Say Hello to Drake and his Shirtless Body…

Young Money’s Golden Child is showing off his gym progress in a set of behind the scenes photos from The Club Paradise Tour that he released on his blog recently.  And there seems to be some new drama brewing up between Drizzy and Vibe magazine.  Apparently, the Vibe February/March cover that was just released featuring Nicki Minaj originally belonged to Drake until he showed up and decided he didn’t want to wear any of the clothes provided.

According to a story published in the issue titled ‘The Dark Side of Aubrey Graham,’ after Drake showed up eight hours late for the cover shoot, he refused to wear the clothes that the stylist had picked out for him and offered to use his own clothes. The Vibe team wasn’t feeling his Hermes and bomber jackets for the Spring Spread, so Drizzy jumped in his SUV and proceeded to leave while agreeing to pick up a $10,000 bill to reimburse everyone involved on the way out.

Coincidentally, a similar incident occurred last year while Drake was shooting his Complex cover. Drake stopped the shoot midway through because he wasn’t feeling the direction and decided to have his own photographer finish. When asked about the incident during his interview, he said the original shoot wasn’t consistent with the brand he was trying to build.

“I’m not going to take that sh*t,” Drake says when I ask him later what went wrong at the shoot. “Nah man, I work too f*cking hard for that. So does everyone around me. Not to hate,” he says, “and to whoever I snatched that opportunity from, I apologize. But this is about what we’re trying to build here.”

Even though, it’s easy to write Drake off as a ‘Diva’ after both situations, keeping his brand consistent has been something that Drake has taken serious over the past few years. He has even tossed a few of his own videos after they were already shot and edited, including ‘Fancy’ featuring Swizz Beatz because he wasn’t satisfied with the outcome.

It’s not uncommon for celebs (including the likes of Beyonce and Kim Kardashian) to request to use their own hair, make up and styling teams for photo shoots which would prevent those type of situations from happening. Even Nicki Minaj talked about walking out of shoots during her ‘My Time Now’ special:

I put quality in what I do. I spend time and I spend energy and I spend effort and I spend everything I have, every fiber of my being, to give people quality. So if I turn up to a photo shoot and you got a $50 clothes budget and some sliced pickles on a motherf-ckin’ board, you know what? No. I am gonna leave. Is that wrong? Wanting more for myself? Wanting people to treat me with respect? You know what? Next time, they know better. But had I accepted the pickle juice, I would be drinking pickle juice right now.

Some A-List celebs, such as Will and Jada, avoid such incidents from happening by orchestrating their own photo shoots and servicing the approved pics to magazines so that they are in control of their images versus others (such as Kanye and Mary J. Blige) who have complained about the photos chosen for their cover shoots after the issues went to print.

So is Drake a ‘diva’ or did he have a right to leave when he wasn’t satisfied with clothes chosen for him to wear? [Although there is no excuse for the tardiness]

According to Fresh Like Dougie, a source on the set recalled the whole scene:

“He brought his own clothes, which was mostly Hermès and leather bomber jackets. But it was a shoot about spring fashion. He was going on and on about wearing his leather bomber, and wasn’t letting it go. He said the [female] stylist was too aggressive, that he wasn’t a model and he wasn’t feeling the vibe. He hopped in his SUV and left.