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Drake · S5 E1
Started From the Bottom
A rallying cry that becomes a meme, a worldwide hit, and his permanent mission statement
February 1, 2013. Drake drops a single called "Started From the Bottom" and within hours, the entire internet is arguing about whether a former child actor from Forest Hill has any right to claim he started from the bottom at all.
Drake feat. Lil Wayne, The Motto (2012). The song that turned four letters into a global movement. Drake and Wayne in the studio, in the club, on the jet. Casual, untouchable, and about to change the dictionary.
The Motto, Drake feat. Lil Wayne (2012)
40 builds the beat from a chopped vocal sample and a bouncing 808 that refuses to sit still. Drake rides it with a half-sung, half-rapped flow that sounds improvised, and then drops the line: "You only live once, that's the motto, YOLO." Those four letters ended up on a million T-shirts, banned from school districts, and added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Listen for how casual the delivery is: he tosses off YOLO like an afterthought, which is exactly why it stuck.
631,000 Reasons
Take Care debuted at number one with 631,000 copies sold in its first week. By early 2013, it had gone double platinum and won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. Every "he's too soft" think piece, every rapper who refused to take him seriously: all of it got quieter when the numbers came in.
“Started from the bottom, now we're here. Started from the bottom, now my whole team fucking here.”
— Drake, "Started From the Bottom," 2013
The Most Debated Lead Single in Hip-Hop
"Started From the Bottom" hit the internet on February 1, 2013, produced by Mike Zombie, a 21-year-old from New Jersey who had never worked with Drake before. The beat was minimal: a looping piano figure, a marching snare, and Drake repeating the title like a mantra. Critics called it lazy, fans called it an anthem, and Twitter turned it into a meme within hours. The song reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Drake's mission statement for the next decade.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did a 21-year-old unknown land the biggest lead single of 2013?
Staples Center, Los Angeles
On February 10, 2013, Drake walked into the Staples Center and walked out with a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Take Care had beaten Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Rick Ross for the award.
Started From the Bottom: The Numbers
Who produced the beat for "Started From the Bottom"?
5AM in Toronto, Drake
Released in April 2013, two months after "Started From the Bottom," this loosie was Drake's way of reminding everyone he could still rap. No hook, no melody, just bars over a haunting Noah Shebib beat. Where "Started From the Bottom" was a pop statement, "5AM in Toronto" was a message to other rappers: don't confuse the singing for softness.
5AM in Toronto, Drake (2013)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "I'm the one that they trying to come for." Drake's most aggressive moment in the NWTS rollout, delivered at five in the morning in his hometown.
More Than a Song
"Started From the Bottom" did something no Drake single had done before: it became a slogan. It showed up on graduation caps, in Instagram captions, in motivational speeches. People who had never heard a Drake album were quoting the title. For a rapper who spent years proving he belonged, he had created a phrase that belonged to everyone.
Drake has his anthem and his Grammy. But the next single won't sound anything like hip-hop. An 80s synth-pop love song is about to become the biggest record of the summer.
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