In between his time in the gym and festival appearances, Drake drops the video for “Energy,” the first visual off his chart-topping mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
In the Fleur & Manu-directed clip, which debuted as part of his new deal with Apple Music, October’s Very Own parodies some famous moments in pop culture including Tom Cruise’s couch-jumping appearance on Oprah, Justin Bieber’s Calvin Klein underwear ad, Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” video, and Kanye West’s “Bound 2” video. He also transforms into characters including former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, Floyd Mayweather, President Obama, LeBron James, and OJ Simpson.
“I think it’s one of those moments where I really hit the nail on the head at that given moment,” Drake told Zane Lowe on Beats 1. “This treatment is something that I’ve had in my head for a while.”
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He was inspired by the changing faces in Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video. “I was like, ‘Man, you know, effects have come such a long way. I bet we could do something crazy with this.’ And how many people in the world feel like they have enemies? Everywhere you go, there’s always someone who wants to pull you down and even celerity friends of mine or people that I don’t know. I want people to rewind it a bunch of times and go and tell someone else to watch it. It’s shocking, it’s beautiful, it’s a lot of things.”
During his interview with Zane Lowe, he also discussed the status of his album Views From the 6. “We’re working, I never like to say close or far. I’ll just say we’re working,” said Drake. “Working with [Noah ’40’ Shebib] is the best possible thing that I can do for any project.”
Plus, he announced that he will join the company of Dr. Dre and Pharrell by launching OVO Sound Radio on Apple Music’s Beats 1. The show will debut on Saturday night, July 12. “This is definitely where you’re gonna go to get your fix,” he said. “Everybody else has had their shot, so you gotta give us our shot. It’s our time.”