Imagine going to high school with someone and they grow up to be one of the five most successful rappers in the world. That would be pretty wild, right? Well, for the cast of Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, they don’t have to do much imagining, thanks to Drake’s nostalgic video for his latest Scorpion single, “I’m Upset.”
That’s right: Drake, who never actually graduated from a real high school thanks to his pursuit (and eventual achievement) of his dreams of superstardom, threw a cast reunion bash and invited his fellow Degrassi costars for a night of reminiscing, synchronized dancing, and general shenanigans — with a few out-of-canon in-jokes and call backs thrown in for good measure. Witness as actor Ephraim Ellis does the dash while being chased by a horde of Drake’s goons, presumably as a tongue-in-cheek revenge plot for Ellis’ character Rick shooting Drake’s Jimmy Brooks in the back, resulting in Drake spending the majority of the remainder of his run in a wheelchair. The Karena Evans-directed video even ends with the original show’s theme song playing over the credits with iconic scenes from each actor.
Even Jay and Silent Bob make an appearance as an oblique reference to the episode directed by Kevin Smith and featuring his iconic Clerks slackers. While Drake himself claims to be upset throughout the song — and has plenty of reasons to be, in the wake of his suddenly one-sided battle with Pusha T — in this video, he seems to be living it up without a care in the world. Say what you want about how easy a target for ridicule Drake has been throughout his rap career, he can shoot a video about napping on the Toronto Raptors’ center court at the Air Canada Centre, so it looks like “Wheelchair Jimmy” has done pretty well for himself.
Scorpion is due June 29, 2018 on OVO Sound, Young Money, Cash Money, and Republic Records.
