Drake celebrates tying Michael Jackson’s record with a Blazblue reference
Arc System Works / Sundae ConversationDrake has tied with Michael Jackson’s legendary record for male solo artist with the most #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 — and he celebrated with a fighting game reference.
Drizzy is coming fresh off the release of his latest album, ‘For All the Dogs,’ which saw the Canadian rapper link up with fellow artist J. Cole for a track called ‘First Person Shooter.’
The song shot up to the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot 100, officially tying Drake with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, for male solo artist with the most number one songs in Billboard Hot 100’s history.
This means that Drake now boasts 13 total songs that have landed in the Hot 100’s top spot — a record that hasn’t been smashed since Michael Jackson’s ‘You Are Not Alone’ released way back in 1995. (Yes, millennials — you’re old now.)
To celebrate, ‘Champagne Papi’ posted a humorous edited photo of MJ on his Instagram page, showing the late artist posing for a mirror selfie holding an iPhone.
He also posted a few pics to his Instagram stories, arguing in one that he technically has 14 songs that charted at number 1, but Billboard seemingly doesn’t count his feature on Travis Scott’s ‘Sicko Mode.’
Drake celebrates Billboard Hot 100 record with fighting game reference
However, one of his celebratory Insta stories caught the eye of fighting game fans, in particular. The story showed a pic of Drake, overlaid with a GIF of an anime character pulling off some Michael Jackson-inspired moves.
It turns out that this isn’t just a generic anime version of MJ; instead, it’s a playable character from the Blazblue fighting game franchise named Hazama.
It’s no secret that some of his moves and even one of his alternate color palettes were inspired by Michael Jackson. In fact, Hazama’s birthday falls on International Dance Day, further referencing the King of Pop.
The character’s smooth moves have made him a favorite among fighting game fans — but this wouldn’t be Drake’s first foray into gaming, by far. After all, who could forget the rapper famously linking up with Ninja on Twitch back in the day, not to mention the very name of the song that caused him to tie with MJ: ‘First Person Shooter?’
In fact, Drake apparently penned his bars on ‘Nice for What’ while playing 2K. It’s nice to see him spread a little love toward the FGC… now when can we see him perform at EVO?