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Drake and J. Cole went deep into their pop culture bag in the surprise "First Person Shooter" music video.
The five-minute visual comes one day after the collaborators announced their 2024 joint tour dubbed It's All a Blur Tour: Big As the What? Featured on Drake's latest album For All the Dogs, the track demanded the Dreamville head and the 6 God go big for the Gibson Hazard-directed clip, which has references galore.
From The Office to the Spider-Man meme and everything in between, we've recapped every homage we spotted.
The Office
The video opens with The Office actor Brian Baumgartner playing his character in all but name—congrats on the promotion, Kevin!—and frantically struggling with a video game while his surrounded by dog memorabilia. As the camera zooms out to show the rest of the office, we see a font similar to the one used on the classic comedy, plus a Drake-like doll wearing the colorful hair clips he rocked in his recent "8am in Charlotte" video.
Ping-pong was a go-to sport on The Office, and Champagne Papi and Cole take it to the next level in "First Person Shooter," going from the workplace to an arena tournament for the "OVO Inaugural Corporate Clash."
The Office references are fitting, considering Cole opens the track with, "First-person shooter mode, we turning your song to a funeral/To them n***as that say they want office, you better be talking 'bout working in cubicles."
Messi/Ronaldo
The games don't end with ping-pong: the Drake and Cole replicate Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's famous chess match photo, taken for a 2022 Louis Vuitton campaign.
Spider-Man Meme
After a quick boxing ring showdown, Drake and Cole take it to the Spider-Verse, remaking the classic pointing meme that's been repurposed this year in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and the PS5 hit Spider-Man 2. Drake also wears a John Purves jersey in the scene, dedicated to the legendary hockey player from Toronto—specifically his San Francisco Spiders jersey, an International Hockey League team that had him for one season in the '90s.
Who's bad? Michael Jackson... and Drake
"First Person Shooter" ends with Drake and "the dogs" taking over Toronto, where Drake was spotted filming on top of the Scotiabank Arena last month. Taking a cue from Michael Jackson, Drake spins on a lit platform (see "Billie Jean") wearing a sparkly glove, before a massive statue with the rapper's likeness is unveiled. Not only is the scene a play on Jackson's 1995 HIStory teaser, but acknowledges Drake tying with Jackson for male solo artist with the most chart-topping hits on the Billboard Hot 100first-person.
"Watch my 6"
After Brian Baumgartner says the first-person shooter-appropriate line, the video is full of sixes to watch for, of course referring to Drake's nickname for Toronto and its 416 area code. Baumgartner/Kevin has six missed calls, a sign on his desk reads October 6 (the date that For All the Dogs was released), as does some surveillance footage later on (filmed on "camera 6"). An elevator also heads to the sixth floor.
The CN Tower
The famous landmark that served as the album cover for 2016's Views shows up a couple of times, including when Drake shoots a basketball around the planet (yeah, Earth) to outdo Cole.
All the For All the Dogs references
"First Person Shooter" nods to Drizzy's eighth studio solo album throughout, including canine trinkets and statuettes all over Kevin's office, a dog pattern on Drake's chess-playing fit, numerous instances of Adonis Graham's eerie cover art, and dog masks that'll look familiar to anyone who remembers Drizzy wearing these. And we can only assume BARK Sports falls under the same corporate umbrella as BARK Radio.
