DUBAI: Canadian rapper Drake set the Internet alight on Friday when he dropped his latest album, “Scorpion.”
Spotify said the album was streaming at an average rate of 10 million times an hour on Friday, while Apple Music said it was the No. 1 streamed album in 92 countries.
On the 25-track double album, Drake, 31, confirms long-standing rumors that he has fathered a son, but does not name the mother.
However, that’s not the only thing he reveals about his private life.
In the track “Finesse,” Drake raps: “I want my baby to have your eyes, I’m going against my own advice / Should I do New York? I can’t decide / Fashion Week is more your thing than mine.”
Social media users were quick to speculate that the lyrics referred to a rumored former romance with US-Palestinian model Bella Hadid, not least because of the line, “You stay on my mind / You and your sister too hot to handle.”
Fans theorized that Drake was referring to Bella and her equally famous sister, Gigi.
However, Bella took those commenters to task and responded to the claims on Twitter almost as soon as the album came out, saying: “Not me!! That’s disrespectful. WHY CAN’T PPL BE FRIENDS w/o all the insinuation (sic).”
Not me!!! that’s disrespectful. WHY CANT PPL BE FRIENDS W/o all the insinuation
— Bella Hadid (@bellahadid) June 29, 2018
The album marks Drake’s comeback after an infamous diss track was released a month ago by rapper Pusha T, in which he first revealed that Drake has a secret child.
Damien Scott, Complex’s editor-in-chief and vice president of content and development, told the Associated Press that he thought Drake might have gone back in the studio to re-record “Scorpion” following Pusha T’s shocking revelation — “A baby’s involved, it’s deeper than rap/We talkin’ character, let me keep with the facts/You are hiding a child, let that boy come home,” Pusha T rapped on the track.
Scott may have been right. For the first time Drake addresses his son in a song, rapping on “Emotionless:” “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid.” On the closing track, “March 14,” he raps about being a single father and says: “She’s not my lover like Billie Jean, but the kid is mine.”
“Scorpion,” which features songs with Jay-Z and a previously unreleased Michael Jackson track, includes the massive No. 1 hits “God’s Plan” and “Nice for What.” It follows Drake’s best-selling 2016 album “Views” and his 2017 release “More Life,” which set a record across all music streaming services of 385 million streams in its first week of release.
The Recording Industry Association of America said on Friday that Drake had become its top digital song artist, with 142 million digital single sales units, ahead of Rihanna and Taylor Swift.
Drake’s latest offering is a joint release on Warner Bros. and Universal Music-owned labels OVO Sound, Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records, Reuters reported.
