Yes, Drake did in fact father a child with former French adult actress Sophie Brussaux.
On the track “March 14” off new album Scorpion, the 31-year-old emcee finally came clean about the tabloid rumor.
“Yesterday morning was crazy / I had to come to terms with the fact that it’s not a maybe / That shit is in stone, sealed and signed / She not my lover like Billie Jean but the kid is mine / Sandi used to tell me all it takes is one time, and all it took was one time / Shit, we only met two times, two times / And both times were nothing like new times,” rapped Drake (Sandi is his mother).
He continued: “Now it’s rough times / I’m out here on front lines just trying to make sure that I see him sometimes / It’s breaking my spirit / Single father, I hate when I hear it.”
Drake then compared the situation to his own upbringing, wherein his musician-father, Dennis, divorced his mother and left the family when he was only five, settling in Memphis (Drake was subsequently raised by Sandi in Toronto):
“I used to challenge my parents on every album / Now I’m embarrassed to tell them I ended up as a co-parent / Always promised the family unit / I wanted it to be different because I’ve been through it / But this is the harsh truth now.”
He also addressed his baby son, Adonis: “Fairy tales are saved for the bedtime stories I tell you now / I don’t want you worry about whose house you live at / Or who loves you more, or who’s not there / Who did what to who ‘fore you got here / Now, look, I’m too proud to let that come between me and you now / Realize I got to think for two now, I gotta make it, I better make it / I promise if I’m not dead then I’m dedicated.”
Rumors had been circulating for quite some time that Drake had fathered a child with the Canadian Brussaux, with TMZ publishing alleged texts sent from Drake to Brussaux last May, in which the hip-hop star urged her to get an abortion, cursed her off, and accused her of being a gold digger. Drake’s rep responded by slut-shaming Brussaux, claiming she’d “had sex with another big rapper at the same time as Drake” before issuing the following statement to TMZ: “This woman has a very questionable background. She has admitted to having multiple relationships. We understand she may have problems getting into the United States. She’s one of many women claiming he got them pregnant. If it is in fact Drake’s child, which he does not believe, he would do the right thing by the child.”
But the whispers became shouts following the release of Pusha-T’s diss track “The Story of Adidon”—itself a response to Drake’s “Duppy Freestyle,” which was a response to “Infrared” off the Pusha album Daytona (rap beefs are nothing if not exhausting).
On the song, released May 29, Pusha rapped, “A baby’s involved, it’s deeper than rap / We talkin’ character, let me keep with the facts / You are hiding a child, let that boy come home / Deadbeat muthafucka playin’ border patrol.”
