Day 307: “Money to Blow” feat. Drake and Lil Wayne – Birdman, Priceless, 2009
“We gon’ be alright if we put Drake on every hook”: Has Lil Wayne ever rapped a more prophetic line? It was already apparent that Drake had a special touch in 2009, even if his look at the time was “guy who doesn’t speak in a Grand Theft Auto cutscene.” Drake spent 2009 minting hits for Cash Money that most of his current fans probably don’t even know existed. “Money to Blow” is a prime example: This song, with Drake’s annoying line about Disney and Rufio was all over the radio at the time, but I think we can all agree now that it sucks ass. It’s boring, it’s stupid, and, in the annals of history, it’s not even in the top hundred Drake or Wayne songs.
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Yet “Money to Blow” stands at a key juncture in rap, particularly rap radio, the moment in which more or less the torch was passed from Weezy to Drizzy. Wayne might have been with two women that make you take a second look, and he might have had a big bouquet of Mary Jane’s flowers, but he also knew that Drake was Captain Hook and that the soon-to-be 6 God’s roof was not long for this world—both on his car and in a more metaphorical sense. Birdman, the fulcrum of the song, offers what has always been my favorite line on the whole thing, the blunt force statement of “richer than the richest, we certified gettin’ it,” as a sort of reminder that no matter who is running radio it’s “CM, YM, Cash Money business.”
Fast forward to 2017: Today the news broke, via Drake’s Instagram, that Drake has a new tattoo of Lil Wayne’s face. Since apparently we as a society have nothing better to talk about than Drake’s tattoos, this development has prompted some discussion about Wayne and Drake’s relationship. These days, Birdman is out of the picture, and Drake is far too famous to need Lil Wayne. As much as it pains me to admit, there are definitely Drake fans who think Lil Wayne has never been as good as their idol. There are almost certainly Drake fans who don’t know who Lil Wayne is.
And so, even though the fact that we’re discussing this at all seems patently ridiculous, it seems worth chiming in to say: good. If Drake getting a tattoo of his mentor is what it takes to make some idiot teen care about Lil Wayne, so be it. Their relationship, if you want to speculate, is that Wayne paved the way for Drake. Drake may have had the talent to become famous no matter what, but he certainly would not have gotten where he did as quickly as he did without Wayne’s vote of confidence that Young Money would be alright as long as they put him on every hook. As far as symbols go, posting a tattoo on Instagram shouldn’t count for much. Then again, neither should some mediocre single about throwing money on strippers and having a champagne shower in the VIP. But it did, and here we are.
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