Drake Through The Years

Drake is a well known rapper who's fame, first accumulated with the release of his hit song "Over" which was his first ever single under a record label which he then went on to produce his first commercial album "Thank Me Later", his rise to fame came from a record deal with rapper Lil Wayne in 2009 and the huge popularity of his free mix tape " so far gone" which nearly received a Grammy. This music video subverts a  stereotypical view of a rapper which we a normally used to seeing, even though Drake had the multimillion dollar backing from his label, but he chose to make the video a very simplistic view of drake as an artist, the music video consists of drake  at the edge of the bed rapping which he seems to be isolated in a dark room, we don't usually expect to see this from a rapper as they are normally represented with lots of bling, cars and lots of proactive women, drake has been portrayed  as simplistic and subtle with a small use of "bling". As they want to show everyone what they have and flaunt their wealth and success. I believe the label wanted to portray drake as a different type of artist and subvert the common ideology which is associated with rappers which allow Drake to be represented as a new and unique rapper, which would steadily help his route to fame. The music video is performance based with drake rapping about his rise to fame and how fast it has happened. Even though the music video doesn't have any mainstream attractions, I still believe it was a mainstream song as it has attracted over 40 million views on you tube along with the fast editing and drakes story being told, it is a very effective video, which has been played over many times over the radio  through mainstream radio stations such as kiss and choice and replayed on may tv channels such as mtv

Even though through the years Drakes own videos do not contain the normal representation of the normal  rapper, but when he collaborates with his other young money artists the view and perception of Drake changes as he is portrayed as a stereotypical rapper talking/ bragging about all the money he has to spend and about women and expensive cars. This is shown through the video ‘money to blow’ where drake is throwing money around and women dancing around him.

Drake does have a common theme with all his music videos and songs were there is a relationship and link between love and women, he has been featured allot with other artist such as Rihanna which drake portrays the image of a man who try's "to get on with Rihanna". This video contains the them that when drake is with another artist his representation changes this shows too sides of drakes.

This is drake's latest single called "Headlines" through Drake's short career so far his image of a rapper is subverted quite allot as through his own music videos his image is subverted of a stereotypical rapper. His music videos seem to have a very mellow feel towards them which he addresses his view without the stereotypical use of provocative women and cars. When drake is on his own in the music videos he gives a very different representation of himself, not the stereotypical view, so through the years, since ‘over’ has kept the same theme and attitude to his videos and only when he has collaborated with other young money artists and other well known artists does his persona and general representation change to adhere to stereotypical representation.

Drake press

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