Tag: Drake

  • Drake, born Aubrey Graham in a city where almost one in ten people are black, is black. Toronto’s greatest civic triumphalist since Jane Jacobs is black. And yet Drake’s own identity – his nationality, his mixed race background that includes Jewish heritage and upbringing, the neighbourhood he once lived in, the schools he went to…

  • Black and Jewish: Language and Multiple Strategies for Self-Presentation American Jewish History Volume 100, Number 1, January 2016 pages 51-71 DOI: 10.1353/ajh.2016.0001 Sarah Bunin Benor, Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, California In January 2014, hip-hop star Drake hosted “Saturday Night Live” (SNL), opening with a skit…

  • Sorry Music Journalists, Drake is Black. Canadaland 2015-04-30 Kyrell Grant Writers need to stop policing his blackness It feels ridiculous to have to say this: Drake is black. Drake, born Aubrey Graham in a city where almost one in ten people are black, is black. Toronto’s greatest civic triumphalist since Jane Jacobs is black. He…

  • Poetic Justice: Drake and East African Girls The Feminist Wire 2013-04-03 Safy-Hallan Farah, Guest Contributor I am an East African Girl. A couple years ago, one of my friends told me that being an East African meant I’m not really black. A visibly mixed-race girl with a “high yellow” complexion and sandy brown hair telling…

  • Can Drake Save the Bar Mitzvah? The Jewish Week Blog: Well Versed 2012-04-12 Eric Herschthal When Drake’s new video, “HYFR,” dropped [was released] over the weekend—in which the Jewish, biracial hip-hop superstar raps at a bar mitzvah—I was thrilled. Initially. For years, pop culture references to the Jewish rite of passage have been stuck in…