Watch Drake Perform ‘Views’ Tracks, Beef With ‘SNL’ Cast
Drake served as both host and musical guest on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, where the rapper performed a pair of Views tracks, delivered a monologue about his meme-making abilities and playfully ignited a beef with the entire SNL cast.
For his first musical guest spot of the night, Drake busted out the Views single “One Dance,” with the freshly shaven rapper grooving inside a light-up box similar to the one featured in his “Hotline Bling” video. That 2015 video spawned a million gifs, and Drake’s memeable dance moves were fully back on display for the colorful performance. (With Drake hosting, Chris Rock was on hand to introduce the musical guest.)
Later in the episode, Drake unfurled his dark Views cut “Hype.” Keeping with the track’s icy beats and lyrics’ frigid imagery, Drake turned the SNL stage into a Toronto winter (“6 cold like Alaska”), blanketing it with blue light, falling snow and dense fog.
Often when artists handle hosting duties on SNL, the writers make sure to spotlight the host’s musical talent within the episode’s sketches, and Drake, the one-time Degrassi actor, was given ample opportunity to showcase his dual abilities.
In a video short filmed during rehearsals, Drake finds himself butting heads with nearly everyone on the SNL staff, from cast members Leslie Jones and Pete Davidson to creator Lorne Michaels and an NBC janitor, over benign reasons.
When Aidy Bryant asks to remove Drake’s hat from a chair so she can sit down, the rapper daydreams a retaliatory track. “Hey, anybody using this chair?” Bryant asked before unseating Drake’s black hat. “Actually I was, you bitch / It was for my hat / But you took it from me / Now we never going back,” Drake fires back in the dream sequence.
Drake’s opening monologue was similarly musical as he sang about how everything he does is turned into a meme, which harvested just a few dozen of the actual viral .jpgs and .gifs the rapper has inspired.