Drake inducted his “dear friend” Nelly Furtado into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at last night’s Juno Awards (March 29), delivering a kind, thoughtful, and poignant tribute that, nevertheless, in classic Drake fashion, still contained a few of the rapper’s own age-old grievances (and a plug for his next album).
In a video message, Drake spoke sincerely about how much Furtado had inspired him. At one point, he said to the singer-songwriter: “You were our North Star. The proof that it was possible. The Portuguese princess who could go from spitting 16s with Swollen Members to dropping ‘Maneater’ and ‘Promiscuous’ with Timbaland. There were no ceilings, there were no walls, there were no boundaries.”
To his credit, the vast majority of Drake’s speech struck this tone. He spoke about looking in awe at Furtado’s myriad plaques on the wall of her manager’s office as he was plotting how to make the jump from teen soap actor to rap star. He referenced their performance together at a 2022 OVO show. And he praised Furtado’s resilience in a male-dominated industry, and the respect she engendered among her male peers.
“Rappers that I idolized, guys like K-os and Saukrates, would tell me not only how good your bars were, and how gifted you were in the studio. But they would always rave about how strong and solid your character was,” Drake said, as the camera cut to Furtado, wiping a tear from her eye.
And yet … as Drake finished his speech, he couldn’t help but extend a few snarky words to the Junos (who exist under the same organizational umbrellas as the Canadian Music Hall of Fame) over an awards show snub that happened all the way back in 2011.
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“To the Junos, because you are honoring one of my dear friends tonight, I will spare you,” Drake said, before proceeding to not spare them. “Even though I know you’re still thinking about those six awards you gave to Shad when you snubbed Take Care when I hosted the 40th anniversary of your award show. This is about Nelly.”
Beyond the fact that he did this in an otherwise extremely endearing tribute to Furtado, or the fact that it’s pretty clear who’s actually “still thinking about those six awards” 15 years later, the funniest part of Drake’s complaint is the way his grievances have apparently clouded his memory. Yes, he did host the 2011 Junos. Yes, he did not win any of the six awards he was nominated for. And yes, Shad’s TSOL did beat him in the Rap Recording of the Year.
But Drake wasn’t even nominated for Take Care in 2011. He was up for Thank Me Later. And in 2012, Drake did win the Juno for Rap Recording of the Year … for Take Care. (Also, Shad only beat Drake in that one category in 2011; in the others, he lost to Arcade Fire, Neil Young, Justin Bieber, and Young Artists for Haiti.)
After unburdening himself of that gripe in classic I’m-not-mad-please-don’t-put-in-the-newspaper-that-I-got-mad fashion, Drake resumed his praise for Furtado, telling his friend: “Enjoy your Hall of Fame status, it’s long overdue.”
Rather than end his speech there, Drake — ostensibly not willing, or able, to let his last word be on someone else’s behalf — signed off by saying, “Iceman coming soon.”
There’s no immediate resolution in any of this. There’s no surrender either — and a lot of great escape. White’s slide guitar in “Dollar Bill” sounds like a National Steel on steroids until the solo, when it turns into what seems like a theremin gone postal. “I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing” has a great pop-wise chorus closer to the Pretty Things than Son House. And don’t miss White’s wry aside to the White Stripes’ old creation myth in the second verse of “G.O.D.,” on the way to the real business at hand. “Well, it’s the beginning of the world now,” he declares at the song’s end. “Let’s do it all over again.”
