Canadian superstar Drake is currently at the centre of widespread controversy, after a 2010 video has resurfaced showing him kissing and touching an underage girl during a concert.
Back in early 2010, Drake was far from the musical icon that he is today. Having released his debut EP in September of 2009, his first full-length album, Thank Me Later, was released in June of the following year.
During this period, Drake was hard at work on the touring circuit, performing extensively across North America. Now, footage from one of these concerts has appeared online, and fans have been quick to condemn the musician’s actions.
As E! Online reports, a video has gone viral on Twitter this weekend, showing Drake participating in some questionable activity during one of his concerts.
Footage taken at the musician’s performance on May 17th, 2010, shows Drake kissing and touching a young fan he had brought onstage. After asking the fan her age, she responds by telling him that she is 17, much to his dismay.
https://twitter.com/thespookgod/status/1081061832746356736
“I can’t go to jail yet, man,” Drake explains to the crowd. “Seventeen? How do you look like that? You thick. Look at all this.”
While the video in question is captioned with a message that says Drake touched her breasts after learning this information, the footage seems to refute this. However, he can be seen kissing her hands, cheek, and forehead before telling her he enjoyed their time together.
“I don’t know whether I should feel guilty or not, but I had fun,” Drake explained to the fan. “I like the way your breasts feel against my chest. I just want to thank you.”
A longer version of the video shows the entertainer concluding the encounter by stating, “It’s OK, I’m only 23, I can do shit like that right there.”
While publications such as E! have noted that the age of consent in the US state of Colorado is 17, many have been quick to condemn the artist’s seemingly predatory behaviour.
As one user on Reddit pointed out, this video appears to have been brought to Drake’s attention back in 2016, when Canadian interviewer Nardwuar the Human Serviette asked the rapper whether he still kisses his fans.
“I stopped that,” Drake states in the interview, before Nardwuar explains that there’s a video “circulating from – I think – 2009, you were kissing your fans.”
“The glory days, man,” Drake responds with a smile. “I miss it, a lot… But yeah, you never know how old fans are and what they’ve been up to prior to the show. I don’t know if I- I don’t kiss fans anymore, but it’s still love.”
Drake is yet to respond to the video in question and the backlash that it has resulted in.
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