic conditions become a prerequisite for being an authentic rapper? Does Drake have to rap about selling and using drugs, murder, gang violence, and/or other criminal activities to be an authentic rapper? No.
Gangsta rap is not the ideal form of rap music, even though I love gangsta rap. One does not have to be a gangsta rapper to be a true rapper.
One’s masculinity is not proven by how many drugs he can sell or how many people he can kill. One’s masculinity can be demonstrated better by the power of his intellect. When listening to Drake’s music, an individual witnesses a rapper devoted to his craft rather than someone trying to acquiesce to destructive hypermasculine images.
Moreover, hypermasculine critics attempt to debar Drake from being considered a real rapper because of his racial composition: his father is black and his mother is white Jewish Canadian.
Seriously?
After black people have suffered and continue to suffer from the devastating realities of slavery and brutal legacies of Jim and Jane Crow, not a single black person should have a desire to deny anyone from anything based on race. Does one need to be “purely” black to be a real rapper? No.
Rap music is inclusive—not exclusive.
What’s ironic is many of these same critics warmly receive Eminem, who is white, as a legitimate rapper. Eminem’s racial composition does not seem to bother many hypermasculine critics as Drake’s does. Maybe Eminem’s turbulent childhood and emerging from low socioeconomic conditions excuses his whiteness. Isn’t this silly thinking? Yes. This is the illogical thought embracing toxic masculinity will generate.
Even distinguished professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University and the most visible black public intellectual Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, who I deeply respect, stated that he “hates” Drake, as reported by The Root’s “Marc Lamont Hill Would Not Be Considered a Drake Fan.” When one reads this aforementioned piece, he or she discovers that Dr. Hill does not give any meaningful reasons to “hate” Drake. He also is guilty of creating toxic hypermasculine standards for being considered a “real” rapper. Hill refuses to admit that he sees any of Drake’s intellectual prowess reflected in his music. He is, however, willing to see the intellectual giftedness of those hypermasculine rappers he praises in the article.
In short, many of Drake’s critics simply don’t like him because he’s not afraid to be himself. I find it shameful that many of Drake’s critics refuse to permit him a space to be himself. While they continue to hate on him, he continues to amass a larger and larger bank account. Even for those who legitimately dislike Drake’s music, they shouldn’t assert that he’s not a real rapper.
He, like any other artist that says that he or she is a real rapper, is a real rapper.
We can judge whether a rapper is good or poor at rapping, but we shouldn’t posit that he or she is not a real rapper. It’s pompous to assert that rappers who only meet your standards are real rappers.
Let’s resist toxic masculinity and those propagating it.
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Have you read the original anthology that was the catalyst for The Good Men Project? Buy here: The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood
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