Explore Memphis' Musical History with Drake’s "Worst Behavior" Video

On “You & The 6” off If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Drake makes reference to his dad being “Memphis for real,” citing examples of rapping over the phone to his dad’s prison buddies and shooting guns (“out there everyone does”)… Drizzy also cites the paradox that in Canada he “used to get teased for being black /And now I'm (in Memphis) and I'm not black enough.” The best way to understand Drake’s relationship with his father’s hometown of Memphis, TN is to go back through a few years and look at his video for “Worst Behavior”

The reason Memphis looks old is because it is old. Memphis is in the southwest corner of Tennessee; Mississippi is an exit to the south and Arkansas is visible just across the river (if that sounds like a lot in proximity to Memphis, remember we’re talking about Mississippi & Arkansas). Nashville is a three hour drive through fields, St Louis is four hours to the north (also through fields). That leaves Memphis feeling very much out there in America.

Maybe it’s that remoteness coupled with a hundred-year old legacy of of Delta Blues musicians trekking to Memphis to play juke joints & blues halls whose menus are still stubbornly limited to 40 oz Budweiser's or shots of Jack Daniels. The city is filled with stories of guys arriving from Mississippi delta towns and making a name for themselves, like BB King from Indianola MS or Elvis Presley (from Rae Stremmund’s hometown Tulepo). In Memphis, the highway into town carries Isaac Hayes name & the first bar I walked into in Memphis had one of his’ capes’ hanging from the ceiling under glass.

The video opens with shots of Drake’s dad, Dennis Graham, recording at the legendary Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios—the senior Graham gained recognition recording on blues and soul records in the 60s & 70s alongside legendary Memphis bluesmen like Willie Mitchell and Jerry Lee Lewis. Memphis is a city of paradoxes, and numbering amongst them has to be that there, Drake—a rapper whose street credibility has long been questioned due to his early career portraying a disabled boy on a Canadian teen soap—is recognized as the son of musical royalty.

If you’re watching the full ten-minute long-play version, the video opens with a montage of Drake’s dad recording at Royal Studios. Otherwise (or eventually), "Worst Behavior" opens on a very Hustle & Flow montage of run-down buildings and a stray dog before settling on a close-up of Dennis’ gold OVO chain set against an over-the-top all-white three piece suit. Of course there’s fleet of pale pink Cadillacs. You’ll note spinning rims and candy low-lows are a theme here, from the uniformity in the ribs parking lot, to the individuality in front of the boarded-up house to Project Pat and Juicy J’s exquisite examples in the parking lot of a Jack Pirtle’s chicken. Memphis is no different from New York or Los Angeles—everyone just wants to ride around shinin’ like they can afford it. Memphis is the city that gave you Penny Hardaway and the Foamposite.

Drake’s dad steps out of a truly legendary soul food spot The Four-Way, notably Martin Luther King’s favorite spot to grub whenever he came through Memphis. The Four-Way is also right around the corner from Soulsville USA and the legendary Stax Records, where the foundation of American music was recorded for a couple decades in the 60s.

The golden age for the blues and Memphis soul has long passed been replaced by a new sound—one championed by the likes of South Memphis legends and Academy Award Winners 3 6 Mafia, Yo Gotti, and strangely but not infrequently Rick Ross (who happens to owns a number of chicken wing establishments in town and consequently keeps a public profile only slightly lower than the used car dealer who plasters the city’s billboards with self-aggrandizing propaganda and maintains a very close rapport with the local university’s men’s basketball team). It’s interesting that Drake, a half-Jewish actor boy from Canada, represents the bridge between the sounds of Memphis’ past and present.

Drake’s "Worst Behavior" video leans heavily on a number of classic hip-hop video tropes, specifically the arbitrary splicing of a stale comedy skit featuring your crew. While the extended OVO Family clearly entertain themselves much more than the viewer, I have on good authority that they are joined by a Memphis native one of my associates swears he recognized as a legend on the South Memphis nightclub circuit, who goes by “Smokey.”

Later in the video Drake mobs down Beale Street, the locally legendary avenue once known for producing talent like BB King and now known for producing acts like the Beale St Flippers, a NBA halftime show mainstay. Just out of frame is Memphis’ Fed-Ex Forum, home to the Memphis Grizzlies, a team known for its grit-and-grind reputation as well as propensity to chant local rap anthem “Whoop That Trick” during the playoffs.

There’s no beating the electricity of Beale Street on a Saturday night in the summertime (though really, any city with designated open-container areas could be described as electric). Regardless, no trip to Memphis is complete without a stagger from walk-up beer window to walk-up beer window, taking in the blended sounds of street performing blues bands comprised of shirtless men in denim overalls and top-40 hip-hop karaoke blasting out of any of the myriad nightclubs. That said, one of my friends shattered his iPhone screen fleeing from gunshots after a Waka Flocka Flame concert, so remember, you’re still in Memphis.

The other rap video trope “Worst Behavior” leans on is the egregious 2-for-1 trick of cramming of another of your album’s tracks into the same video. Here it’s a quick nod to “From Time (Feat. Jhené Aiko),” another track off of Nothing Was The Same. The video fades out with a view of the Herman Desoto Bridge, a landmark and maybe the one bucolic view in the city. Dennis McNamara spent two years in Memphis, and is on Twitter - @dennismcnamara