Drake drew laughs, cheers, and genuine inspiration with his acceptance speech for Billboard 2017 Top 200 Album. He thanked Lil Wayne for taking the original risk on the kid from Toronto, leading to his Young Money record deal, and flirted with show host Vanessa Hudgens, telling her that she looked “beautiful,” to the exaggerated chagrin of his “date,” Nicki Minaj, who mouthed “What about me?” for the cameras. He even squashed an old beef with the show’s host, Ludacris. Drake finished his speech by shouting out and teasing his biggest supporter in attendance: “My dad has on a purple suit with purple shoes… boy, if you don’t stop!”
This award marks Drake’s twelfth of the night, and a victory for the somewhat-maligned Views, which despite shattering streaming and sales records, was received with mixed reviews by both Drake’s fans and Drake himself.
In the speech, Drake named an unnamed “friend” who didn’t send any thanks to him during the Views album cycle, and according to him, this was part of why he wanted to seize the moment while we’re all still here on earth. This is what prompted the above admissions, and will probably be brought back up later on if Drizzy is true to form. Stay tuned for his performance later on.
