BBL Drake

About

BBL Drake, also known as Brazilian Butt Lift Drake, refers to rumors and memes about rapper Drake having Brazillian butt lift surgery in early 2021 and how it changed him, making him more effeminate and more of a "baddie," as evidenced by various photos and videos of him. In particular, a mirror selfie of Drake and an Instagram Boomerang of him crouching over with his hands on his hips are often the subject of such memes. The trend became notably popular on TikTok in August 2021.

Origin

BBL Effect

Around 2020, there was a TikTok joke about the "BBL Effect," which describes the changes, both physical and otherwise, that someone goes through after getting a Brazilian butt lift. The "effect" was usually depicted by pictures of the person wearing clothing that reveals their butt and acting with a newfound sense of self-importance (examples shown below, left and right).

BBL Drake

In October 2020, rapper Drake tore his ACL, allegedly while playing basketball with Steph Curry.^[1] Drake posted an image to his Instagram Story showing himself lying in bed with a cast on his knee, captioned "New challenge unlocked."

In January 2021, Drake announced he was delaying his album Certified Lover Boy to continue his recovery after knee surgery.^[2] On January 20th, Twitter^[3] user @lnbshr tweeted, "drake rn in the BBL recovery center" along with an image of someone laying in bed relaxing, gaining over 31,700 likes and 4,500 retweets in seven years (shown below).

On July 18th, TikToker^[5] @official_pitbull2 posted a video starting with an Instagram Boomerang in which Drake puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head, followed by a selfie of Drake and Nicki Minaj, gaining over 2.1 million views in a month (shown below). The majority of the comments make jokes about Drake acting effeminate. The top comment, posted that day with over 40,000 likes, reads, "it's giving bbl🥺."

On August 3rd, TikToker^[6] @stanthosh posted a video compiling a number of effeminate videos and images of Drake, including a video of a man who resembles Drake walking down the street in drag, titled "BBL DRAKE AESTHETIC," gaining over 417,000 views in three weeks (shown below).

Spread

On August 7th, 2021, TikToker^[4] @makimaismymommy posted a video captioned "HES SO FRUITY I CANT" starting with the Boomerang, followed by a number of "fruity" images of Drake, including an image of him feeding a dog photoshopped to make his butt look bigger, gaining over 2.7 million views in just under three weeks (shown below). On August 9th, YouTuber^[8] BiaXiDeNTJr uploaded a looping video of Drake's Boomerang.

The original sound "I USED TO BE A LOVA BOY"^[7] became notably filled with BBL Drake content throughout July and August 2021, including compilations of BBL Drake images and videos of TikTokers recreating Drake's BBL Boomerang (examples shown below, left and right).

BBL Drizzy

On May 5th, 2024, amid the escalating Kendrick Lamar / Drake feud Metro Boomin released a beat titled BBL Drizzy referencing the meme that referred to Drake as feminine and accused him of getting plastic surgery or liposuction. The beat received over 1.5 million plays on Soundcloud in less than 24 hours (seen below).^[9]

Related Memes

Drake's Mirror Selfie

Drake's Mirror Selfie refers to a mirror selfie taken by Canadian recording artist Drake that was posted to his Instagram Story in which the rapper is wearing an oversized wool sweater and holding his hand up to his face, almost resembling a cat paw. The photo was mocked across social media in the days following its upload, resulting in a number of memes, with many users accusing Drake of being gay and being unable to deny supposed "gay allegations" after the photo.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References