DEBATE OVER DRAKE’S BLACKFACE:
Drake defends old race photo
DRAKE IS facing the music over a controversial picture of him posing in blackface.
The biracial hip-hop star hit out at fellow rapper Pusha T — who used the photo to promote a diss track called “The Story of Adidon.”
“I know everyone is enjoying the circus, but I want to clarify this image in question,” Drake said Wednesday in a post on his Instagram stories.
In the blackface image, the performer is grinning and wearing a Jim Crow T-shirt.
“The picture is from 2007,” Drake said on Instagram.
“(It was) a time in my life where I was an actor and I was working on a project that was about young black actors struggling to get roles and type cast,” he wrote.
The picture erupted Tuesday night as part of a long-simmering feud between Drake and Pusha T, who posted the image to his Twitter page.
“Please stop referring to this picture as “artwork”... I’m not an internet baby, I don’t edit images ... this is a REAL picture...these are his truths, see for yourself,” Pusha T, 41, captioned the post.
Drake, whose father is African-American and whose mother is white, said the photo shoot was the result of a collaboration with his former “Degrassi” costar Mazin Elsadig.
“This was to highlight and raise our frustrations with not always getting a fair chance in the industry and to make a point that the struggle for black actors had not changed much," Drake said in the statement.
“This was not from a clothing brand shoot or my music career,” the 31-year-old said.
“The photos represented how African Americans were once wrongfully portrayed in entertainment,” he added.
The controversial photo of Drake was snapped by professional photographer David Leyes, Pusha T and Drake’s feud escalated last Friday when Pusha T released a new song “Infrared” — which was produced by Kanye West — that seemed to accuse Drake of using a ghostwriter for his music.
Another rapper, Meek Mill, had also previously accused Drake of using a ghostwriter, which led to a drawnout feud between them.
Drake responded by taking shots at Pusha T in a song called “Duppy Freestyle,” and Pusha T fired back with “The Story of Adidon.”
In that song, Pusha T accuses Drake of being a “deadbeat” dad to a child he allegedly fathered with adult film actress Sophie Brussaux.
Drake’s team has previously denied he is the father.