A History of Drake Getting Twerked On in Music Videos

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

A typical Drake music video generally goes thusly: Attractive female musician appears. Drake appears. Attractive female musician twerks on Drake. Drake acts as though he has just discovered what sex is.

In honor of the most recent of such occurrences, Rihanna's new video for "Work," here is a comprehensive history of Drake getting twerked on in music videos, from oldest to newest. Note the slow, albeit distinct transformation from skinny, jawless Drake into full-on Beefdrake.

2012

In 2012, Drake released the video for "Practice" in which a dancer is pictured (seemingly) alone in a room, gyrating in front of a mirror, until — surprise! Drake's there too, providing ample territory on which to twerk.

The video for Waka Flocka Flame's "Round of Applause" doesn't include Drake getting twerked on as much as Drake getting aggressively twerked at.

2013

Proof that even when multiple rappers appear in a music video, Drake will still find a way to be the object of a twerker's attention: French Montana's "Pop That."

2014

Continuing along the trend of Drake waiting until the very end of a music video to be sufficiently twerked upon, Nicki Minaj's seminal "Anaconda."

2015

By the time "Hotline Bling" came around, that pattern has been cemented. Though the entirety of the video's dancing is worth appreciating in full, the good stuff starts around the 4:20 minute mark (especially when Drake rather affectionately places his head on the dancer's twerking butt).

2016

And finally, today marks the release of (both versions of) Rihanna's video for "Work". Spoiler: In both versions, there is Rihanna/Drake twerking, and believe it or not, it's actually the first Rihanna/Drake collab that contains any at all — both the "What's My Name?" and "Take Care" videos include ample hugs, but zero, er, "hugs from behind."

May 2017, and every year that follows, bring at least one more instance of Drake's magnificent mid-twerk facial expressions.