Tag Archives: channel-the-rat

Drizzy says the idea to channel the Rat Pack came from his earlier VMA promo. By Shaheem Reid Drake performs at the 2010 VMAs on Sunday Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images Drake has become a wise man in his 23 years. He knows that when a great idea crosses his path, he shouldn’t turn his nose up at it. Drizzy was approached by MTV a few months ago to make a promo for the 2010 Video Music Awards . In the VMA commercial, Drake is suited and booted and as smooth as Frank Sinatra. “Really, it came from the [VMA] campaign,” Drake said on Friday afternoon, explaining the inspiration for his VMA performance with Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz . He was in his dressing room at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and had just finished rehearsing with Swizz and 30 beautiful models. “The campaign let me sort of have a Sinatra moment. I got so many compliments. ‘You look great in a suit.’ And ‘the way you move, you exude that same confidence.’ I was like, well, it would be silly for me to stray from something that great and do a whole hip-hop performance. Let’s just make the campaign our performance.” Hence the snazzy threads and club feel on Sunday night. On Friday, he wore jeans and a black tee. In between takes he looked down from the stage and cracked jokes with one of his managers, Cortez Bryant. During one break, he even kicked a freestyle off the mic. You could hardly hear him, but he seemed to be feeling his rhymes. Later, Drake also told us he was feeling Old Blue Eyes’