Drake’s boy, Adonis, proved that he is indeed his father’s son.
Mere days after Drake, 36, released his new album, For All The Dogs – in which the 6-year-old boy made his rapping debut by rapping a few lines on “Daylight” – Adonis dropped the full version of his verse by sharing “My Man Freestyle” on Sunday, October 15.
The song came with a music video that saw Adonis, whom Drake shares with Sophie Brussaux, hit the basketball court with his friends. Adonis does it all: he gives a motivational speech, helms a post-game press conference with his dad and even works out in the gym to stay in shape.
During that gym scene – around 02:30 in the video – Adonis shows off his brand-new ink. The young boy appears to have a (temporary?) tattoo of his father’s face on his left forearm, a loving tribute to Drake (and a possible nod to his grandfather Dennis Graham.) [Update: A helpful reader pointed out that it’s a temporary design from Inkbox. Sophie, 34, was spotted with a similar design at the start of October.)
The young boy raps like his dad, mimicking his father’s laid-back flow on the track. “I was waiting for this moment to arrive,” he spits on the second verse. “I was driving in the car and I mash my car / I was playing on my iPad and I broke my iPad / I am going to my house, see my dad / I am saying hi to my dad and I have to go change.” While Adonis’s flow isn’t as verbose as Aesop Rock, Kendrick Lamar or MF Doom, the kid has some charm.
Adonis also seemingly references Malcolm Gladwell’s idiom of how it takes “10,000 hours” to master a craft. “Ten thousand days and I know / Ten thousand weekends and you know,” he raps.
In 2017, Dennis Graham got a tattoo of his son’s face on his arm. In August 2022, Drake mocked the now-69-year-old man’s decision to immortalize him like that. “I was just sitting here thinking why you do me like this we family,” Drake wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post. The “First Person Shooter” rapper shared a close-up of the questionable tattoo for good measure. However, Dennis responded, “I love you … Hahaha I had 16 people to try and straighten this [tattoo] out. They’re hurting me.”
Dennis got the tattoo to match his son. In 2014, the “God’s Plan” rapper visited Mark Mahoney‘s Shamrock Social Club and had his father’s mugshot inked onto his arm. So, it appears that fatherly tattoos are a family tradition in the Graham household.
For All The Dogs, which arrived on October 6, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with 402,000 equivalent album units (including 391,000 streaming equivalent albums.) This is Drake’s 13th No. 1 album, breaking a tie he had with Taylor Swift. Drake’s now behind Jay-Z (14) and The Beatles (19) with the most No. 1 albums on the chart.
