In a surprising turn of events, Schoolboy Q recently characterized Drake as an underrated rapper. Q agreed with Peter Rosenburg on Ebro in the Morning about this description of Champagne Papi. According to Complex and to quote Q himself, “‘He’s one of the greats,’ Q explained, citing the invalid opinions of “dweebs” and saying hip-hop artists don’t try to tear down rock and country music. ‘How you sayin’ somebody sold out? You don’t even know what sold out is in this culture.’ He added, ‘If Drake is trash, you n***as stop giving him 50 billion streams, you get what I’m saying? ‘Cause y’all all listening to it, bruh, it’s too many streams. … You just don’t wanna say it.’ He noted that “when you just lightskinned and from Canada, and n***as wanna, you know—but the n***a hard, c’mon, man.’”
I really see where Schoolboy Q is coming from. According to the amount of streams, Drake is probably the most popular artist in the past 20 years, and even if his music also fuses with R&B and pop, it’s still undeniably hip hop. Maybe his bars aren’t the best or the fastest, but since when is that the criteria for best rapper ever? If it were, then you could easily say Twista is the GOAT, and I know many people would object to that. Personally, I’m not saying that Drake is undoubtedly the GOAT, but he shouldn’t be completely dismissed from the conversation because of his background and mix of musical styles. And since many people do that, then Drake should definitely be characterized as underrated.
This all took place when Schoolboy Q was listing his favorite rappers from each decade and in the 2010s, included himself, Kendrick, Drake, and Black Hippy.