Popstar
by DJ Khaled (featuring Drake)

Album: Khaled Khaled (2020)
Charted: 11 3
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Drake has often gripped about his pop star status. On Take Care's "The Ride," he bellyaches about fame, and "Fake Love" finds the rapper dissing phonies who latch onto him. Here, however, he brags about the commercial success of his music. Namedropping Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Justin Bieber with comparisons to producer David Foster and manager Scooter Braun, Drake clearly relishes his star power.

    Drake also flexes about his opulent lifestyle; with girls constantly on call and an expensive watch collection, being a pop star isn't such a bad thing.
  • DJ Khaled dropped the trap club song on July 17, 2020 as a promotional single for his Khaled Khaled album along with another Drake-featuring tune, "Greece." The hip-hop megastars are serial collaborators, having previously worked together on such songs as "Fed Up," "I'm On One," "No New Friends," "Summer Sixteen," "For Free" and "To The Max."
  • DJ Khaled produced the song with Swiss beatmaker OZ and German duo David x Eli I. OZ told Billboard that he made the beat with David x Eli in July 2019. He explained: "A lot of times, I'm too lazy to make my own samples, so I'll use other producers to find a crazy melody. I love to collaborate with people. I ended up using their loop to take this to the next level."
  • While OZ is a frequent Drake collaborator, having worked with him on "Toosie Slide," "Life Is Good," "Sicko Mode" and "Greece," David x Eli are not so well known. Their other placements include Joyner Lucas' and Chris Brown's 2018 song "I Don't Die" and Mac Miller's 2020 track "Woods."
  • Shot by Director X, the song's music video opens with Khaled repeatedly urging Drake to appear in the clip. The rapper, frustrated, instead calls in a favor from his Canadian compatriot Justin Bieber, who lip-syncs the Toronto MC's lines while living the high life.

    The visual also features cameos from Scooter Braun and Hailey Bieber. Braun appears when Drake raps:

    You would probably think my manager is Scooter Braun
  • Bieber and DJ Khaled previously worked together when the Canadian pop star supplied the hook for the producer's 2017 collaboration with Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne, "I'm the One."
  • Khaled Khaled topped the Billboard 200, becoming DJ Khaled's third #1 US album, following Major Key (2016) and Grateful (2017).

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