Drake’s love for house music has been very clear these past couple of years.
Just tune in to his manager Oliver El-Khatib’s OVO Sound Radio show one evening and you’re sure to be immersed in a house music experience.
Not only that, he’s also shared his admiration for South African international house veteran Black Coffee on Instagram on several occasions and he consistently invites house DJs to play at those lavish private house parties of his.
But a whole house music album? We never expected it.
A few days after Drake released his 7th studio album “Honestly, Nevermind” to generally lukewarm reviews, the goddess Beyoncé herself went on to release “Break My Soul”, the first single from her upcoming album “Renaissance”. Lo and behold that too was leaning towards house.
So how did we get here? How did two of pop music’s biggest black stars suddenly decide to venture into what many are calling ‘white music’?
Well, let me provide some context to this discussion.
Critics have been accusing the two artists of pandering to white listeners’ taste by shifting away from RnB and hip-hop, traditionally black genres, and creating house music, which is known to be particularly popular among white audiences.
I see it a bit differently. First of all, just to be clear house music has its roots in black and LGBTQ+ communities.
The commercialisation of the genre and the domination of white male DJs in the genre has whitewashed that fact over the years.
As a result, young black music fans have increasingly turned to RnB and hip hop over the past two decades.
So, hear me out, perhaps Drake and Beyoncé are trying to use their platforms to shine a light on the genre and draw black fans back into dance clubs.
“Thank you Beyoncé and Drake for giving the kids some culture and reminding us all that house music is black music.”
Thank you Beyoncé and Drake for giving the kids some culture and reminding us all that house music is black music.
— Black Culture News (@blackculturenew) June 21, 2022
Drake and Beyoncé aren’t making “white” music. House music is as black a genre as there is, it’s just become synonymous with whiteness due to its huge popularity on the white dominated club and music festival scene.
If anything, hopefully Drake and Beyoncé’s forays into house music helps highlight this history and increase the genre’s popularity among young music fans.