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God’s Plan by Drake
Drake recorded the song God’s Plan on January 19, 2018. The budget for the video was amounting to $996,631.90. He goes through the street of Miami, giving support to unsuspecting people within the area. He provided donations such as scholarships, cars, groceries, and literal stacks of cash. As a viewer, one feels good for the people who benefit from those donations. First, he goes to Sabor Tropical Supermarket and tells the shoppers to take anything they wanted at no cost. Secondly, he presented a scholarship check to the unsuspecting student as well as giving gifts to women, among other supports. In one of the scenarios, Drake joins a family that was seated on a ledge, which busts into happiness on seeing him, and then they are given a bunch of cash. The video shows goodhearted charity work of providing support to the less fortunate in society.
The music sets an optimistic tone from the beginning where an older man claimed he knew Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington during his youth. He notes that, although he does not make money equivalent to them, he enjoys the same good health. At the end of the conversation, the man state that ‘it’s a good life, it’s a good life’ as he does not need all the money in the world to feel happy. Drake expresses this attitude throughout the video. He gives away a million dollars as he does not need all the money to have a good life. Regardless of this generosity, Drake indicated that he still has a good number of haters. However, he does not allow their hatred to limit his joy, which is seen from his beaming smile and goofy dance moves.
The individuals featured in this video also possess their smiles. Drake does not show the people of Miami as gloomy neither does he portray himself as a saint. However, he represents himself as a person who likes to help other people and party with them. In one of the scenes in the video, he jumps with high school students as the song was playing. As the video ends, the man from the introduction repeat that ‘it’s a good life, it’s a good life’ and smiles along with all the other happy people in the video. The video had attracted over 30 million viewers after a few days of its release and overwhelmingly positive comments on YouTube. The residents have embraced God’s Plan video and are enjoying their life despite having scarce resources. The video also shares Miami’s personality and issues concerning race, money, and dignity. It mostly focuses on black people, both men, and women, the elderly, and children. However, the video has received some amount of criticism claiming that giving has elements of selfish motive. The act of giving also makes people feel okay about the unfair status quo. Celebrity humanitarianism is also said to be the commonly used self-serving tool in promoting their celebrity brand.
The emotional part comes from the way inequality is evidence all over the video. One woman aged 62 years and with five children had commuted by bus for many years to work as a housekeeper at Fontainebleau Hotel. After Drake discovered her through Miami Herald’s story in 2017, he treated her with a steakhouse dinner, massage at Fontainebleau spa, and a Saks shopping spree. Through the Herald follow up plans, the woman was grateful for the support, although she had to continue with her usual work. Drake being a black celebrity, his charity effort usually received biased scrutiny. One of the civil right icon and a singer Harry Belafonte in 2012 said the high-profile artists are abusing the modern time in that they are not participating in social responsibility. For drakes, the journey to the top is not only retelling the American dream but preferably inspiring listeners to believe in the possibility of the dream.
Drake is operating on a high level of Maimonides’s righteousness scale through this song. He gives support without being forced, although he does not do it silently. The purest form of assistance is considered to be from anonymous to anonymous. However, Jewish philosopher Maimonides teaches that judging the purity of giving based on unknown to the unknown is not the purest level but rather enabling another person to have a self-sufficient lifetime. Drakes had made headlines over the years for his charity work, like when he provided a recording studio for a school in Philadelphia. However, this song has presented him as a kind person to his Toronto community, friends, and family. He shows his concerns to the community in the lyrics, such as ‘I make sure that North Side eat. And still….It’s a lot of bad things that wishin’ on me’. He uses this line of people wishing bad things on him in an ironic gesture as he is seen pushing shopping carts of wrapped toys for kids. However, Drake does not gift people essential only, such as school funds and groceries, but he also gives private concerts and expensive clothes. These actions of giving shows how people can share their wealth with the less fortunate in society.