Courtesy of Drake’s Instagram

I was browsing Facebook, as I do every morning, and I saw a post from Noisey, which is Vice’s music oriented publication. They were covering an Instagram post that was captured by a fan at a Drake concert in Australia. In the clip you see Drake stop the music to aggressively address someone in the audience. “If you don’t stop touching girls, I will come out there and fuck you up,” he exclaimed to the crowd of adoring fans. He then continued, “I’m not playin’, if you don’t stop putting your hands on girls, I’m gonna come out there and fuck your ass up,” to even more applause. Now, while I appreciate what Drake was trying to do on a surface level, there’s something about it that came off inauthentic.

Drake has had a pretty long career in Hip-Hop at this point. Since his emergence as one of rap’s mainstream icons back in 2009, Drake has been a figure in America’s obsessive celebrity news cycle. But in that time period, have you ever heard of Drake fucking anyone up? No, because he hasn’t. However, on the flip side of things, we’ve heard about Drake getting fucked up. There was the famous incident where Diddy beat up Drake for stealing the “0 To 100” instrumental. There’s also the time Drake was urinated on in a movie theater back in 2010, which he didn’t react to with violence, instead he screamed “motherfucker,” and left the theater.

There’s also Drake’s frequent collaborations with Rick Ross, who once said, “I put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it,” on Rocko’s 2013 song, “U.O.E.N.O.” I didn’t hear about Drake leading a march to “fuck up” Rick Ross. Rick Ross isn’t the first rapper to have lyrics promoting rape. There are several. Do you know how many of these rappers Drake has publicly addressed or threatened? Zero.

Drake has a history of empty threats, like when he threatened to “fuck up” the tattoo artist who tattooed “Drake” on a female fan’s forehead. Do you know who got fucked up? No one.

When we think of someone in Drake’s position as a wealthy, world-famous entertainer, we have to be aware of the fact, that from a financial standpoint, Drake isn’t in the position to assault fans. Violent behavior is how careers get shelved, and how lawsuits pile up. Speaking of lawsuits, Drake is currently being sued for a rape that had taken place at a concert he co-headlined with Future. Funny how now is the time he speaks up about sexual assault at his shows.

In addition to all of this, Drake has an army of bodyguards, who, in the event Drake actually did attempt to fight this alleged groper, would pull him away, and assure his safety. Drake knows this, as does his security team.

So, with all the information I have presented, it only leads me to one conclusion, and that conclusion is clout. Drake said something to make himself look good. Drake didn’t eject the fan from the concert, which he could have if he wanted to. Drake used a woman’s potential sexual assault as a springboard to make himself look good, and to get some cheap applause from the crowd. Drake knew he wasn’t going to actually fight the perpetrator and risk a lawsuit. He knew in the event that the man were to attempt to assault Drake, his security team would handle it. Kinda lame if you think about it.

If artists like Drake actually want to prevent sexual assault, using a woman’s misfortune to accentuate masculinity isn’t going to get the job done.