Drake is in an introspective mood on the gospel-tinged surprise track “8AM in Charlotte,” which the 6 God dropped early Thursday morning (Oct. 5). The Conductor Williams-produced track rides on a laconic beat and finds Drizzy backed by a soulful choir as he flexes about his nine-figure lifestyle while dropping an awards show-worthy list of A-list names.
The video for the track co-stars the rapper’s five-year-old son, Adonis, who opens the five-minute visual by showing off a cute drawing he made for his pops. “Tell me about your beautiful piece of artwork that you sold me,” Drake says to his son, who goes on to describe a tale of a goat running away from monsters amid images of flaming flowers, race cars and jail stairs.
“Daddy’s name is next to the goat, does that mean that he’s the GOAT?” the MC wonders. “Yes, so it’s Daddy GOAT,” Adonis confirms. Clearly already a chip off the old block, when Drake asks Adonis how much he earned for his beautiful drawing, the kindergarten controller laughs and says, “Oh please.”
Then dad gets to business, rapping, “Preachin’ to the dogs about wantin’ more for themselves/ It’s weighin’ heavy on my moral scale/ Knowin’ they gon’ sell another citizen ‘cane, they think they Orson Welles,” in the bare-bones visual in which Drizzy sports colorful hair curlers, baggy black vinyl pants and a jacket with a series of colorful V’s on it. In one shot, Drake sits surrounded by a group of men, and Adonis, all wearing black shirts that read “Hate Survivor.”
The avalanche of bold-faced names continues, with a shout-out to a fellow GOAT (“the restaurant clears out faint echoes of Lauryn Hill”), a spooky szn-appropriate ref (“I say we gotta talk about us, I feel like Jordan Peele”), as well as stops at 21 Savage (“got a green card straight out of the consulate”) and Michael Jackson (“I feel like Mike switched out the glove for the pen”).
Plus, he gets political with a clever geography bar, rapping, “Where I go, you go, brothers, we’re Yugoslavian/ Formal is a dress code, dawg, so many checks owed/ I feel Czechoslovakian.”
The second verse drops references to a country icon (“Shania Twain, notepad, I’m making it line dance”), a megachurch preacher (“I swear I’m like a young T.D. Jakes to my menaces/ Long kiss goodnight, PDA for my nemesis”), anti-vax presidental candidate RFK jr. (“Conspiracy theories start floatin’ around like the Kennedy guy”) and the late DJ Screw (“R.I.P. to the DJ from Houston, we loose screws”).
The Adonis cameo is fitting, since Drake revealed last month that his son’s line-drawing of a pooch would be the cover art for his upcoming For All the Dogs album, which is due out on Friday (Oct. 6) and is expected to also include his SZA collab, “Slime You Out.”
Watch the “8AM in Charlotte” video below.
