Drake has revealed 19 music videos for the $ome $exy $ongs 4 U single “Somebody Loves Me” with PartyNextDoor.
Drake and PartyNextDoor, alongside streamer Kai Cenat, a frequent Drake collaborator, held a contest in May that called on aspiring directors to submit music video treatments for the song, promising 20 finalists $15,000 to create a 30-second to one-minute-long clip of the song. “If you don’t know what a treatment is then…a treatment is an idea for a music video,” Cenat announced on his popular Twitch stream. “That is insane,” he added, excited about the opportunity. According to a Drake rep, the project came to life after Cenat himself shared on a stream that he wanted to direct a Drake video as well.
The 20 winners were revealed in June on the website, Drake Related. “Our finalists represent a diverse range of experience levels, as we were committed to giving new and emerging directors – including a few first-time directors – the opportunity to showcase their talent,” a post reads on the website. However, only 19 music videos have been published as of press time.
The 19-winning videos can be viewed via Drake Related. In one of the new visuals, helmed by Jordan Sook studios, Drake and PartyNextDoor are made into seemingly digitized Muppet-style puppets, partying with real women (that video is actually nearly two minutes long). In another one-minute clip by a director named Seyi.KG, brown and dark-skinned women (also looking highly digitized) move sensually across a gilded library in body paint.
In other Drake news, the Canadian rapper released his latest single, “What Did I Miss?” in July, first as part of a livestream dubbed “Iceman Episode One.” “I’m back in your city tonight, walkin’ around with my head high/I saw bro at the Pop Out with them but been dick riding gang since ‘Headlines,’” he says on the track, motioning to Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 concert celebrating the West Coast after his victory in the pair’s unprecedented rap battle.
Drake is currently suing his and Lamar’s mutual label, Universal Music Group, or UMG, for defamation and harassment for distribution of “Not Like Us,” where Lamar alleges that Drake and his affiliates are “pedophiles.” Recently, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge denounced the suit and its particular claims against him personally. “Whilst, as part of my role, I certainly have financial oversight of and responsibility for UMG’s global businesses, the proposition that I was involved in, much less responsible for, reviewing and approving the content of ‘Not Like Us,’ its cover art or music video, or for determining or directing the promotion of those materials, is groundless and indeed ridiculous,” Grainge wrote in in a signed court document.
