Pray the Fakes Get Exposed
Drake’s Hyperreal Authenticity in an Age of Simulation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21637501 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tyler Welsh (Department of Media & Communication, Stephen F. Austin State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 640-655 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-20 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Howard Journal of Communications (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1064-6175 • E-ISSN: 1096-4649 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10646175.2025.2538660 |
| OpenAlex | W4414526800 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
In the summer of 2015, professional rapper Meek Mill, sent shockwaves through the Hip Hop world with a simple tweet, “Stop comparing Drake to me too.... He don’t write his own raps!” The accusation was quickly followed by the mysterious release of audio tracks featuring identical lyrics and cadences found in several of Aubrey “Drake” Graham’s songs. The allegations fueled a beef, with Drake releasing two diss tracks “back to back,” downplaying the accusations, and also reasserting his dominance. A central question arises from this ghostwriting debacle – how did Drake maintain his authenticity with audiences in the face of evidence that put his realness into question? I argue that Drake’s ability to maintain his authenticity relied on a novel approach – eschewing what is real and instead focusing on what philosopher Jean Baudrillard terms the hyperreal. Through a close reading of his lyrics in the two diss tracks, I explore how Drake subverts many of the traditional approaches to evoking authenticity, in turn demonstrating how he constituted his authenticity by embracing hyperreality. This rhetorical analysis, informed by a Baudrillardian understanding of hyperreality, offers a new perspective on how Hip Hop artists negotiate claims of authenticity in a hypermediated world
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| Highly cited | No |
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