вЂњWrist bling, got a condo up in Biscayne. Clubbing hard, f-ing women, there ainвЂ™t much to do,вЂќ he wrapped. He addressed it just a few months later on his hit track вЂњThe Motto,вЂќ one of the songs, incidentally, which would elevate his status from just a buzzy member of Lil WayneвЂ™s crew and into a rap icon in his own right. We certainly know Drake got wind of the column. I want to see them do like Pitbull who works closely with the Kiwanis Club in Little Havana and DJ Irie who puts on a charity weekend for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.вЂќ I want to see them doing fundraisers to help youth sports and after school programs. вЂњI want to see Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, Puff Daddy and all their boys start doing more for Miami. вЂњIвЂ™m tired of seeing these cats using up our beaches, soaking up our sunshine, taking over the nightclubs, and sleeping with our women without investing anything into the community,вЂќ Luke wrote. LilвЂ™ Wayne and his Young Money Crew, DrakeвЂ™s label, were the top targets. Back in 2011 he wrote a pointed critique of out-of-town rappers who use the city as a party pad but never paid anything back to the community. Those duties include penning a regular column for the townвЂ™s local alt-weekly. The man who once famously fought an obscenity case against his music that almost made its way to the Supreme Court has remade himself as a civic leader and voice of the people in his hometown. Well, the answer may lie in a years-old mini-feud involving Uncle Luke, the leader of famed Miami Bass group 2 Live Crew. Though, it does beg the question, вЂњWhy did Drake chose Miami?вЂќ He is after all a proud son of Toronto, and once rapped, вЂњAll I care about is money and the city that IвЂ™m from.вЂќ Even the songвЂ™s lyrics are packed with references to Toronto, and makes references to providing charity to one of that cityвЂ™s underserved neighborhoods. A side of the city that perhaps few gave much thought to until last yearвЂ™s Oscar winning Moonlight, and maybe havenвЂ™t thought about much sense. In other words, Drake ditches the South Beach clichГ©s and gives representation to the Miami-Dade County that lies beyond that MTV sheen, where the poverty rate is 21.3 percent, where some neighborhoods are amongst the most dangerous in the country, and where income inequality is at near third-world levels. He buys people cars, gives money to the fire department, and drops lump sums of cash into strangersвЂ™ laps. He donates money to the Overtown Youth Center and Lotus House, a local charity and shelter that helps homeless women and children, many of whom were victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

He tells costumers at an inner city market that heвЂ™ll buy anything they can fit in their shopping cart. In the clip, Drake takes the near $1,000,000 budget his label gave him to spend on the typical expenses one expects comes with a 305-set video-like, say, renting out a mansion and securing an actual tiger-and instead goes around to the cityвЂ™s less glamorous areas in order to play a charitable young Santa Claus in a University of Miami hoodie. So, if DrakeвЂs latest video for вЂњGodвЂ™s PlanвЂќ feels like a pointed retort to all of that, maybe itвЂ™s because it was designed to be.

Whether itвЂ™s BeyoncГ© grinding up against Jay-ZвЂ™s surfboart on one of the countyвЂ™s beaches in вЂњDrunk in LoveвЂќ or Jennifer Lopez partying with speedo-clad papis in Biscayne Bay, itвЂ™s all exactly, reassuringly what youвЂ™d expect. After all, a large chunk of its economy relies on tourism, and that tourism in turns relies on the cityвЂ™s pop culture image as a balmy seaside den of sin and luxury. ItвЂ™s all pretty standard fare, and itвЂ™s not necessarily like Miami minds.

Musicians of all kinds have used the city as a backdrop for party song clips for decades, so much so that you can probably play bingo with the stereotypes of a Miami-shot music video: a candy-colored Lamborghini, a yacht, stacks of $100 bills, champagne served in the bottle service area, gyrating booty shorts, speedboats or luxury yachts, stretches of pristine sand, luxury suites or downtown penthouses, a Scarface allusion here and there, and, for a recent dash of culture, perhaps some of the technicolored murals in the cityвЂ™s artsy Wynwood district. ItвЂ™s where Rihanna collected her вЂњWild ThoughtsвЂќ, Nicki Minaj Raked It Up, and Taylor Swift recently downed several drinks on top of a mega-yacht. YouвЂ™ve seen Miami as a setting for many a music video before.

People in gods plan drake