In case you were wondering, Drake Bellstill isn’t a big fan of Justin Bieber….or Lady Gaga or even Ariana Grande for that matter.
Instead of taking his rants to Twitter, the former “Drake & Josh” star, who filed for bankruptcy last month, lashed out at the pop stars in an interview with Buzzfeed, where he accused them of not working hard for their success and having toxic and obsessive fanbases.
But we did a little fact-checking. So here is a breakdown of some of the statements that Drake made, with a bit of a reality check thrown in the mix. Apologies in advance, Drake.
Ariana Grande Didn’t Work Hard For The Money
Statement:“There’s just a lot of really young, entitled people,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of these young people have to work very hard. They’re found on YouTube and, boom, thrown into the studio so they think they can get anything they want. Ariana Grande is a billionaire before she’s been an artist. You have to work to be able to appreciate what you have, and what work did she ever have to do in her life?”
Reality Check:First off, Ariana isn’t a billionaire quite yet. Her current net-worth is estimated at $5 million. Also, Ariana started out on Broadway starring in the musical “13,” she then made cameos in several Nickelodeon shows before landing a lead role on “Victorious.” Only after all of that, she released her debut album, Yours Truly, which went right to #1 on the Billboard chart.
No Control Over Fan Armies
Statement: “Lady Gaga, who says she’s so anti-bullying, was on [Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show] and Howard read all of these awful, awful tweets her fans had been sending him, [and] asked how she responded to her fans doing the exact antithesis of what she stands for. She said, ‘You have to understand, Howard, it comes from a place of love. They don’t want to see me get hurt.’ I couldn’t believe she didn’t take a second to address her fans and say how disgusted she was they’d do something like that. But none of them do that. Justin Bieber just tweets, ‘Yeah, Beliebers, go hard’ when they’re attacking somebody. Ariana Grande’s fans told Perez Hilton that he and his son needed to die and get cancer, and she just fed it. It’s disgusting.”
Reality Check: Lady Gaga has in fact called out her Little Monsters for making hateful and derogatory comments, most recently back in August of 2013, taking to her Tumblr page asking her fans to stop attacking her critics.
As for Ariana, she did speak out to her fans via Twitteraround the time they were making comments about Perez Hilton, asking her Arianators not to wish “negativity upon any1.”
Sending A Bad Message
Statement: “Artists like Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga have more sway over popular minds than a politician. They could get on a pedestal and say, ‘This is how you should treat people,’ but instead [Bieber’s] going around telling kids that as long as you have enough money and swag, you can do whatever you want,” he said with a sigh. “Instead of working to change the world, [he’s saying,] Work to get as much money and power as possible because then you can do whatever you want and no one can say anything to you. I just think that’s a gross, awful, terrible message.”
Reality Check: Lady Gaga has made it one of her missions to encourage people to treat each other with respect and stop bullying through her Born This Way Foundation.
In defense of Justin, there is no record of any interview where the pop star has said any of the above statements, but he did stop saying the word “swag” back in 2013.
Drake Is Just Trying To Do The Right Thing
Statement: “I’m all about unity and loving your neighbor… If somebody told me when I was growing up that the music I was listening to was stupid, and I listened to them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I just think it’s so much more rewarding and important to go around the world and bring people together, as opposed to pushing people away.”
Reality Check:Umm, not to be mean, but Drake, I kind of think this contradicts everything you’ve been saying.
No Comments