The next time Drake does an Afrobeats song, it’ll be hard for his haters to accuse him of being a culture vulture. After his dad, Dennis Graham, took an ancestry test that determined he’s got mostly Nigerian ancestry, Drake posted the results on Instagram, wondering, “Does this mean I’m a Naija man finally?”
The influence of West African music on Drake’s music has been noted in the past. On tracks like “One Dance” and “Passionfruit,” Drake employs sounds common to Nigerian Afrobeats, and in helping to popularize UK drill and grime stateside, he’s worked with a number of British Nigerian artists including Skepta and JME. We’ll see how this revelation affects the Canadian star’s music in the future, if at all, but it seems he’s excited to finally be a part of the “family.”
In the meantime, he’s continuing his tour with a rapper of East African heritage, adding more dates to his and 21 Savage’s It’s All A Blur Tour. As tickets for the tour reportedly reached as much as $1000, the two rappers ensured that the sky-high demand won’t keep any of their fans from getting to see them. With his new song “Search & Rescue” debuting at No. 2, it’s clear that Drake remains one of the most popular artists around.