Drake faces backlash for “American slaves” lyric on new song ‘Slime You Out’

18 September, 2023

Drake

Drake has been criticised by fans for a lyric in ‘Slime You Out‘, his new single with SZA.

The song, which is the first released off his upcoming album ‘For All The Dogs’, contains a lyric in the first verse: “You got my mind in a terrible place/ Whipped and chained you like American slaves.”

Fans have taken to social media to express their concerns about the line. “Nobody in the studio told Drake that line was awful??” wrote one fan, while another criticised SZA for the collaboration: “sza heard drake say ‘whipped and chained you like American slaves’ and said ‘yeah, I need to get on that!'”

See more reactions below.

Drake nor SZA have responded to any of the online commentary at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, Drake has caused controversy elsewhere in recent days. The rapper and singer has used a photo of actress Halle Berry for the cover art for ‘Slime You Out’, which she claims was issued without her permission.

After the single was released Berry shared a post on Instagram that read, “sometimes you have to be the bigger guy, even if you’re a woman.” In the comments section Berry was asked how she felt about Drake using the photo of her for the single.

“Didn’t get my permission,” Berry wrote in response. “That’s not cool I thought better of him!”

She added: “hence my post today. When people you admire disappoint you you have to be the bigger person and move on!”

Drake recently pushed back the release of his eighth album ‘For All The Dogs’ owing to schedule conflicts. He said that his “dilemma” was either cancelling some of his remaining live shows to “finish the album” or wrap the shows and drop the record at a later date.

The rapper eventually decided that he will now release the album on October 6, a few weeks after the initial date of September 22.

The post Drake faces backlash for “American slaves” lyric on new song ‘Slime You Out’ appeared first on NME.