Tory Lanez’s support of Drake is disappointing but not surprising

Drake obliges the public like a seasoned advertising director. He knows that sharing something as simple as a new hairstyle can choke social media for days. So when he called for Tory Lanez’s freedom on his Instagram story, he knew he’d get the same visibility as activists screaming “Free Meek Mill” from the streets of Philadelphia. On Monday, Drake posted Tori and “3 U,” a version of “Free You,” where the trio was set to represent open handcuffs.

“Free (include the person”) is standard cultural discourse in communities of color. “Free Meek” was a stand against the Philly rapper’s lengthy probation. “Free Mumia (Abu-Jamal)” is about elaborating on a freedom fighter who people believe was unjustly convicted. Other times, like “Free Bobby Shmurda,” it can be a critical admission that even if we know someone has done wrong, we also understand that systemic inequality can encourage bad choices from good people, inevitably. Creates a long-looping form of entrapment.

You can “liberate” someone as an advocate, a loved one, or a sympathizer. But screaming “Free Tory Lanez” is an ass move.

Last August, Torrey was sentenced to 10 years in a California state prison for shooting the stallion Megan Thi in 2020. In December 2022, he was convicted of assault with a semi-automatic weapon, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging. Weapon with gross negligence.

He is on a recorded call to apologize to Megan’s ex-friend Kelsey for an anonymous complaint that many speculate is Megan’s shooting. During the deposition, Kelsey called the notion of shooting Megan “ridiculous.” A witness testified at the trial that he saw a “short man,” alleged to be Torrey, fire “four to five” shots and then beat Megan as she lay bleeding in the fetal position. But despite the mountain of evidence pointing to his guilt, Drake, Chris Brown, Meek Mill and others have since expressed solidarity with Tori. Are they saying they don’t believe Megan, or that they don’t care what happened to her?

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Since that night, people have treated the shooting more like a soap opera or a binary of fandom than a traumatic event for which someone must atone. On “Cobra”, Megan raps about dealing with depression, alcohol dependence and suicidal ideation since being shot. Her account of that night was polled by armchair sleuths, and she was relentlessly trashed by entertainers and customers. Torey also participated in the circus by cutting off a horse’s leg in his “CAP” video. As I’ve noted before about Tina and Ike Turner, hip-hop has a penchant for playfulness, perhaps because so many of its forebears are so predisposed to toxic behavior and violence that we don’t know how to take domestic violence seriously. But that dynamic almost always disrespects female survivors, and there’s no excuse for how Megan is treated.

Drake has had several strange dustups with women in recent years. During a recent stop on it Big as the Watt On tour, he made a point to play “Work” with Rihanna, then tell the crowd he was no longer performing the song. It comes after he and A$AP released Rocky For all dogs “Fear of heights.” And, more disturbingly, he gave a shout-out to rapper and friend Baka Not Nice, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to assaulting a 22-year-old woman accused of forcing her into sex trafficking. The woman did not testify in the case, so she was not tried on the later charges. While Baka was incarcerated, Drake says on 2015’s “Know Yourself,” “As soon as Baka gets back on the road, I can call him off.” Will women be invited to this celebration? Maybe Drake should go to his room full of hands and reflect on whether he really cares about the humanity of any of the former owners.

It is unclear when he and Megan, who were pictured together in 2019, fell out first. In 2022, he rapped about “this bitch lie ’bout getting a shot, but she still a stallion”. her loss “Vinegar people.” Last summer, he made a point of clarifying, “Not that mag,” by yelling out to photographer Magup during it. It’s all a blur Round and round and now, after Megan dissed him over the “hiss” (she purposely avoided naming names so the hit dogs could boo) she has advocated for her attacker.

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Drake is not the first person to speak out for Tory after the sentencing. Chris Brown, who attacked Rihanna and is accused of more than 20 counts of violence (many against women), was called out to “free Tori” on streamer Edin Ross’ live stream, calling Tori “a solid friend.” was His morally questionable comments are not surprising.

Last July, Meek Mill shouted “Free Tory” while performing at Rolling Loud Portugal. He later doubled down, tweeting, “I say free young thugs … free luchi … free melly I don’t even know why you start dealing with us if you try to defame us.’ Of course, there’s a level of nuance. Anti-prison abolitionists believe the justice system is inherently racist and should be uprooted. But even those progressives were more upset when Tory was convicted because of his behavior and arrogance throughout the leadup to the trial. It didn’t happen. Restorative justice advocates believe there could be a world where people who commit violence can take responsibility, and apologize to the person they hurt, and everyone can heal without the need for prison.

There is a belief that the modern justice system, which essentially requires the suspect to deny his guilt, does not help the survivor heal, and the inhumane conditions of prisons are certainly not a rehabilitative environment for offenders. Some abolitionists believe that Tory should not be imprisoned because prisons should not exist in the first place. This is a complicated discussion. But it’s also unlikely that Drake, Brown or Meek were saying “Free Tory” through an abolitionist lens — they were just trying to support the boys’ club.

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Despite Tory’s conviction, the bowels of the gossip blogosphere, driven by misogynistic podcasters and streamers, still cling to suppressed videos and rumors of secret witnesses and anything else that appears from the fairy dust to legally exonerate the Toronto artist and support their twisted belief. Living. Women should never be trusted. It’s sad to think that so many big names in music enable that group.

Despite his increasingly blatant misogynoir, artists like Drake still boast devoted fans who will drive him to record-breaking streaming numbers and refer to him as their figurative “husband.” It’s further proof that advocating for a guilty violator of a black woman is not a cardinal sin. If anything, that’s the norm. How long are we going to let this go on?