Before he was a massive rap superstar, Drake was, as all fans of high school dramas know, one of the stars of the Canadian teen soap opera Degrassi: The Next Generation, which told the story of a group of teens attending a fictional Toronto High School. Then known as Aubrey Graham, he appeared on the series from 2001-2009, beginning at age 15.
As Drake told The Daily Beast, he along with the rest of the cast were abruptly fired from the hit show. “I also knew what it was like to get fucked over a bit. We basically all came to work one day and we were all kind of fired in our own way. It was devastating for a lot of us. Our names were changed on our dressing rooms and we were like, ‘What’s happening?’ It was bothering me so I realized music was something I could take into my own hands and it was something I was good at, so I gave up acting for music.”
Now, the cast of Degrassi has reunited with their most famous alumnus in a fabulous new video for Drake’s latest track, “I’m Upset”—perhaps an ironic expression of insouciance over Pusha-T’s efforts to keep a beef going with him.
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The video, which shot to the very top of Twitter’s trending topics following its release late Wednesday night, features several of Drake’s costars from the noughties reboot of the show, Degrassi: The Next Generation, including Shane Kippel, Nina Dobrev, Miriam McDonald, Stacey Farber, Jake Epstein, A.J. Saudin, and more, all of whom are credited next to archive footage from the original show at the end of the track. There was even Ephraim Ellis, played by Rick Murray, who shot Drake’s character Jimmy Brooks on the show, rendering him wheelchair-bound.
“I’m Upset” opens with Drake going to his former school for a reunion party that quickly turns wild: lockers are vandalized, there’s sex in the classrooms, partygoers vomit in the corridors, and the principal (Stefan Brogren) scores weed from a pair of other Degrassi legends in Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith).
Drake has also announced the release date and unveiled artwork for his upcoming album, Scorpion, due out on June 29.
“I’m Upset” appears to be Drake’s final word in the Pusha-T beef, which most recently saw Pusha-T release the diss track, “The Story of Adidon,” featuring him trash-talking Drake—accusing both Drake and his father of being deadbeat dads—over a sample of Jay-Z’s “The Story of O.J.” Pusha-T then released the track on Soundcloud with a photo that depicts Drake in blackface. Drake then clarified that the shot was genuine, but was from an old photo shoot intended to highlight the negative portrayals of black people in entertainment history. He however declined to retaliate with a diss track of his own.
Now, perhaps, we see why.
Is Drake upset? Doesn’t look like it.
