Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Is Drake The Jewish Male Rihanna?

Ever since his red Moncler puffer moment in the video for “Hotline Bling” (which, unsurprisingly, spiked sales of said Moncler puffer and gave a boost of holiday cheer to puffer makers worldwide), Drake has become a kind of male version of Rihanna; that is to say, a performer-cum-style icon.

And so it seems appropriate — nay, obvious — that the Jewish rapper would take his newfound status to the next level: a fashion collaboration for his world tour, “Boy Meets World” (because of course the former Degrassi star would reference a popular 90s show that was also marketed to teens). And not just any fashion collab, but a custom Prada stage wardrobe loosely inspired by Prada Men’s Spring 2018 collection. The collab is filled with flight suits, windbreakers, track pants and t-shirts in shades of black and red — plus a pair of gleaming silver pants that, according to pedestrian.tv, made him look like a “damn astronaut” — to complement his over-the-top light show. Taking the personalization a step further, he even had each item branded with an embroidered patch denoting his tour name: “BMWT Special Edition by Prada.” #swaggoals.

Unlike Rihanna, however, Drake was more of an observer than active collaborator: His stylists Mellany Sanchez and Hazel Ong were tasked with creating Drizzy’s looks. Even though it was Drake’s idea to work with Prada, his lack of participation is why he hasn’t quite reached Rihanna-level fashion dominance (also maybe why their romance didn’t work out?). But Drake’s “Started From The Bottom And Now We’re Here” evolution from nerdy actor to high fashion rapper means there’s still hope for him. Who knows, maybe he’ll even start his own line of puffers and galactic trousers.

Michelle Honig is a writer at the Forward. Contact her at [email protected]. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.