“100 gigs on your head.”
On the afternoon of August 6, Drake surprised everyone by unveiling a new website filled with hours of footage and hundreds of photos telling the story of his creative process over the course of his decade-plus career.
While some Drake fans may have been disappointed that only 28 megabytes of those 100 gigs were new music, there was still plenty of great, brand new behind-the-scenes content to admire.
However, we completely understand why you wouldn’t want to sit in front of your laptop and sift through 100 gigabytes of photos and videos. Granted, we didn’t watch every single minute of it either. But we did do some of the hard work for you in picking out the coolest style-related moments from the content dump. Check out our favorites below.
Receiving Cam’ron’s pink fur at the Apollo
This was probably our favorite footage from the entire dump. The clip documents the first time Drake received Cam’ron’s iconic pink fur coat and headband before his show at the Apollo Theater in January 2023. He even thanks Cam via FaceTime while unboxing the coat.
It’s no secret that Drake is a bit of a rap nerd and appreciates the various artifacts that tell his story. But in case you needed any more proof, this clip confirms it. The Toronto rapper seems impressed to even be in the same room as the fluffy outerwear.
“It’s got to be in a museum somewhere,” he says. “I grew up staring at that jacket. It sucks.”
He also mentions the feud between Cam’ron and Jay-Z that was going on when the Dipset member first wore the coat at the Baby Phat show in 2002. “I can feel the feud. I feel like I hate HOV right now,” Drake says, laughing.
The unused cover
On the Internet, people focused on a particular image that was used as the cover for Certified Loverboy before settling on the infamous collage with the pregnant emoji. Say what you will about the discarded artwork – it shows Drake looking into a room full of naked women – but it’s still interesting to browse through some of the promotional artwork left on the cutting room floor for a number of Drake’s recent albums, singles and tour posters. 100 files were in a folder titled “Red Lebanese,” which shares the same name as a Parisian publishing house and studio. Given the similarities, it may have had a hand in creating some of the images we see.
In addition to the polarizing CLB alternative cover, we also got a look at some unused CLB Merch designs with sketches of women, covers for For all dogsPromo for the Everything is blurry Tour with devilish doodles, back cover artwork for Dark Lane demo tapes (which once bore the title Care Package 2) and more. Considering the general public usually only knows what makes it to record stores and streaming apps, it’s cool to get a peek behind the scenes and see all the possible visual elements that were considered for these projects. We also can’t help but wonder how some of these were discarded in favor of the final product. Art is subjective, but some of these CLB The covers seem so much better than what we got.
Excerpts from the Brooklyn Mirage Show 2018 with Virgil Abloh
Drake’s admiration for Virgil Abloh has been well-documented over the years. This new clip from a 2018 party at the Brooklyn Mirage, where Abloh DJed and Drake played some of his biggest records from that era, is cool to watch. Abloh has shaped so many important elements of pop culture – not just fashion design – and clips like this are further proof of that. Long live Virgil.
Air Drake and Air Drake II models
Drake’s virtual hard drive also gave us a closer look at how the livery of his infamous private plane, Air Drake, came about. There are pitch decks and reference images for the liveries and slogans that were considered before settling on the signature cloud livery designed by Abloh. It seems lightning bolts were the original plan. “Chances Are She’s On Board” was considered for the landing gear message (sounds a lot like Drake) before settling on “If You’re Reading This We Left” (also Drake).
We also got a glimpse into the ideas for Air Drake 2 (yes, it should have a second Private plane). The idea was to give it a chrome paint job inspired by Hajime Sorayama’s robots. Maybe we’ll see this happen one day. Whether we do or not, it’s pretty incredible that two private Boeing 757s were an achievable feat for one person.
All Slick Rick chains wear
Although it’s not confirmed, we’re assuming this clip is from the video shoot for “No Stylist.” Slick Rick is featured on the cover and appears in the video, which was originally released in 2018. Known in the hip-hop world as the godfather of custom jewelry, The Ruler wore way too many gold and diamond chains around his neck. Of course, Drake had to try them on for a photo alongside the hip-hop pioneer. Remember we said he was a rap nerd?
The line “143 Rolex watches in my collection” on “It’s Up”
We can’t forget about the new music. On the Young Thug and 21 Savage-assisted track “It’s Up” (the best of the three-piece), Drake shows off his skills. He raps about his extensive collection of Rolex watches. He apparently owns 143 of the iconic Swiss watches, to be exact (we wouldn’t be surprised if that number has increased since the verse was recorded). As shocking as the number was at first, we’ve seen a tonne From the precious Rolex watches Drake has worn on his wrist over the years, to exclusive Chrome Hearts custom pieces, to Day-Dates with turquoise dials and diamond bezels, we can’t blame him. We’d probably spend money on watches too if we won millions of roulette spins in our spare time.
“Nonstop” in color
Another cool aspect of the 100gigs site is the complete raw footage of some of Drake’s biggest music videos. The highlight is the color footage of Scorpio The standout is “Nonstop.” The official video, directed by Drake’s longtime favorite director Theo Skudra, is black and white, and shows Drake riding double-decker buses through the streets of London, taking the stage at Wireless Fest, and enjoying afternoon tea on a balcony. Seeing some of the footage in its original form, stuff that would normally never see the light of day, was an interesting insight into Skudra’s creative process, even though the clips are unedited and without sound.
