None of what I’m about to say is going to make any sense, but just follow me. Drake has teamed up with an obscure social media personality to remake Plain White T's No. 1 hit “Hey There Delilah.” Not only that, but it’s only the second featured verse from Drake since he bowed out of the beef with Kendrick Lamar a month ago.
You get all of that?
In an effort to win back the internet, it seems like Drake has officially taken the meme route. First, he connected with Sexy Redd on her song “U My Everything” and rapped over a version of Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” beat. And now, after being labeled a colonizer who is not of this culture by Kendrick, he leaned as deep as he could into regional rap, linking up with the Toronto-based social media personality Snowd4y.
On Monday, Snowd4y released “Wah Gwan Delilah” on his SoundCloud. The song functions almost like an inside joke for Torontonians. The track—which is closer to a skit than a real track—is more cringy than Drake rapping over “BBL Drizzy” but is a fascinating case study in how Drake is navigating post beef life.
So who is Snowd4y, and how did this song come together in the first place? Here’s my best effort to break down what the fuck is going on with “Wah Gwan Delilah.”
Who is Snowd4y, and what is his connection with Drake?
Snowd4y is a Toronto-based social media personality who makes TikTok content. His videos usually feature the personality using an exaggerated Toronto accent, while navigating situations that happen in the city. He has jokingly incorporated Drake into his skits before, but it’s unclear when the two officially connected to make this track. Snowd4y first teased the original version of “Wah Gwan Delilah” earlier this year on the Canadian-based outlet Waveroom.
Snowd4y is like a mix of Lil Mabu—a kid playing up certain caricatures for views—and Druski, someone who does exaggerated skits based on everyday happenings. Either way, it seems like he’s getting the last laugh by making his musical debut with Drake.
Is the track AI?
Despite immediate (and valid) skepticism about the legitimacy of the song, it is, unfortunately, legit. Drake reposted the track on his Instagram Story last night with the caption “wake up the city” with a laughing emoji, which is him acknowledging it exists but not refuting that it’s not him on it.
Many fans thought it was AI because of how Drake utilized the polarizing technology during the rap war, making “Taylor Made Freestyle” using the AI voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg. What gives the track more validity is that Drake has remixed music from obscure, deep-cut Canadian artists before. In 2015, he randomly remixed Ramriddlz's track “Sweeterman,” transforming it from an obscure song to the popular loosie we know today. So it’s not that shocking that he would do something similar again here.
What are they even saying in the song?
Earlier this year, Ebro Darden claimed that Drake had no “regional culture” of his own. But “Wah Gwan Delilah” is The Boy leaning into the most exaggerated Toronto accent he could muster and littering his verse with as many 6ix-centric slang words as possible. Toronto has a sizable Caribbean community and Drake’s verse is layered with Toronto slang. The “Wah Gwan” is Jamaican Patois that basically translates to “What’s going on.” And then there’s lines like, “He said he knows a man that slapped it, I'm so cheesed/Your ‘mademoiselle’ nights are geeked, I'm bent lowkey” which essentially means Drake is sick that his friend hooked up with a girl he likes and now he looks at her differently.
All we’re saying is don’t let Chet Hanks hear this song.
Is the song good?
The song is pretty trash. But it’s supposed to be. The “Hey There Delilah” beat will always slap (especially for the real yearners), but Snowd4y and Drake’s whiny voices take you out of the production and force you to listen to what they're saying. And they’re not saying shit. Snowd4y is a social media comedian, and this is the first song he’s released, so it’s not meant to be taken seriously as a real track—or a real Drake feature. That’s probably why Drake overstresses his accent like Snowd4y does in his skits, and might be why the track only lives on SoundCloud and not any DSPs, as of now. If anything, “Wah Gwan Delilah” just reminded me how hard the original “Hey There Delilah” is. Plain White T’s member Tom Higgenson reacted to the track on his Instagram Story, reposting the track and questioning “what is going onnnn.” (Complex reached out to their PR for comment.)
What is Drake doing?
I’m not even sure if he knows. Drake has historically been great at using the internet to his advantage, leaning into meme culture to boost his likability. These tactics worked well on his It's All a Blur tour, where fans flooded the timeline with videos of inflatable anime titties and sperm cells flying across his stage. But now the fine line between trolling and being desperate for attention has become increasingly more difficult for Drake to tether.
In a lot of ways, “Wah Gwan Delilah” feels like a response to being criticized for swag-jacking cultures from different regions: hopping on this song, Drake made something so uniquely Toronto that the joke only lands best for those from The 6.
The truth is that anything he dropped after losing the rap war would’ve been clowned on. So making self-deprecating music is probably his best option. After teasing “summer vibes” on his Instagram, rapping over BBL Drizzy, and having upcoming features on Camila Cabello’s album, it appears as if Drake is going to continue dropping low-stakes music as his way of slowly getting back into the game. But time will tell if laughing at himself will whisk Drake back into the internet’s good graces like he hopes it will.
