Drake’s Downfall & the Problem with Building a Fanbase off of Pandering

By:  H.T., Website:  Rogue Black Nerd

Despite my defense of Drake dating Taylor Swift, I can’t defend him on the simple fact about his current situation regarding his beef with Pusha T.  The Story of Adidon and the facts put out about his upbringing, his parents and his history with women proves something I’ve said for years about Drake that people out right refused to hear because admitting to it would in turn expose a part of said women’s shallow reason for liking him in the first place.  Fact is, Drake in many ways is a prime example of the shallow nature of what women desire in men today and what a lot of men are today in relation to women.

As I said before in regards to Drake and his history with female celebs, the man isn’t exactly the greatest as far as choosing women to pursue.  Now I won’t go as to assume things about Drake’s life that I can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt, but I can say this from my own experience and many other men I know who grew up with single mothers that many do not grow up with a healthy ideal of women not because single mothers are damaged goods or the like, but when you grow up watching the main woman responsible for caring for you constantly develop and break ties constantly with men, as a kid you grow up thinking it’s normal.  Sadly in this environment not only is this normal, but it’s in many ways promoted as a rebellion to respectability politics and patriarchy.  As far as men like Drake go, the problem is that in the overall “men are trash” narrative, women complain that men feel entitled to their bodies, time and affections, but then wonder why they only attract men who have no desire to stick around.  Drake makes music where he switches between praising women and complaining about being spurred by them, which is in it’s own way the crisis men today face.

Any man that complains about common issues of rejection, being led on, & unrequited love today are lambasted, mocked and told “no one owes you their affection.”  As true as this is, one questions the point of dating or attempting to court any women.  However, Drake’s situation seems to be more an issue of him not questioning if he’s pursuing the kinds of women that frankly believe this idea.  For as much as I think he knows that in every generation, there’s always at least one rapper that builds his career off women because frankly it’s a simple hustle:  stay in shape, make songs telling them they’re beautiful, and treat every public relationship like she’s the one.

“I know bitches that seen you smoke weed recently/You walk around showin’ off your body ’cause it sells/Plus to avoid the fact that you ain’t got skills/Mad at me ’cause I kick that shit real niggas feel/While ninety-nine percent of your fans wear high heels” — Canibus, Second Round KO

Men today hate rappers like Drake because he makes music that validates and big ups the egos of women that on one hand are women with accomplishments.  I get it, a lot of black women are highly educated, independent, and can’t seem to find a black man on their level.  The problem with this logic (and ultimately Drake’s pandering) is that it buys into this idea that all black men at their level have ignored them for white women, when as we saw with Lil Rel Howry in Insecure, the reality is that these are women who bought into the “Sex and the City” fantasy that successful men are supposed to be highly attractive.  The reality is as I, Gil and even Mr. Gates from Haterazzi has said for years, the black community has put so much of a premium on pointless things like swag and physical attractiveness along with most of the women who fall within the top 10% of attractiveness in America working jobs that pay better than most black men, that honestly there really isn’t an incentive anymore for black men to date within our race these days as men like Drake fuel the narrative that black women really have no real incentive to make themselves appealing to black men who are at their level economically.  I’m not saying that they need to, but you can’t complain about how every black man in your office is corny or ugly then wonder why he’s booed up with Kathleen from a few cubicles down.

Let me make this very clear:  I am not saying female Drake fans or even just black women are bad, damaged, are whores or anything like that.  What I am saying is that you can’t complain about black men who are legitimately corny but otherwise good men.  Yes, the idea that basic human decency should earn a woman’s affections is bullshit.  But it’s a pretty fucked up thing to complain that black women don’t feel celebrated when anyone can look in the comments of anything a woman posts and there’s loads of black men telling them how beautiful they are, and willing to even give them money just for attention.  Drake plays into this as he is, or was, the ideal for many black women as far as the black man who was successful and continued to stroke their egos.  When Rihanna said she wasn’t really friends with him anymore and broke up with her recent boyfriend because she gets “tired of men”, I think this speaks to the danger of what Drake kept going in the pop culture narrative.  There’s nothing wrong with creating a less misogynistic or sexist society, and I can see the argument for fighting against objectifying women in society.  But the issue that he sadly contributes to is where men can’t be honest or debate certain issues with women anymore without being labeled as a woman hater.

Drake being accused of being a deadbeat dad in different aspects speaks to the breakdown of relations between black men and women as far as social media.  On one hand, you have the fact that Drake, prior to this coming out, had put out videos and songs being charitable and praising black women, which explains why the blowback hasn’t hit as hard.  In another, you have the fact that he allegedly had a child by a white woman, thus playing more into the idea that successful black men don’t seek them out, and then there’s simply the fact that a huge flaw was exposed in the man that these women praised as their champion.  The fact is, most of his female fan base loved him for years of being the kind of man that literally told them what they wanted to hear.  The only reason songs like “Hotline Bling”, ”Find Your Love” and “Marvins’ Room” have gotten a pass for as long as they have is because they were sung by a man that on average, women would consider sexually attractive.  Had these songs been sung by a guy who looks like Alfonso Riberio, Dram, or simply just a man that they didn’t find physically attractive, there would be think pieces out the ass about it.

In short, Drake could very much have a successful career, but I think he may have played himself into a corner with deciding to make a career out of being women’s champion and ultimately their yes man for behaviors that doesn’t help garner sympathy or converts to their way of thinking.