Drake broke the Internet two nights ago by unexpectedly releasing his brand new mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late. It looks like Drake did the cover art himself, writing out the mixtape title in all caps above the signature 6-God prayer hands. He also included, in the same all caps chicken scratch, a very extensive list of thank yous to the people who helped him complete the project. We attempted to decipher Drake's penmanship and track down each person listed. Here goes...
The first man he mentions needs no introduction--40, or Noah Shebib, has been Drake's producer from the very beginning. He has production creds on four tracks on the new tape: "Madonna", "6 Man", "You & the 6" & "Jungle."
Oliver El-Khatib is Drake's co-manager and the OVO founder.
Niko is Drake's longtime friend who now serves as the brand manager for OVO. He opened the flagship OVO Store in downtown Toronto.
Mazin is another close friend of Drake's. He acted, with Wheelchair Jimmy, in the '06-'07 season of "Degrassi." He also appears in a skit with Drake that aired during the Juno Awards.
Ethan is another one of Drizzy's BFFs. On "Know Yourself," Drake reminisces about the good 'ol days: "Then Kanye dropped, it was Polos and backpacks / That's when Ethan was pushin' a Subaru hatchback."
You probably know Preme as P Reign, who is the most famous member of the Greater Toronto Rep Ups crew. He recently collaborated with Drake on "DnF."
Gelo, real name Angelo Ferraro, is yet another member of the OVO crew. He's somewhat of a social chair for the team, organizing dinners and events while OVO is on the road. He also carries the necessary party supplies. On "Tuesday," Drake tells Gelo to "bring the juice. We about to get lit."
Mark is another integral part of the OVO touring team, helping Drizzy make it through his hectic schedule any way he can.
Jordan is another member of Drake's huge friend group. Catch him in the "Headlines" video during the cinematic dining room scene.
Keep scrolling to find out more about Drake's inner-circle.
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On "Lord Knows," Drake mentions Haffa as one of his only role models. The other three men he looks up to are Lil Wayne, Birdman and Jordan (Michael Jordan).
Now Drake turns to actual family, namely his Aunty Kay.
Baka is Drake's friend from Scarborough, who's currently locked up on drug-trafficking charges. On "Know Yourself," Drake says it's gonna be a holiday when he's released.
Finally, Drizzy arrives at his lady friends. Winnie Harlow, or Win Win, is a Canadian model who appeared, ironically, on America's Next Top Model. She recently appeared with Champagne Papi on Instagram and is also name-dropped on "Know Yourself." Styles, Gilla & Felli are all Drizzy associates who are part of P Reign's Reps Up crew. Another shoutout to Reps Up--Babel was a VJ at Much Music who now manages P. Reign.
Tyrone "T Rexx" Edwards is an OVO affiliate who used to host "Rap City" on Much Music. Check out his interview with the man himself below.
JRJ are the initials of Jason R. Johnson, a Toronto event promoter. Check out this promo video for a very young Aubrey back in 2006.
More revelations on Drake's early days ahead...
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Jahvon is another rapper from the 6. He hasn't had a release with Drizzy yet, so look out for that.
There are all sorts of employment opportunities one can find at OVO. Jonny Rox is Drake's personal trainer and a proud member of the crew.
Next to 40, Boi-1da is Drake's go-to producer. The three-time Grammy Award-winning producer can be heard on seven of the new mixtape's 17 tracks.
Mr. Morgan is the owner of the management company M3Ent, whose roster includes several OVO producers, such as: Boi-1da, Nineteen85, Mike Zombie, 40, Vinylz and more.
Noel Cadastre is Drake's co-engineer, and the two go way back. On "0 to 100," Drake raps, "me and Noel been @ it before Twitter names." He's also the OVO blunt man--"Someone tell Noel to get the Backwoods" ("Too Much").
T-Minus is an OVO producer who gets less recognition than Boi-1da and 40, though he started from the bottom with Drake, and he's still here.
Next, he mentions another Noel, and we think he's referring to the producer Detail (Noel Fisher), who has credits on Nothing Was the Same.
Hush, or Husher Raymond, as Drizz likes to call him (a play on Usher's full name), is an OVO songwriter.
J Mac, the OVO barber, always has Drizzy rocking that fresh cut.
Skinny Gucci, of the Reps Up crew, appeared in the "Jungle" short film that dropped just before the mixtape.
Next Drake stops singling out his friends and thanks a somewhat obscure group: namely, Everybody That Reaches Volleyball. Perhaps this connects to the "5AM in Toronto" video, for which he rented out an entire volleyball facility. I suppose you've made it if you're playing volleyball with Drake at 5AM.
Then something even more cryptic: Everybody That Ever Reached Skating and Paradise. Club Paradise is a high-end strip club in Toronto that Drake has been known to frequent--so much so that he embarked on a "Club Paradise Tour" following the release of Take Care. We're not quite sure how skating factors in, though.
Find more of Drake's inspiration on the next slide.
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Habibiz is Drake's go-to hookah joint in Scarborough, just outside of Toronto.
By now, you already know PartyNextDoor. PND is one of OVO's young rising stars.
Brian Espiritu is the creator of Legends League clothing, who have done joint designs with OVO.
This next section was the easiest to figure out. Drake, ever the sports enthusiast, is now officially the Global Ambassador for the Toronto Raptors, and he goes on to mention almost every player from his home team's roster.
He starts with his close friend Amir Johnson. On the release day of Nothing Was the Same, Amir bought every copy of the album from a few Toronto CD stores and gave out free copies to fans. Next he names star players Demar Derozan and Kyle Lowry. In November, Demar dropped the ball, off the court, by accidentally telling an interviewer about Drake's upcoming mixtape. The rest of the players are listed as follows: Patrick Patterson aka Patman, Terrance Ross aka Tross, Jonas Valenciunas (JV), Louis Williams (Lou Will), Bruno Caboclo aka Bruno 5, Lucas Nogueira, Chuck Hayes, Greivis Vasquez (GV), Greg Stiemsma, whose name Drake barely misspells, and the whole Raptors organization. Sadly, Tyler Hansbrough, aka Psycho T, didn't get a personal shoutout.
Drake then lists two women who were also included in the Take Care liner notes. He called Raemiah "my little sister" before sending his love to the entire Dorrington family. Raemiah Dorrington, it seems, is an actress who played a small part in the 2008 movie "The Love Guru." The other woman, Courtne Smith, is Drake's former assistant.
Two more women: Linda and Amanda Nord, twins from Baltimore who took Drake along to a poetry night in their hometown. There, he found inspiration from guest star Malcolm Jamal Warner, who played Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby Show."
Keep going to see Drake's final thank yous.
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The next lady he mentions, Nadia Edwards, is a known former love interest. In "Deceiving," off Comeback Season, Drake mentions Nadia's father, Mr. Edwards, saying, "I tried to save your daughter." He also raps: "Funny to think I would've white-gowned you." It was clearly young love. In 2009, an unsigned Drake guested on fellow Toronto rapper Big Page's "I'm So Fly," and Nadia is the main girl in the video. Years before that, Nadia starred in the video for Mario's "Let Me Love You."
As we near the end of the letter, Drake begins using Jamaican slang, as he's been known to do lately. He reaches out to all the "waste cyatties," or, loosely translated, side-chicks, worldwide. I'm sure Drake had a few of those during the making of the mixtape. Don't they deserve a shoutout?
He then reps all his "skoolys in yaad," his homies in Jamaica, including dancehall superstar Popcaan, who's album, Where We Come From, we've still got on heavy rotation. Unruly is Popcaan's personal brand, and "Unruly Rave" is one of his biggest hits. The video to "Unruly Rave" was shot in Toronto and directed by Niko of OVO.
Grizzly B aka Grizzle Bear and the DJ Chromatic are also members of Popcaan's Unruly crew. Other Kingston badmen are the Young Vibez Production (YVP) and dancehall artists Aidonia and Cha Ching, or Chi Ching Ching.
In his final paragraph, he brings it back to OVO, repeating many of the names he listed at the beginning. The OVO producer he mentions last is frequent Boi-1da co-collaborator Vinylz, who does two beats on If You're Reading This...
Kenza is a Toronto poet who helped write "Connect," off NWTS.
He then goes from people to hotels; his favorites are the Hazleton Hotel in Toronto and The New York Palace. He calls his home studio the Sandra Gale Studio--the room in The Yolo Estate he spends the most time in.
Drake was rumored to be dating Zoe Kravitz, daughter of Lenny and actress Lisa Bonet. Though he denies any romantic affiliation, she clearly remains an inspiration to his music.
One of the most exciting producers on the project is Toronto's Wondagurl, who, at age 17, has already produced hits for Jay Z and French Montana. Wondagurl produced two tracks on If You're Reading This..., one alongside Travi$ Scott, who Drake also thanks. Amir Obie is another young producer who gets a spot on the mixtape, and newly signed OVO kid Jimmy Prime also earns a shoutout.
The last group of names in the note are mainly inspirational figures for Drake. There's Riff Raff (who lends an intro to "Used To") and Houston DJs DJ Eric and Big Tho, UK grime legend Skepta, Chief Keef, Karim, who directed the "Jungle" short film, Madonna, who he names a song after, and, lastly, 90s r&b playboy Ginuwine.
Whew, a helluva lot of people helped Drizzy make If You're Reading This It's Too Late. It is, after all, very good.
We hope you enjoyed stalking rap's biggest star as much as we have. Of course, there are several names sprinkled throughout the letter that were nowhere to be found on the Internet. If you know anything about these mysterious figures, please help us out in the comments.