In July of last year, we at American Songwriter put together a list of eight songs by other artists that Drake earned songwriting credits for. Among these was Lil Wayne’s “I’m Single” (2009), Alicia Keys’ “Un-Thinkable (I’m Ready)” (2010), and Kanye West and André 3000’s “30 Hours” (2016).
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But, with as long of a tenure he’s had in the mainstream, we figured there was even more gems Drake offered his songwriting skills for. Criticized often during his career for having “ghostwriters” aid him on his own songs, Drake’s talent is clear when seeing how many of his superstar peers seek out his help.
Here are four more songs you may not have known Drizzy wrote for other artists.
“Yikes,” Kanye West (2018)
As the second song on Kanye West’s seven-song 2018 studio album ye, “Yikes” peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned platinum certification in August 2019. Although the song only features vocals from West, one of its producers Pi’erre Bourne explained in a 2021 interview that Drake was meant to sing the Sometimes I scare myself chorus.
“Not too many people know that Drake wrote that. He sung the hook,” Bourne said. “When I was there, they were on the song together. Everyone was cheering me on because they were like, ‘You’ve got Drake and Kanye on your beat.’”
However, West would end up singing the hook Drake wrote and leaving Drizzy off the song.
“When the album came out, he wasn’t on there,” Bourne said. “So I was just like, ‘Maybe this is how the industry is.’ You can’t say nothing, so I just got back to work.”
“Heated,” Beyoncé (2022)
On our original “8 Songs You Didn’t Know Drake Wrote for Other Artists” list, Beyoncé’s 2013 song “Mine” from her self-titled album was added. Nine years after this song came out, Drizzy and Bey re-connected for “Heated,” the 11th song on her 2022 comeback album RENAISSANCE.
In fact, around the time the album dropped, a demo track of Drake singing the “Heated” chorus leaked, which shows the Toronto icon crooning along to Bey’s now-famous lyric I gotta cool it down, heated.
“Yesterday,” Diddy & Dirty Money (2010)
Diddy and Drake have only collaborated once ever in their legendary careers. This was on the song “Loving You No More,” a promotional single for Diddy’s 2010 collaborative album with duo Dirty Money titled Last Train to Paris. Additionally, Drake offered his songwriting skills for “Yesterday” featuring Chris Brown, another song on the LP.
“One Life,” Justin Bieber (2013)
Canada’s two most prominent stars in this millennium, Justin Bieber and Drake have only collaborated once vocally on a song, which was “Right Here” in February 2013. However, a few months later that year when Bieber put out his studio album Journals, the LP’s 11th song “One Life” saw Drake lend some songwriting assistance.
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