In his early career, you couldn't talk about Drake without mentioning his acting past on teen soap opera Degrassi. While he'll never fully live down his days as Wheelchair Jimmy, the rapper has managed to turn his personal image around, but he hasn't left his acting days behind him for good.
With the release of Please Forgive Me, his new short film and accompaniment to the multi-platinum, VIEWS, Drake is back to reading scripts, but it's far from the first time he's done so within his rap career. Drizzy has been incorporating acting into his music videos from the beginning, and today, we're looking back at those moments. It should be noted, that we're going specifically with spoken dialogue and skits in Drake's videos, which have ranged from hilarious to hilarious to extremely sincere.
Click through the gallery to check out the various videos he's added his acting chops to. Which was the most successful?
Best I Ever Had
Best I Ever Had
This is where it all started. Drake was still shaking off his Degrassi associations at this point in his career, but he still wasn't afraid to put some dialogue in his first big video. Drake has two acting modes when it comes to his videos, completely sincere and extremely goofy. This one definitely finds him exploring the latter category as he coaches a women's basketball team how to stretch and not much else.
Essential moment: "All you ever taught us to do was stretch!" "That's an essential part of the game and that's why I focus so much time on that"
Find Your Love
Find Your Love
"Find Your Love" was the first time we saw Drake bring out his dramatic acting chops in a music video. The clip finds Drizzy fighting for the love of a woman played by Maliah Michel, a stripper and model the rapper dated for a time. Shot in Kingston, Jamaica, Mavado, one of the city's most celebrated dancehall artists, plays the gangleader that stands in the way of Drake and his girl -- or so he thinks.
Essential moment: Drake getting in his feelings in the video's intro -- "I just gotta see her one more time."
Hold On We're Going Home
Hold On We're Going Home
"Hold On, We're Going Home" is a similar Drake hero narrative to "Find Your Love" but on a bigger budget. Here, Drake once again recruits some musician friends to act out some dialogue with him -- with ASAP Rocky delivering the opening toast, while Majid Jordan and Fedo Santana make cameos. After Drake's girlfriend is kidnapped, things boil down to a shootout between rival gangs, and unlike "Find Your Love," Drizzy emerges victorious this time.
Essential moment: Drake inspiring some classic reaction gifs when he gets that tough phonecall.
JUNGLE
JUNGLE
"JUNGLE" was the accompaniment to Drake's If You're Reading This It's Too Late mixtape. Released shortly before the project, it was the first time fans were able to hear snippets of future classics like "Know Yourself" and "Jungle." Most importantly though, it was the introduction of Drake's West Indian by way of Scarborough accent that we now see regular glimpses of.
Essential moment: The "That's A Y" scene in the car at the 7-minute mark is peak Drake.
No Shopping
No Shopping
Drake debuted yet another accent in the video for French Montana's "No Shopping," as he and French played two Dominican golf commentators, bringing the rapper back to his comedic side. While many videos tend to lose momentum with sporadic skits, the bit is legitimately funny enough to justify its interruption halfway through the track. With that being said, their decision not to remain in character as French Montaña and El Draké for the entire video was probably for the best.
Essential moment: Drake's understated dance moves in the intro are a reminder that he is both a decent dancer and an underrated physical comedian.
Childs Play
Childs Play
The decision to make a video for "Childs Play," a record that was not released as an official single for VIEWS before visuals for "One Dance" and "Controlla" seemed like a strange move. However, once we saw the opening scene where Drake and Tyra Banks act out the memorable line "Why you gotta fight with me at Cheesecake / You know I love to go there," it was clear that Drake just couldn't resist doing something with this narrative. If we were to hand out an award for acting here, it would probably have to go to Tyra for her very real role of the fed up girlfriend. Drake's attempts to keep the heated conversation low-key also ring true and complete a pretty phenomenal comic team between himself and Banks.
Essential moment: Drake's wordless distress following the realization he'd left his phone at the table is priceless.
Please Forgive Me
Please Forgive Me
Drake's latest visual endeavor combines videos for recent singles "One Dance" and "Controlla," as well as other moments from his latest album, VIEWS, as well as stringing together a narrative around the music. Drake's girlfriend, who's played by Belgian model Fanny Neguesha, takes up a request to sleep with a man for $1 million, but a twist in the plot finds Drake, Fanny, and OVO affiliated dancehall superstar Popcaan taking off with the money. It's got some serious Indecent proposal vibes, and climaxes with the biggest gun battles and explosions we've seen in a Drake video thus far.
Essential moment: The final shot feels legitimately cinematic.
Watch the video exclusively on Apple Music.
