Drake “Draft Day” freestyle samples Lauryn Hill, references The Hunger Games: Stream or download the new song here.

Hear Drake’s Lauryn Hill-Sampling, Hunger Games-Referencing “Draft Day”

Hear Drake’s Lauryn Hill-Sampling, Hunger Games-Referencing “Draft Day”

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Brow Beat
Slate's Culture Blog
April 2 2014 11:48 AM

Hear Drake’s Lauryn Hill-Sampling, Hunger Games-Referencing “Draft Day”

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"On some Hunger Games s--t, I would die for my district" - Drake.

Photo-illustration by Holly Allen. Drake photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images. Hunger Games photo by Murray Close/Lionsgate

Drake and NFL prospect Johnny Manziel have developed a widely publicized fast friendship in recent months—the player even got the rapper’s OVO logo tattooed on his wrist. And with the NFL draft in a little over a month, Drake released a brand new freestyle overnight, “Draft Day,” dedicated to the rookie. Produced by Boi-1da, Ducko McFli, and Syk Sense, as Miss Info notes, “Draft Day” sees Drake laying quotable punch lines over a soulful beat that loops Lauryn Hill’s classic “Doo Wop (That Thing).”

Wasting no time, Drake pushes back at Jay Z’s “We Made It” jab, saying, “You know they love to pop all that shit when I’m not around/ But when I’m here, not a sound.” (At the time, Drake was on the European leg of his tour.) In an attempt to extinguish the feud, however, he says later, “We all do it for the art, so I can never hate, though.” The rapid-fire references never slow down from there, with Drake name-dropping everyone from Andrew Wiggins, Jose Canseco, and Chance the Rapper, to, finally, in the comical highlight: “On some Hunger Games shit, I would die for my district/ Jennifer Lawrence, you can really get it.”

Dee Lockett is a writer for Vulture and a former Slate editorial assistant.