By Anton Karve

As one of the best-selling rappers of all time, Drake is without a doubt one of the world’s most relevant personalities. However, the public eye moves fast, and one needs to provide the all-consuming maw of pop culture a constant stream of juicy entertainment to avoid being thrown to the wayside. Of course, many would argue that Drizzy transcended such worldly limitations long ago and has no need for drama, but his track record this year would beg to differ. In celebration of Drake’s 36th birthday (happy birthday!), let’s dive into some of his best moments this year.

1. NOCTA x Nike Everywhere, from NBA to the Super Bowl

Just like his hip-hop superstar peers, Drake’s been heavily diversifying his assets, reaching far beyond the music industry to expand his creative brand. After a successful series of apparel releases and collaborations by Drake’s record label OVO, he’s pushed further into the fashion, sportswear, streetwear, and —most importantly—sneaker territory with his newest collaborative venture with Nike, NOCTA.

Drizzy and Co. kicked up a fuss at this February’s Super Bowl LVI by collectively turning up decked out in baby blue NOCTA drip, featuring a classic embroidered Swoosh at the centre front, while a dramatically more extravagant butterfly insignia and NOCTA branding adorn the back. Some members even paired it up with matching baby blue NOCTA joggers, extending the butterfly cross pattern from head to toe.

Drake’s a known (sometimes overly-enthusiastic) supporter of his home NBA team, the Toronto Raptors, and his own fans often look out for him court-side for hints of what’s to come in OVO and NOCTA’s future. They clearly had the right idea, because from early 2021 onwards pictures of court-side Drizzy wearing an unreleased pair of Nike shoes circulated online. They turned out to be the all-new NOCTA x Nike Hot Step Air Terra, which finally released (and promptly sold out) in March this year. Like many of the artist’s recent releases, these sneakers dropped to highly mixed reviews, but still sold extremely well like any of his other projects — more on that later.

Even more recently, professional Drake watchers have spotted signs of a fully-fledged NOCTA x Nike “Distant Regards” collection. Check it out here.

2. ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ Gets a Mixed Bag of Reactions

Prior to this year’s release of Drake’s newest record, ‘Honestly, Nevermind’, his two most recent albums, ‘Certified Lover Boy’ and ‘Scorpion’ had met relative success on the top charts, but extremely mediocre critical response and a polarised fanbase. Increasingly, critics and fans alike agreed that Drake’s new music was getting boring, and called for the hip-hop/R&B/pop aficionado to experiment and drop something exciting.

Drake clearly took this advice to heart, dropping his most experimental, and proportionately, most polarising album yet virtually out of nowhere. ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ hit the music world entirely by surprise when listeners realised it was more of an electronic house album than a hip-hop record.

More than anything, this split Drake’s fanbase right down the middle – some welcomed the change and looked forward to bopping to his music in clubs, while others took to (of course) Twitter to express their disappointment at what they hoped could finally be an interesting Drake hip-hop/R&B record. Here’s some highlights from the hellflame of Twitter’s melting pot:

The “For” team:

drake got my hips swaying like a bad bitch

— C*rn ⚕ (@luhblix) June 17, 2022

Me listening to Drake album because y’all not finna bullying me into not liking it. pic.twitter.com/1l4pIFfe7I

— Suki G. (@SukiGeez) June 17, 2022

I think I like Drake album…. Let’s go to a Mykonos Day Party & vibe out.

I like a little gin in my champagne.

— Su (@SutonaShari) June 17, 2022

Y’all hate Drake album because yall don’t really dance in the club.

— Sade (@TheHottestHound) June 17, 2022

The “Against” team:

Drake’s surprise album was like when your teacher surprises the class with a pizza party and you end up with this pic.twitter.com/xZgXzirvS9

— eugine garth (@saviourmitchy) June 17, 2022

They saying drake making oontz oontz music??????

— HOOD VOGUE is tired of poverty (@keyon) June 17, 2022

Drake read every Pitchfork review telling him to start experimenting and he gave us this pic.twitter.com/RQLh9OwkZI

— Ahmed/The Ears🇸🇴 (@big_business_) June 17, 2022

Harry Styles has a song called "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" but Drake made an entire record designed to be played in the background, barely audible, at Nobu

— Sam Gavin (@samgavinLA) June 18, 2022

Enough about them, what do you think about Drake’s newest release? Worth playing in SNKRDUNK Singapore?

3. Paying it Back to the GOAT at the Young Money Reunion Show

As the main point of attention in the show, Lil Wayne did take his time getting on the stage. After being held up at the Canadian border for almost two hours, the Young Money trio finally reunited for a blazing, high-energy performance. Each artist brought their top game to the stage, with Nicki and Drake passing a flower to Weezy for kickstarting their ridiculously successful careers. Each shared anecdotes about how the other changed their life, making for a surprisingly emotional, but extremely entertaining reunion show.

4. The Infamous “Hot Sauce Incident”

This year saw one of the most absurd scandals in a while, the “Drake Hot Sauce Incident”. As Biggie Smalls very aptly put it, “Mo Money Mo Problems”. Since Drake has a lot of money, he’s got a lot of problems. After his son, Adonis, was conceived after a single encounter with a one-night-stand, coupled with multiple incidents involving women attempting to collect his sperm, Drake’s understandably cautious when it comes to his… Relations.

However, the way in which this cautiousness was executed was so bizarre that it’s almost hilarious. After a romantic encounter with an Instagram model this January, the said model attempted to secretly impregnate herself with Drake’s secret sauce from his used condom in the bathroom. What she didn’t know however, is Drake’s secret sauce is – in reality – hot sauce? After she cried out in pain, Drizzy reportedly rushed into the bathroom and informed her that before disposing of the condom, he poured hot sauce into it and sealed it up.

Can’t look at this line the same now #Drake pic.twitter.com/sEEGm6Uw8u

— JORDON LUMLEY (@jordonlumley) January 11, 2022

Of course, this is all according to the model’s accusations to the (now deleted) Too Much Hot Tea blog. Though Drake hasn’t officially responded to these claims, he did post a not-so-cryptic post captioned “You can have your 15 minutes of fame…I’ll take the other 23 hours and 45 mins” right as this story exploded in virality. If nothing else, the “Hot Sauce Incident” gripped the world with yet another fantastic set of Drake memes.

5. Drake: the World’s Most Viral Internet Meme

Speaking of Drake memes, the Toronto rapper might be in the running for 2022’s most-meme’d personality. Between the “Hot Sauce Incident”, being a self-proclaimed ‘Certified Lover Boy’, and countless questionable pictures circulating online, he was practically handing the required ingredients of a perfect meme to the online world — and the online world took full opportunity of this. Scroll for some of our favourites.

(Images from @champagnepapi, @officialnocta, @offthesaint_)