Drake‘s love for Aaliyah is something he’s never been afraid to shout about, and he’s now been given a signed copy of the singer’s debut album to add to his collection of memorabilia.
A framed print of the Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number cover art, hand signed by the late R&B singer, was gifted to Drizzy by Ro Dolla as a welcome back to work present after Drake tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.
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Drake’s positive test meant he was forced to cancel a highly anticipated Young Money reunion at his October World Weekend festival — which has now been rescheduled for Saturday (August 6).
Sharing his new gift on his Instagram Stories, Drake thanked Ro for giving him “the best back to work gift on the planet.”
The 6 God has a long history of collecting autographed rap memorabilia. In 2018, it was revealed that despite his venomous beef with Pusha T he had previously come into possession of a microphone autographed by Pusha T and his Clipse brother No Malice.
“I used to pretend I was doing interviews on the red carpet and perform all the Clipse songs in my basement with the mic,” he told MTV in 2010. “I’m a full-sized teen at this point, so this is in private. And I performed with it so much that I rubbed the autograph off. I don’t even know if he really signed it, but that was my big thing. At the time it meant the world to me.”
Drake’s deep admiration of Aaliyah is also no secret, and early on in his career, he expressed a special love for the late singer, who died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001. The OVO head honcho famously got a tattoo of Aaliyah on his back in 2011, and shortly after her death even penned a note to the One In a Million star.
Drake's October World Weekend Rescheduled For This Weekend: 'Negative Test, Positive Outcome'
“Dear Dana,” he wrote at the time, addressing her by her middle name. “I’ve never lost a parent, a friend, or a lover but I will never forget this day for the rest of my life. I remember getting the news that you had passed and it connected with my heart like a clean shot from Muhammad Ali. I was crushed.”
However, the Canadian mogul stirred up some controversy in 2012 when he announced that he and producer Noah “40” Shebib would serve as executive producers on Aaliyah’s posthumous album. Despite releasing one single from the project and teasing another, the duo ultimately scrapped the album when critics, and even Aaliyah’s own mother, protested Drake’s involvement.
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“The world reacting to Drake’s involvement so negatively, I just wanted nothing to do with it,” 40 said in 2014 in an interview with World On Road. “That was a very sad experience for me. I was naïve to the politics surrounding Aaliyah’s legacy and a bit ignorant to Timbaland’s relationship and everybody else involved and how they’d feel.
He continued: “Tim said to me, ‘Don’t stop, make the album.’ I think that was Tim taking the position of, ‘I’m not going to stop you. If you’re not going to do it, that’s your decision.’ But ultimately, I wasn’t comfortable and didn’t like the stigma. We released [‘Enough Said’], but I was seven songs deep. [Aaliyah’s] mother saying, ‘I don’t want this out’ was enough for me. I walked away very quickly.”
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Not everyone was against the idea of a Drake and Aaliyah collab at the time. Lil Wayne came to Drake’s defense, and said he found his Young Money cohort to be a “thoughtful” person.
“Everybody knows what Aaliyah did and done for music and culture,” Wayne said at the time. “It’s always good to do that not only for people like that, but for her fans. Drake’s a very thoughtful person, everyone knows that. It’s an awesome collaboration.”
