Drake has taken a lead role in helping a venerable Venice soccer team stay alive.
According to an article in GQ Italia (spotted in turn by Billboard), the 6 God received notice that the nearly 120-year-old Venezia club needed 10 million Euros ($10.9 million) immediately, and then another 30 million Euros ($32.7 million) soon afterwards, in order to stay out of bankruptcy.
So Drizzy sprung into action, according to the star’s chief business officer Matte Babel.
“Venice is an incredible city and Venezia has always been a special club,” he said. “I spoke to Drake, then Brad [Katsuyama, co-owner of Venezia] and I discussed the details of how we could help. Within two weeks we had a deal, raised the money needed to pay the salaries and avoid bankruptcy.”
The money reportedly came from “a group of North American investors.” It is unclear how much of the money was Drake’s directly, though he and his team were reportedly responsible for “mobilizing” the fundraising.
In addition to the investment, ties between Venezia and Drake deepened via the superstar’s Nike sub-label NOCTA, which is now the team’s “official technical partner.”
In addition to spearheading new investments, Drake has recently been busy releasing new music.
On Saturday (August 10), three new Drizzy tracks — “It’s Up” with Young Thug and 21 Savage; “Blue Green Red” and the Latto collaboration “Housekeeping Knows” — appeared on major streaming services.
All three songs were originally shared last week as part of Drake’s massive “100 Gigs for Your Headtop” dump of songs, behind-the-scenes footage, unreleased music, early drafts of album covers, and much more.
Released via a website named 100gigs.org and advertised with a new Instagram page at the handle @plottttwistttttt, Drizzy unloaded the 100 gigs of files to the interwebs on Tuesday (August 6).
There is BTS footage from the studio, the making of the “Hotline Bling” video and more, as well as a 16-page “exterior concept pack” for his plane.
HipHopDX‘s Andy Bustard rounded up all the highlights from the files.
They include footage of Drake revealing that “Hotline Bling” was inspired by a woman he was sleeping with and that he was contemplating putting Future on the song; Drizzy telling his mom Sandra Graham that “Too Good” featuring Rihanna was about his and Serena Williams’ past fling; and Drake playing an earlier version of “U With Me” featuring a different beat and lyrics, including a jab at The Weeknd (“OVO, there’s no need to tack on no extra letters.”) (HipHopDx)
