Drake's Rise
In chapter 2 excerpt, Higgins relies mainly on quotes from people that surrounded Drake in his early days to establish the story behind Drake’s (at the time) burgeoning acting turned music career. Higgins attempts to follow a timeline: how Drake’s acting career took off, how he started leaning towards rap music, and how his acting career would feed into his rapping career. Emphasizing his connection to the show, Higgins often cites Linda Schuyler, who was the co-creator Degrassi. Schuyler was actually directly responsible for choosing Drake for his role on the show, hence being someone that he worked closely with during his acting days: "There was a charisma and a warmth to that face and that beautiful smile" (Higgins, 23). Therefore, quotes from people like her (The Morning Show 2022) who worked with Drake on the show would hold a lot of power in detailing his character, as they spent a lot of time together in a professional environment. This gives Higgins’ narrative a high pedigree of credibility.
Despite this, Higgins’ inclusion of Drake’s own thoughts (Entertainment Tonight 2023) are sparse; while his voice is present throughout parts of the narrative, it shows up a lot less frequently than those around him and this creates an indirect bias. We hear more from other people about what they think about Drake then what is going on in his own mind. While we the reader are still getting a "behind the scenes" look, Higgins' reliance on other's voices still makes Drake feel far away; we don't really get to interact with him as much as we are interacting with his setting. Whereas Higgins' could have employed a more dominant style that pushes a particular narrative about Drake, he leaves interpretation mostly open from the excerpts that he's included. However, this sometimes makes it difficult for us the reader to fully understand Drake himself within that time frame. Rather, it is heavily shaped by what others around him are saying, and rather than others supporting his own assertions, Drake almost becomes a supporting character to himself.
To understand how Drake’s perspective may have changed over time, it is important to understand his background and how that influenced his transition into the rap industry. Higgins does this decently for the most part by providing a behind the scenes look at Drake’s acting days and how that enabled him to make the shift into music. Higgins' does mention examples of Drake using his financials from the show to help upstart his rap career, and includes how he was always market savvy as a result (Higgins, 30). Despite these, Drake is ridiculed for this narrative; many believe that he is not an authentic rap artist because of his beginnings as a child actor. However, the crossover from the music to entertainment industry is quite commonplace. Interestingly, a Crashcourse video details just how integral showmanship and visual entertainment were to hip hop in its early days (Crashcourse 2024). There are also many other examples of people who are/were both involved in visual entertainment and music (particularly rap) (50 Cent, Ice Cube, Will Smith, Ludacris, Snoop Dog, Donald Glover, etc.). Higgins further supports this notion that two industries have always been connected in some fashion. What makes Drake’s own perspective intriguing is that he started acting first, then moved into music, while for many they had established themselves as rappers before going into tv/film. This then begs the question of how one’s influence in one space may or may not dilute one’s influence in another. Those who put Drake’s legitimacy in doubt because of his prior ties to tv should consider how the arts are indeed connected, and how Drake often references his early acting days in his music as a necessary sort of growth for him to be the superstar he is today.
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