Drake is a master at making moments (and memes) and a lot of them have come from his music videos over the years.
Music videos have never been the Toronto rapper’s specialty, and they’re not always as artful as the visuals from his peers, but one thing The Boy does know how to do is play a character when the cameras start rolling. The best Drake videos are built on great storytelling, even if they don’t always align with the subject matter of the songs themselves. Whether he’s running from Jamaican gangsters in “Find Your Love” or getting crossed up by Kevin Durant in “Laugh Now Cry Later,” Drake videos are always going to be theatrical and entertaining, for better or for worse.
Of course, you can’t talk about Drake videos without mentioning the memes. He knows how to light up the internet and his videos have produced countless viral moments over the years. Who could forget the dance moves in his red puffer jacket from the “Hotline Bling” video? Even his father Dennis Graham went viral after making his infamous appearance in the “Worst Behavior” visuals.
Drake's music videos always find a way to move the needle, no matter how you might personally feel about them. After he got the internet talking again with the “Rich Baby Daddy” visuals this month, we ranked Drake’s 10 best music videos.
10. "Rich Baby Daddy"
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Director: Drake
Drake has made a few camcorder music videos lately, including “Jumbotron Shit Poppin” and “Sticky,” and they usually aren’t very good, but the method worked amazingly well for “Rich Baby Daddy.” Instead of just recording his vacation to Turks and Caicos and turning it into a cheap video, Drake catches Sexyy Red going into “labor” on his handheld camera, while SZA urges him to help them get her to the hospital. The best part is that it’s still not fully clear whether it’s all fake or Drake actually coincidentally caught her giving birth (although I assume it was staged). Regardless, Sexyy Red and SZA’s appearances make this a very entertaining video that immediately ranks among Drake’s all-time best.
9. "Laugh Now Cry Later"
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Director: Dave Meyers
The “Laugh Now, Cry Later” video marked the beginning of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy era, and the visuals featured cameos from Druski, Kevin Durant, and Odell Beckham Jr. at Nike’s luxurious Oregon headquarters. By design, it went viral within minutes. From Drake getting crossed up by Durant, recreating Lebron James’ draft day photo with Lil Durk, crying for the camera, and having a “warrior spirit,” the whole video was meme bait and it served as the perfect prelude for Drake’s CLB era.
8. "Find Your Love"
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Director: Anthony Mandler
One thing Drake loves to do is act, and the video for “Find Your Love” is a full cinematic experience. You wouldn’t expect dramatic cutscenes of Drake navigating the Jamaican trenches to be attached to a song about him being “more than just an option,” but the juxtaposition between the song's gentle subject matter and the video is jarring in an interesting and suspenseful way. Even though it’s a little random, the dramatic conclusion of Drake getting lined up by the leading lady of the story makes the video for the classic song worth it.
7. "Worst Behavior"
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Director: Director X
Not many people can steal the show from Drake in his own video, but Dennis Graham can. Drake’s father is the star of the music video for “Worst Behavior,” along with some pink-suit-wearing Memphis OGs. Despite Drake cosplaying as a Southern gangster, the imagery of the Tennessee trenches fit the vibes of the song perfectly. The If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late era marked the beginning of Drake fully adopting his mobster persona, and the “Worst Behavior” video fits into that new canon nicely (plus, there are some great cameos from Juicy J, Project Pat, and Turk from the Hot Boys). It’s just difficult to beat five owl chains and Dennis Graham in the trenches.
6. "God's Plan"
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Director: Karena Evans
1.5 billion views on YouTube speaks for itself. “God’s Plan” is his most-streamed song, and the viral music video played a large part in that. Instead of focusing on the riches he’s gained throughout his career, Drake gave away the nearly $1 million video budget to different people and students in Miami. Although I think it’s a little weird when people record acts of service like this for public consumption, it was cool of Drake to give back to a community in such a big way. The video itself is a simple compilation of people’s reactions to receiving money, cars, food, and gifts from Drake, and that’s enough to make it a top 10 video in his catalog. The memes of him hugging and surprising people help, too.
5. "Energy"
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Director: Fleur & Manu
Sometimes simple is best when it comes to music videos, and Fleur & Manu understood the assignment when directing “Energy.” With just a plain black-and-white background (and a very early version of deepfake technology?) the duo figured out how to put Drake’s face on the bodies of notable figures, including Oprah, Justin Bieber, and Kanye West. There’s something about it that perfectly encapsulates his If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late era—maybe because of how brazen Drake is, projecting his image onto the likes of LeBron James, Barack Obama, and even OJ Simpson. Despite the deepfake facades, what he’s rapping and how he’s rapping it feels very real, and the “Energy” visuals carry the message of the song well.
4. “Started From the Bottom”
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Director: Director X
“Started From the Bottom” is one of the major inflection points of Drake’s career, and the music video helped catapult him to a new level of stardom. The Director X-helmed music video has the perfect balance of Drake-acting, Drake-flexing, and Drake-reminiscing about how far he's come since the old days of living in his mama’s house arguing every month. With cameos from his mother and real childhood friends, a skit from comedian OB OBrien, and homages to his youth in Toronto, the “Started From The Bottom” video is the most memorable moment from NWTS outside of the actual music itself. Seeing a young Aubrey Graham strutting down the streets flooded with fake snow and a cocaine white Bently (or the scene where he’s partying with his friends in the Dominican Republic) perfectly conveys the thesis of “Started From The Bottom”: We all “made it” from somewhere, and nothing has been the same since.
3. “Hotline Bling”
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Director: Director X
It’s funny how time works. When the video for “Hotline Bling” first came out, it was clowned on immediately. People made fun of the way Drake danced, the facial expressions he was making, and his bright red puffer jacket. But then, the memes took over, making the video an inescapable hit, and many of them persist on social media timelines to this day. Drake leaned into the memes (as he has many times) and with time, “Hotline Bling” became one of the most recognizable videos of his career. The fading lights and square aspect ratio of the video was inspired by Sean Paul’s “Gimme the Light,” and while minimal, the Director X visuals match the waiting room sound of the song. Nearly a decade later, the video has stood the test of time, and it ranks near Drake’s very best.
2. “Nice For What”
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Director: Karena Evans
It’s rare for Drake videos to match the theme of the songs perfectly, but “Nice For What” not only fits the subject matter of the track, it finds a way to elevate it. Drake isn’t the main character of his own show, choosing to take a back seat as he highlights several strong women who make cameos, including Issa Rae, Yara Shahidi, Zoe Saldana, Tracee Ellis Ross, Syd, and more. Tapping “God’s Plan” director Karena Evans, Drake stays true to the “Nice For What” lyrics and elevates these Renaissance women in a way that doesn’t feel like he’s pandering or trying to be self-serving. It’s rare to get this type of substance from a Drake video, but “Nice For What” is a very welcome change of pace.
1. “HYFR”
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Director: Director X
Where do I even start with the “HYFR” music video? Drake has always made an effort to incorporate parts of his real life in the music (and videos), but turning his own re-bar mitzvah into a belligerent party with some of rap's biggest stars is a feat only he could pull off. In the Director X visuals for “HYFR,” The Boy turned into a man, both literally and figuratively, commandeering the real Temple Israel in Miami for the sacred celebration. And for good measure, he enlisted the likes of DJ Khaled, Birdman, E-40, Trey Songz, and a shirtless Lil Wayne in a panda ski mask. What makes this video so special is that it's authentically Drake in every way possible, from his childhood friends mingling with his rapper friends to the old footage of a 7-year-old Aubrey Graham dancing at his real bar mitzvah. The video has nothing to do with what the actual song is about, per usual, but in this case, it doesn’t even matter. “HYFR” is a classic.
