Dear Gossips,   

It’s April 1st, aka April Fool’s Day, so let’s talk about the artist widely considered to have been the biggest fool over the last year: Drake. We don’t need to rehash how 2024 and the early part of 2025, with the Super Bowl halftime show as the crowning point, has been for Aubrey. So it’s interesting that on today of all days, he’s the headline in music, almost as if he’s claiming it… tongue in cheek?

 

Drake dropped the video for “Nokia” last night, the most popular track off his recent album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, Some Sexy Songs 4U. The album was heavily streamed upon release and the song has been doing well, especially on socials. “Who’s calling my phone” has been all over TikTok for weeks and there’s no doubt Drake is aware. He’s always been skilled at understanding and manipulating the attention economy. And the fact of the matter is, when attention spans are dwindling, someone like Drake can count on that deterioration to redirect the conversation. 

 

People can shout on TikTok and Twitter all they want that “Drake is over!” but what isn’t “over!” these days?! Everything “is over!” inevitably in our time of 15-second TikToks, isn’t it? 

 

 

With that in mind, “Nokia” is a great looking video. Directed by Theo Skudra, shot in IMAX, this is Drake back in party mode, 90s style. And it’s a flex. Because it is not cheap to shoot in IMAX. The camera is super expensive, the print cost is insane, and considering that most people will just be watching this on their phones, maybe laptop, and definitely not in a theatre, and all for free, it’s not really recommended by the accountant. And yet, here he is, throwing down a slick production, with cute choreo and an SGA cameo (in a “Vaffancullo” jacket – look it up), good vibes only despite everyone trying to read into whatever Kendrick references might be embedded, casually letting it be known that he brought the budget, and going viral for it. 

 

Still, it’s not Drake if there’s no petty. Here’s something else that’s going viral. 

 

Drake is trying to turn it around. How much of the attention economy can he get back? He has several performances lined up, including headlining all three nights of the Wireless Festival in London in July. There’s talk that he’ll release another album before the year is over. What will the proclamations be where Drake is concerned by the end of 2025? 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey