The Certified Drake Influence

The Undeniable Drake Effect In The Age Of Social Media

Words by Sizwe Shabalala

Aubrey “Drake” Graham is one of the most popular artists living today. A lot of people love him and a lot of people love to hate him but one thing that is undeniable when it comes to Drake, it’s his influence and impact on modern day pop culture. The 6 God has become a master at creating viral moments that go beyond his actual music for people to hop onto.  

From “Take Care” to “Nothing Was the Same”, “Views” and even “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”; all of these albums have provided viral meme-worthy moments at some point. Do you remember the term, “Y.O.L.O” and the impact that it had on the youth? Do you remember how people were replacing the image of Drake sitting atop the Toronto CN Tower on the album cover for Views with a photo of their own choosing? Or how just a year prior to that when he released If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, he had so many students use it as inspiration for their graduation hats by writing, “If You’re Reading This, I’m A Graduate” and companies changing it to, “If You’re Reading This, We’re Having a Sale”. Just in case you need another example, you can look back to 2013 when the Nothing Was the Same album cover became the perfect canvas for people to photoshop themselves on it, taking full advantage of the serene blue sky.   

Now here we are in 2021 and Drizzy Drake has once again taken the internet by storm with the release of his highly anticipated sixth solo studio album, Certified Lover Boy. Way back in October of 2020 he announced that the album would be released in January 2021 but when January arrived, he announced that the album would be delayed. However, even with the delay, the album already started gaining moment in terms of impact and influence. When Drake debuted his “Lover Boy haircut”, which was basically a clean fade with a heart on the side, many people started doing the same style and overtime it became a trend. Just like how he had people cut a random line on their head during the Views era. People’s social media handles started changing to things like “Certified Lover Boy/Girl” or tweeting things like, “Certified Overwhelmed Student”, or in true Gen Z fashion, some changed their Twitter names to “Certified Loner Boy/Girl” because what would the internet be without self-deprecating humour right?  

On August 31st he took to his social media to announce that the album would officially be coming on September 3rd and shared the artwork for the album as well and just like that, Drake set in motion yet another viral meme moment for the culture. The album cover, which features twelve emojis of pregnant women set against a plain white background was designed by British artist, Damien Hirst. In true Drake fashion, the album cover became the topic of conversation on twitter in a matter of minutes and continues to trend even today. At first, the fans went through a stage of denial because they just could not believe that this basic-looking artwork was the official album cover for an artist of Drake’s magnitude but, by the end of the day when seasoned hip-hop journalist, Elliot Wilson confirmed that it was indeed the official cover, the fans began their stage of acceptance and twenty-four hours later, the memes started rolling in. The album rollout was now in full effect.  

“Certified Creative Boy”

Image Credit: @Adobe/Twitter

At this stage, Drake is somewhat of a walking meme — for better or worse. Much like how fans made their own edits of his previous album covers, this has been no different. The impact of this moment has stretched far beyond just the music industry. We have seen companies such as Fashion nova jump on the trend by editing the pregnant women emojis and dressing them up in some of Fashion Nova’s popular dresses. We have even seen software giant, Adobe making their own version and ultimately putting a stamp on the impact. Locally here in South Africa, companies such as Pick n Pay, Durex, Capitec and even Drip Sneakers have been leading the trend. There was even an attempt by City of Joburg claiming “Certified Delivery Services”, which did not receive the same positive response as the aforementioned companies. A perfect example of the media/fans doing all the marketing for Drake. 

In addition to this ongoing album artwork trend, one other noticeable trend that was circulating days leading up to the album release date, was inspired by how Drake used billboards in various cities to announce the features on his album. Most artist just announce their album features through their social media posts but not Drake, he likes the dramatics. A billboard spotted in Miami read, “Hey Miami, the Biggest Boss is on CLB” in reference to Rick Ross being a feature on the album. Perhaps one of the big surprise billboards was the one that popped up in Nigeria which read, “Hey Nigeria TEMS is on CLB”. By the end of the day, fans around the world had made their own edits, replacing Drake’s original messages with whatever they thought would get the laughs on social media. Another example of how Drake and his team managed to get the public to do the marketing for him once the seeds were planted. That is what Drake does.  

CLB billboard in Houston.

Image Credit: chron.com

While the initial costs for the billboards or even the album cover may have been substantial, it was up to the public to keep the conversation going without Drake and his team having to constantly push promo once they had presented the marketing material to the world. Drake is fully aware of his influence on the culture and he makes sure he takes full advantage of this power. Now that his influence has expanded to Gen Z in the last few years, there is no telling how long he will keep this run of influence going for. 

One other trick that Drake has managed to use to his advantage is the ability to laugh at himself. For a few years when he first came into the game, he was seen as this weird outsider because he did not exactly fit the stereotypical “hip hop” persona. He was always made fun of and as the internet grew and social media became more popular, he had no option but to embrace certain things about his image that would have otherwise been deemed as “cringe” or “corny”. Nowadays, Drake laughs at himself before you can make him the bud of your jokes. He is in control of the narrative. When people used to make fun of his dancing, what did he do? He went and did the Hotline Bling music video where his dance moves were intentionally bad to the point where social media had a field day with creating memes using some of those music video clips. Today, that song is one of Drake’s biggest selling songs to date. He understands pop culture and knows how to use social media to his advantage.  

He also understands the people’s need to connect to something familiar and that is why he has never shied away from showing his vulnerability through his music. He also knows how to pull the right emotional strings when needed. Drake and nostalgia go hand-in-hand. Look at how he marketed his single for Hotline Bling on Views by taking us back to the days when landlines were still a thing. Now with this new album, he has decided to push “Way 2 Sexy” as the lead single — a song that many people on social media were saying is corny on day 1 of the album’s release. The song samples “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred and so, the hate was somewhat valid. For the Millennials, this song reminds them of a time when MTV still played music and perhaps even how many times the song was used in iconic movies/tv shows from back in the day. Right now, Twitter is filled with tweets from people turning the lyrics into a trend by saying things like, “I’m too sexy for this stress” or “I’m too sexy for this depression” because, once again, what would social media be without the self-deprecating dark humour from the Millennials and Gen Z.  

The music video for this single even takes the nostalgia further by paying homage to iconic movies such as that one dance scene from Perfect starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis; or the Rambo look he had going on in one of the scenes. He also referenced Michael Jackson and with the help of Future, Young Thug and NBA star, Kawhi Leonard, they recreated one of most iconic music video scenes by Boyz II Men. TikTok is already filled with so many videos of people making their own video versions of this song. With just this one song and music video, he managed to make fun of himself, give us meme-worthy content, tug at our nostalgia strings while still entertaining us and continuing this iconic album rollout.  

Drake - Way 2 Sexy (Official Music Video)

Image Credit: FanSided.com

Someone on twitter said, they can’t believe we’ve been having virtual Drake album listening parties as a family on twitter since 2012 and it really put things into perspective. Drake has been on an unprecedented influential run for a decade now and he reminded us when he dropped the album trailer back in January.

He continues to be the soundtrack of an entire generation and then some. Whether you think the social media marketing stunts are corny or you think the hairstyles are wack or you think the music is trash, there is no denying the influential status of Drake. When it’s Drake season, everyone is talking — whether you are a fan or not. The fans are talking about their love and excitement for The Boy, while the rest are either talking about why they don’t care for Drake’s music or why they just hate the guy. Either way, the name stays popping.