Yara Shahidi, Rashida Jones, and More Live Their Best Lives in Drake’s New Video
On Friday, Drake dropped a music video for his single “Nice For What,” and it’s great—not just because the song is good, but also because it features cameos from a ton of incredible female celebrities you love, looking gloriously emboldened and powerful.
Drake didn’t waste a single moment in the four minutes and 23 seconds he had for the “Nice for What” video: In that time frame, Yara Shahidi, Olivia Wilde, Tiffany Haddish, Issa Rae, Emma Roberts, Misty Copeland, Letitia Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rashida Jones, and Zoe Saldana all make appearances. Drizzy, meanwhile, stays out of frame, giving the camera time to all these amazing women.
The “Nice for What” lyrics also pay homage to the hard-working women featured in the video—and women who hustle everywhere. Check it out:
Everybody get your mothaf-ckin’ roll on
I know shorty and she doesn’t want no slow song
Had a man last year, life goes on
Haven’t let thatthing loose, girl, in so long
You’ve been inside, know you like to laylow
I’ve been peepin’ what you bringin’ to the table
Workin’ hard,girl, everything paid for
First, last phone bill, car note, cable
Withyour phone out, gotta hit them angles
With your phone out, snappin’like you Fabo
One of the things that stands out in the video, as Vulture pointed out, is that the women seem to fit in the environment they’re filmed in: Shahidi, for example, is studying in her Harvard sweats; Rae is heading a meeting with a chaotic table full of white dudes; Saldana plays with her kids. And as some on Twitter noted, they’re shown in a variety of roles: as students, as mothers, as bosses, and so on.
Even better? The video was directed by a woman, a role in which women are historically underrepresented. Karena Evans takes the helm here, and the result is beautiful.
Fans, by the way, are here (here) for the “Nice for What” video:
https://twitter.com/kyaraXOXO/status/982641970328821761
drake really had black women shown as bosses, students, mothers, ALLLLL THAT in Nice for What!!! pic.twitter.com/NbW9emfd6B
— jey-z (@jeyyoung01) April 7, 2018
drake really made a whole song empowering WOMEN, i love (1) man and (1) man ONLY!
— sabrina ❀ (@sabrinaaaj) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/MissJaz_/status/982454019762343936
The women Drake tapped to appear in the video seem beyond excited about it, as well.
Ross gives a chronological list of every woman who appears in the film:
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“Starring Phenomenal Women,” captioned Wright.
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“… honored to be amongst a group of brilliant/fierce women whom I admire, and directed by another woman I admire, @karenaevans_,” wrote Shahidi, who also took to Twitter to thank Drake.
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https://twitter.com/YaraShahidi/status/982475296057249792
“This was funnnnnnnn,” wrote Wilde on Twitter.
This was funnnnnnnn. https://t.co/tr4NRnIA7X
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) April 7, 2018
Honestly, if this single is any indication, we can’t wait until the rest of the album. Also, um, where can we get Wilde’s incredible skirt?
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