Zesty Drake

Submission 8,788

Part of a series on Drake. [View Related Entries]

Featured Episode

About

Zesty Drake refers to online theories, memes and discussions speculating that Drake is gay. The zesty Drake memes started around November 2022, after the rapper released the song "Rich Flex" with 21 Savage and people started to post memes about their interaction in the song looking like they were flirting with each other. The zesty memes resurfaced in early January 2024, especially due to Drake's December 2023 livestream.

Origin

On November 4th, 2022, Drake and 21 Savage released the album Her Loss, which features the rap song "Rich Flex." The music was picked up by TikTokers who noticed Drake's line being perceived as a bit flirtatious towards 21 Savage and used it as a joke on the platform.

For instance, that same day, TikTok^[1] user @sharky uploaded a video (shown below) of a POV meme pretending to be Drake singing his verses. The post was accompanied by the caption "wayyy too zesty," which is an internet slang term most often used to call someone flamboyantly gay, sometimes in a derogatory manner.

Spread

The zesty Drake allegations and references became the subject of online theories, memes and discussions on social media going into 2023. For instance, on August 27th, 2023, YouTube^[2] user @BenMueller posted a video (shown below, left) of "Drake Zesty Moments," which amassed more than 41,000 views and 743 likes in six months. On June 8th, 2023, YouTube^[3] user @OvertimeGG posted a clip of what they perceived as Drake being zesty (shown below, right), which received over 11,000 views and 166 likes in seven months.

Drake's 2023 x STAKE Livestream

On December 16th, 2023, the rapper made a partnership livestream to promote the online casino company STAKE. Several clips from the stream were later used as a source for more zesty Drake memes, especially on TikTok. For example, on December 26th, 2023, TikTok^[4] user @fucktnttowers posted a fan edit of Drake (shown below, left), which amassed more than 15 million plays and 3 million likes in a month.

On January 10th, 2024, TikTok^[5] user @arcticzxtrikzz uploaded a zesty Drake edit (shown below, right), which garnered over 2.6 million plays and 549,000 likes in two days.