This is not a Drake podcast

Jul 11 2022 8 ep. 30 mins 738

This is not a Drake podcast artwork

Breaking down seminal moments in Drake's career to explore the broader history and evolution of hip-hop, R&B, gender dynamics, and Black culture. Hosted by Ty Harper.

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This is not a Drake Podcast Introduces: Buffy

Jul 11 2022 35 mins

Buffy Sainte-Marie is one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of the past century. For 60 years her music has quietly reverberated throughout pop culture, and provided a touchstone for Indigenous resistance. In this five-part series, Mohawk and Tuscarora writer Falen Johnson explores how Buffy’s life and legacy is essential to understanding Indigenous resilience. More episode

Prologue

Jul 06 2020 12 mins

One of the most popular rappers in America isn’t American. But this podcast isn’t really about him. Drake’s success is a culmination of many unheard moments, songs, and artists that made hip-hop and Black music the dominant cultural force it is today. This podcast digs into those stories. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/this

Ep 1: Toronto was always a hip-hop city

Jul 06 2020 47 mins

Drake is the poster boy of Toronto, although the city's hip-hop scene was thriving long before it became known to his fans as 'The 6ix.' But the Canadian music industry’s history with its homegrown hip-hop talent is long and fraught—this is a look at that relationship. Plus, the fight for the first Black-owned radio station in Canada, which turns 20 this year. Artists mentio

Ep 2: How the mixtape went digital

Jul 06 2020 37 mins

Even as its popularity grew, hip-hop was ignored by most commercial radio. DJs and artists intervened and underground mixtapes became *the* medium for distributing new music and gaining clout — But then, a raid by the FBI in Atlanta changed hip-hop distribution forever. Plus, how Drake’s So Far Gone mixtape fits into this digital evolution. Some artists and DJs mentioned in t

Ep 3: The rise of the Nice Guy rapper

Jul 06 2020 44 mins

This episode contains explicit lyrics. Hip-hop feminists took the alpha male rapper and his critics to task in the 90s and 2000’s. Guest host Anupa Mistry finds out why. She goes on a journey with three Black women, to see how Drake's Nice Guy persona reveals the complexity of gender in hip-hop. Some scholars and artists mentioned in this episode: Treva Lindsey, Jenessa William

Ep 4: The rise of the singing rapper

Jul 06 2020 55 mins

It's pretty common to hear rap and R&B influences on the same track, but that wasn’t always the case. Hip-hop was not received with open arms by many in the R&B establishment. Still, rappers found creative ways of being heard on the radio, while others pushed beyond stereotypes of Black masculinity to find a new voice. Some artists mentioned in this episode: Kwamé, DJ Frankie C

Epilogue

Jul 06 2020 13 mins

Host Ty Harper examines how making this podcast during a pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests has underlined the importance of telling the stories of hip hop, R&B and Black culture For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/this-is-not-a-drake-podcast-transcripts-listen-1.6747671

This is not a Drake podcast: trailer

May 20 2020 2 mins

This is a story about hip-hop and how its journey to mainstream dominance gave us Drake in the first place. The mixtape revolution that made his success possible. The evolution of gender dynamics in hip-hop. Rap and R&B’s long complicated history.