On May 15, global hip-hop icon Drake released 3 consecutive albums - "Iceman" including 18 songs, "Habibti" including 11 songs and "Maid of Honour" including 14 songs.
Drake's move caused music platforms to explode, Spotify and Apple Music even collapsed due to a sudden increase in the number of people accessing music.
Among the 3 albums, "Iceman" opens with a song called "Make them cry".
Surprisingly, fans quickly discovered that Drake mentioned the Korean group BTS in the rap line: "I feel like BTS, because it took a whole career for me to be known so much".
The Canadian rapper shared his feeling of resonance with BTS's journey, when they had to go through a long process of effort in their career to reach the peak and be widely recognized by global audiences as they are now.
BTS is a group that started from a small company (originally Big Hit Entertainment, then developed into HYBE Group). They broke countless prejudices and barriers to reach the top, becoming the group with the largest number of fans in the world.
According to the media, the fact that a famous rapper who owns a massive musical treasure like Drake uses BTS to compare his long career and efforts, once again shows the huge coverage of the 7-member Kpop group in international popular culture.
On online communities like Theqoo and many social networking platforms, the song "Make them cry" quickly became a hot topic.
ARMY - BTS's fan community - simultaneously shared the lyrics mentioning the group, proving the huge fandom power.
On BTS's side, two members J-Hope and V had an interesting reaction to Drake mentioning BTS. In the video of first-time listening to and feeling the album "Iceman", J-Hope and V were completely immersed in the music.
But when they heard the rap line with BTS appearing in the song "Make them cry", the two members were "freeze", turning to look at each other with suspicion whether they had heard it wrong or not.
In fact, it is extremely rare for an Asian artist to be mentioned as a symbol of success in the Western pop market.
Previously, there were international artists who publicly wanted to collaborate or express their love for BTS. But the case of Drake - using BTS as a metaphor to explain his musical identity and the weight of his career - shows that the influence of Kpop has deeply penetrated the global mainstream music market.
Although they have never collaborated in music, Drake and BTS had the opportunity to meet backstage at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.
Drake's mention of BTS this time also raises expectations about the possibility of music collaboration between the two sides in the future.
