closeicon
News

Double helpings of Drake

The Jewish rapper, who was the most streamed artist of 2016,  has described the album as a "playlist", due to it being 22 tracks long.

articlemain

Drake has released a new album called More Life - although it might as well be called “More Songs” as it has twice the number of a regular release.

The Jewish rapper, who was the most streamed artist of 2016,  has described the new album as a "playlist", due to it being 22 tracks long.

Drake, who has previously released songs about his Jewish background, was recently the subject of a PhD student’s thesis on identity.

The rapper’s father, Dennis Graham, is an African-American musician from Memphis, and his mother, Sandi, is a Jewish Canadian.

Student Amara Pope, a long-time Drake fan, who did her master's at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, was interested in Drake’s ability to connect with and represent many different communities.

"I found he had a very unique position in the music industry, being bi-racial, being from both Canada and the United States,” she said.

Ms Pope analysed three of his music videos including HYFR - Hell Ya F****** Right.

The video includes scenes that capture his Jewish roots, by showing the rapper at a barmitzvah.

Ms Pope said: "In watching the music videos I saw that he was making that attempt to connect to these different communities. 

"But then upon researching I found that all of these positions that he's promoting in these different music videos are actually drawn from his real-life experiences."

Share via

Want more from the JC?

To continue reading, we just need a few details...

Want more from
the JC?

To continue reading, we just
need a few details...

Get the best news and views from across the Jewish world Get subscriber-only offers from our partners Subscribe to get access to our e-paper and archive