NO, WHEELY, WHY DRAKE?
Rapper’s odd cameo in Parks proposal
Hip-hop superstar Drake went from rolling “blunts with my list of regrets” to rolling down a wheelchair ramp in a surprising rendering that is part of a Brooklyn park renovation plan.
The Grammy-winning Canadian rapper — who played the wheelchair-bound character Jimmy on the teen drama “Degrassi” — appears on an entrance ramp to Fort Greene Park in the Parks Department proposal.
Drake’s “Degrassi” character became an Internet meme when the artist’s music career took off and Web trolls began superimposing his lyrics onto photos of the character.
How “Jimmy” ended up in a Parks Department rendering remained a mystery Tuesday night.
Reached for comment, an agency spokesman got in on the act and responded with modified lyrics and album titles from the rapper’s discography.
“Started at the bottom of Fort Greene Park’s signature hill, now we’re here with the final design, which takes care to create a more welcoming park entrance — with improved views,” spokesman Sam Biederman wrote in an e-mail.
The entrance-ramp rendering appears on Slide 52 of a 59-slide presentation released by the Department on Tuesday.
The photos of Drake as “Wheelchair Jimmy” were spread across the Internet, with parodies of popular Drake lyrics such as “Last name Never, f irst name Walk,” a nod to one of Drake’s lyrical boasts: “Last name Ever, first name Greatest.”
Jimmy was paralyzed from the waist down in a school shooting on a 2004 episode of ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation.”
The Parks Department rendering, which also shows R&B singer Akon laughing with a friend in the foreground, was first discovered by the Web site Brokelyn.
Akon has said in interviews that he had an opportunity to sign Drake early on in the rapper’s career, but passed.
A spokesperson for Drake did not comment on the artist’s surprise guest spot.