Drake loves surprises. He surprised fans with “Slime You Out” featuring SZA last month. He surprised Halle Berry by using her image and likeness for the cover of “Slime You Out,” without her permission. And though it surprised absolutely nobody when “Slime You Out” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Drake couldn’t help but toss out another unexpected single on Thursday morning, October 5.
“8AM In Charlotte” arrived exclusively on Instagram alongside a video starring Adonis Graham, his nearly six-year-old son who drew the cover for Drake’s imminent For All The Dogs album cover. In it, an off-camera Drake asks Adonis to “tell me about your beautiful piece of artwork that you sold me.”
“So, it’s the same story,” Adonis said. “So, the goat was running away from the other monsters and the other animals, and a flower [was] blocking the way. So, the flower was on fire. The racing car was maybe helping the goat, and there was some stairs who’s like a jail stairs, and there was one person who was, like, on top, and he got killed by the track.”
And when Drake wanted to confirm whether what Adonis just said was “like a little story,” Adonis muttered “yes” in an exasperated tone that suggested, Duh, Dad, what else would it be? Drake then asked why Adonis drew the letters “SBW,” which led to an explanation that Adonis simply wanted to write those letters without any further meaning, but then we got to the good stuff.
“And Daddy’s name is next to the goat,” Drake said. “Does that mean that he’s the GOAT?” Adonis, again, confirms with a hushed “yes,” followed by an elaboration that the character is actually “Daddy GOAT,” but Adonis drew the line at disclosing how much he was compensated for his drawing (“Oh, please”).
Drake has yet to confirm the For All The Dogs tracklist, but considering the album is due out at midnight (October 6), we can probably assume that “8AM In Charlotte” will be on it. But then again, he does love surprises.
Watch the “8AM In Charlotte” video below.