We Actually Don’t Want Drake And Rihanna To Be Together.
If you like good music, this is the worst of all possible things.
No, this isn’t an article about love. Rather, it’s an article about music. Specifically, dancehall music.
If you’re tuning in, turning up, streaming, downloading or in any way accessing music in 2016, dancehall is the most impacting sound in pop music and currently dominated by Aubrey “Drake” Graham. However, let’s loop relationships back into the picture here and say that if Drake were in love with say, Beyonce, instead of Rihanna, Drake’s dancehall dominance wouldn’t be the case. Instead, it’s easy-to-argue that just as 2015 was on the underground, 2016 would be Jamaican superstar Popcaan’s global breakout year. In Popcaan still being an incredibly dope underground icon and Drake running roughshod over 2016’s Billboard charts, let’s all be real sad that Jay Z isn’t with Rihanna instead.
There’s history that shows that Jay Z/Rihanna and Drake/Beyonce are celebrity couples that could’ve worked as compared to their current pairings.
In the remix of Rihanna’s 2007 single “Umbrella,” Jay Z adorably referred to our current Bajan queen of all things pop music as “little miss sunshine.” In 2016, a Jay Z far removed from throwing cute compliments at RiRi was ethered by his wife Beyonce on an album-as-epic “fuck you.” As well, prior to ending up officially together with Rihanna, in 2014 Drake released a song entitled “Girls Love Beyonce” that notes “I’ve been avoiding commitment / That’s why I’m in this position / I’m scared to let somebody in on this…” as well as partnered with Beyonce on her eponymous album single “Mine,” a song that includes Drake saying “Know you wanna roll with a good girl?
Do it big do it all for a good girl…” that possibly showcases just how much he and Beyonce could’ve been a tremendous couple. Instead, just hours before Rihanna and Drizzy publicly announced their relationship, there he was at the Video Music Awards heaping love on his mate and getting the Heisman treatment in return.
Would life for Rihanna’s life be less filled with thirst if she were with Jay Z? Would like be much less stressful for Beyonce if she were with Drake? These are important questions, but not as important as wondering just how different the summer of 2016 would be if we weren’t having to hear Drake play out his Caribbean love-crooning fantasies on Billboard’s pop charts for all to hear. In Drake and Rihanna ending up together, we’ve actually loosed a riddim-ridden virus upon pop music that infringes upon a historical order to things that demanded a modernized take on one of classic rap’s most important evolutions.
The two most notable singles on Drake’s latest album Views are “Controlla” and possibly Billboard #1 single for literally half of the year “One Dance.” There’s something in the Afro-Caribbean stylings of the songs that certainly owes a great deal to the Afro-Caribbean community in Drake’s hometown of Toronto. However, Drake’s been either dating or desperately wanting to date Rihanna for seven years. That’s more than enough time for anyone to decide that in a grand tradition that blends Stephen Stills writing Crosby, Stills and Nash’s 1970 hit “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” about his breakup with Judy Collins and Blondie recording “Rapture” after heading to hip-hop parties in 1980 that making pop songs that are wholly inspired in all ways by your Barbados-born muse is a worthwhile endeavor.
Sadly though, what Drake’s done while in love with Rihanna may have blocked a golden opportunity that a resurgent dancehall had to break through into the mainstream. In dancehall having America’s most beloved pop rapper at the helm during an era where hip-hop culture is ubiquitous, if you’re a rapper who’s gifted at dancehall and NOT named Drake, it looks like there’s a series of tough breaks ahead.
For instance, imagine if you’re Popcaan, the Jamaican DJ/songwriter/emcee who was originally featured on Drake’s “Controlla.” Nine years into his career, he’s already a veritable underground legend and signed to globally renowned label Mixpak. However, 2015 found him as a guest alongside none other than Young Thug on Jamie xx’s masterful single “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times),” which if paired with an appearance on “Controlla” could’ve spelled a huge American breakthrough. However, Popcaan was cut from Drake’s final album version without any reason publicly given. Alongside “One Dance’s” immense success (and the lack of say, a radio remix of the single featuring Popcaan), this likely means that there’s a *VERY* deserving artist who’s getting eclipsed from the spotlight.
Let’s compare 2016 to the era of 20 years earlier in 1995, where a similar situation likely had no chance to occur, and thus, music was enriched because this was the case.
Similar to Drake in 2016, in 1995, LL Cool J was a lovelorn rapper whose crossover pop success blended well with hip-hop culture’s crossover appeal. As well, similar to Rihanna, Patra was a Caribbean hip-hop artist on the rise whose success was significantly related to her ability to blend a devil-may-care attitude with significant sex appeal. Now, let’s imagine what sort of songs we’d hear out of LL Cool J if say, he and Patra were an item. Let’s compare those songs to the work of artists like Chaka Demus and Pliers, and yes, Shabba Ranks, who without his 1990 single “Dem Bow” becoming popular and aiding the birth of the reggaeton genre, it’s entirely arguable that Drake’s “One Dance” would not exist.
Yes, let’s be glad that LL Cool J and Patra never got together in the same way that Drake and Rihanna have. In a manner similar to what has occurred with Drake’s “summer ‘16,” LL’s pop stardom could’ve easily blocked out the sun from reaching artists whose legacies show that they undeniably deserved both spotlight and success.
Thank heavens we have Jaz O to thank for Jay Z likely never wanting, even if he were romantically intertwined with Rihanna, to make anything remotely tropical ever again. However, Drake, in being representative of rap’s now fully globalized generation being invigorated with dancehall music and mainstream acceptance, does not have the limitations placed on him that Jay Z did. Drake’s allowed to show his love for his Bajan bae by making unimpeachably great pop songs that frankly, violate the one-time history of rap music in bearing his voice.
Of course, had Drake ended up with Beyonce…well…the world will likely never know. And, we’d have this amazing Popcaan and Mixpak moment from a recent Red Bull Soundclash as a performance of Popcaan’s incredible mainstream pop hit, too.
Dammit Drake and Rihanna.
