Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Drake star in ‘NOKIA’ official music video

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was featured in an extended scene from Drake's music video for the song NOKIA, which later got scrapped.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Drake star in ‘NOKIA’ official music video

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Drake (Images via Instagram)

It’s been over a year since Kendrick Lamar featured on Future & Metro Boomin’s album We Don’t Trust You and dissed Drake on Like That. The aforementioned event caused a chain of events that has shaken pop culture up. Lamar and Drake went on to have a protracted rap battle in the weeks to follow.

Various lines were crossed by both parties and a lot of great rap battle music was released. Lamar sealed his win in the public eye with the instant classic hit Not Like Us, released on May 4th. Since the release of Not Like Us, Drake’s starpower has taken an obvious hit as he scrambles to regain his relevance at the top of the music charts. While Lamar himself went from strength to strength as Not Like Us set various chart records, Drake’s bit-part releases bombed.

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The Pulitzer Prize winner from Compton would go on to release GNX, an album with a West Coast sound. The November drop would bring new Kendrick Lamar to the top of the charts. His spectacular R&B number luther featuring SZA has been on top of Billboard’s charts since his Super Bowl performance.

Drake himself released a No. 1 Billboard album in collaboration with OVO signee Partynextdoor called $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, but he stays one hit away from taking the Billboard record for No. 1 songs from a tie with Michael Jackson. The Toronto-based rapper is aiming to change those circumstances with a music video for the biggest bop from the album.

NOKIA, the song in question, had a music video dropping today as luther has spent 7 weeks topping the Billboard chart. OKC Thunder superstar and prohibitive 2024-25 NBA MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been featured in the music video.

SGA, who hails from Toronto himself, has always shown out for his fellow countryman across social media platforms. Gilgeous-Alexander is in some stills holding his signature Converse sneakers. His presence on the music video will spur some untapped fans to check Drake’s latest release out.

There were rumors that the video had been removed from YouTube .

However, they proved to be a false alarm. Drake’s YouTube page does have the official video, which is 4:26 in length.

NBA fans react to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander appearing on Drake’s NOKIA music video before it gets scrapped

As expected, Gilgeous-Alexander was immaculately dressed in fresh drip while flaunting his kicks from his MVP campaign this year. His appearance was lauded by a bunch of NBA fans, who gave him plaudits for his ‘aura’ – a theme that has been a consistent feature while discussing SGA’s on and off-court activity for the OKC Thunder over the past couple of years.

Irrespective of Gilgeous-Alexander showing love to his hometown artist, the hate for associating with Drake caused some people to also lower their estimation of SGA’s ‘cool factor’.

The rap battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake last year certainly broke containment from within the hip-hop sphere. It has caused a lot of casual fans from other avenues – like NBA fandom – to infiltrate hip-hop. The consistent basketball/NBA references that were exchanged during the battle also exposed some NBA fans to hip-hop. However, the intersections seem to only have worsened the problem of stan culture.

The reactions to the NOKIA music video and the misguided reactions to it prove that fandoms of hip-hop superstars as well as NBA players have a lot of soul-searching to do. Certain behavior needs to be gatekept to prevent the erosion of legitimate interest in both spheres. Allowing stans to run narratives amok does not seem like the best way forward.