New Friends: A History of Drake's Co-Signs

No new friends? Come on, Drake, we know your track record.

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Image via Complex Original
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When Drake raps "Started from the bottom/Now my whole team's fucking here," we can assume that it's beyond OVO, it's beyond Toronto, and it's beyond YMCMB. He's got his own crew but his powerful co-sign hasn't gone unnoticed since the early days of his career. After self-releasing Room for Improvement in 2006, he dropped Comeback Season the next year. Within the same year, his co-sign of up-and-coming artists like Kid Cudi solidifed his phenomenal and eccentric taste in music, while bolstering the careers of others.

Over the past six years, his collaborations and co-signs have thrown unknown artists into the spotlight—The Weeknd, anyone?—and given props to stars outside of the R&B/hip-hop genres, too. When he dropped a remix to "Little Bit," Drake put rap fans who otherwise might have never heard of Lykke Li on to her music. Drizzy's got that effect on who he chooses to support. While he's created relationships and voiced support for artists like Justin Bieber, Little Dragon, Lykke Li, SBTRKT, Florence & The Machine, they were established artists even before his approval. However, acts like Future, YC, Chief Keef, and The Weeknd all got a boost from Drizzy's co-sign.

On Sunday night, the latest OVO affiliated artist PARTYNEXTDOOR dropped "Make A Mil," and with the support of a few Tweets from Drizzy, the track was featured on nearly every music blog. While there's no official word that he's signed to OVO, we knew we'd seen Drake do this before. Here's a History of Drake's Co-Signs, and it just proves that he's always been about new friends, regardless of the latest DJ Khaled track.

Written by Lauren Nostro (@LAURENcynthia) and Alysa Lechner (@hialysa)

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Kid Cudi

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Date: 2007

In his 2009 cover story with Complex, Kid Cudi spoke on his and Drake's separate careers, which at the time were both on the steady incline. He also revealed that Drake was one of the first people to truly fuck with Cudi's music, adding that Drake wanted to do an official “Day ’N’ Nite” remix early on. Cudi went on to add: 

Imagine if I would’ve let Drake remix “Day ’N’ Nite” when he wanted to back in ’07. That shit would’ve fizzled out; no one would’ve cared. Luckily we let it live and it worked out. We’re changing things on accident. That’s how I know this is my destiny.

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Francis and The Lights

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The Weeknd

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Date: 3/10/2011

The history of Drake and The Weeknd's friendship is cryptic, complicated, and long, but back in 2011, Drake started Tweeting lyrics from House of Balloons. Like this:

In the following weeks, Miss Info confirmed that Drizzy and Noah “40” Shebib were down with The Weeknd, and were responsible for mentoring the Toronto native. On The Weeknd's second mixtape Thursday, Drake was featured on "The Zone" and in return, The Weeknd hopped on Drake's "Crew Love" off Take Care. Drake brought The Weeknd out at numerous events, and played a hand in the beginning of his career. Rumors have swirled around their supposed deteriorating friendship, mainly after The Weeknd signed to Republic Records instead of OVO. But Drake's imprint on the fellow Toronto native's career will never go unnoticed.

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YC

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Date: 4/4/2011

When YC's "Racks" blew up in Spring 2011, Drizzy didn't hesitate to hop on Twitter, as usual, and tweet out a few lyrics. It was subtle, and Drake would go on to work with Future whose rise to fame began with his feature on "Racks," but the co-sign was significant for YC's buzz.

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Future

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Kreayshawn

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Date: 7/18/2011

Drake called in from Toronto during DJ Green Latern's Invasion Radio show on Sirius to speak with Kreayshawn during the peak of her "Gucci Gucci" fame. He offered his very own endorsement for Kreay, saying: 

I honestly get excited when new things happen in hip-hop and when I heard ‘Gucci Gucci,’ I heard the flows, I was excited before I even knew who she was. And you know I got to hear a little bit more of the music beyond that and then to meet her and the energy that she has is great. She’s just a great person. She’s good people. That’s my dog.” 

He went on to say that he's "got bars on deck for that little cutie pie.” How sweet.

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A$AP Rocky

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DNA and Dizaster

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The Slakadeliqs

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Date: 1/17/2012

The Slakadeliqs is fronted by musician and producer Slakah the Beatchild. After Skalah collaborated with Drake on the track "Between Us," Drizzy gave The Slakadeliqs a co-sign and when he Tweeted a link to their Bandcamp page when their debut album The Other Side of Tomorrow dropped. The Drake shoutout was retweeted over 100 times. Not too shabby for an independent release.

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Marvell Boys

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Chief Keef

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Date: 6/3/2012

While Drake was on the Club Paradise Tour, he stopped by Chicago along with Waka Flocka Flame. During his set, Waka brought out the then 16-year-old Chief Keef. Drake joined in on the set by jumping around to Keef's "I Don't Like" on stage. A few months later when Keef's Young Chop-produced "Love Sosa" track dropped, Drizzy made sure to Tweet in support of Keef, saying he had already played the song 130 times in the last three days. While Keef was already on the rise, Drake's co-sign made it hard to ignore the young Chicago rapper.

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Lil Reese

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Date: 10/5/2012

Soon after the release of his track "Us," Lil Reese alluded to a collaboration with Drake on Twitter and Drake Tweeted some Lil Reese lyrics soon after. The mystery was solved days later when the "Us" remix featuring Drake and Rick Ross dropped, proving yet again that beautiful things happen when the overground and underground get together.

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Kendrick Lamar

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Date: 11/15/2011

When Drake dropped Take Care, "Buried Alive" was Kendrick Lamar's show and prove, essentially a solo feature on the album. It was the biggest look of Kendrick's career at that point. A few months after the album's release, Drake nabbed Kendrick Lamar as an opener for his Club Paradise tour. A year later, he had built up enough hype that when good kid, m.A.A.d city finally dropped, it was solidified as a classic. The most salient nod of approval, however, wasn't from any writer or music critic but Drizzy himself, as he congratulated Lamar on the album release and expressed pride in being a part of it.

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Lil Herb and Lil Bibby

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Date: 4/20/2013

We all knew Drake was a fan of Lil Herb when he tweeted some of his lyrics a few weeks ago, but news of a possible official co-sign came with a tweet from Project Pat. Pat said that he had finished his verse for Chicago natives Lil Bibby and Lil Herb's "My Hood" remix and made note to Drake to "make this a hit." No official word yet, but if these Twitter clues are any indication, this track will be unleashed very soon.

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PARTYNEXTDOOR

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Date: 4/21/2013

Sure, Drake's been repping this whole "No New Friends" thing but on Sunday night, Drizzy tweeted the OVO support for PARTYNEXTDOOR's single, "Make A Mil," implying they were on his imprint. With some spacey instrumentals, auto-tuned vocals, heavy bass, and laid-back vibes, PARTYNEXTDOOR isn't a surprising addition to the OVO imprint. Another sign that Drizzy's got a phenomenal taste in music.

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