15 People Who Merged Rapping With Singing (Before Drake) [GALLERY]

Drake is a funny (and clearly delusional) guy. October’s Very Own foolishly believes that he is the first rapper to “successfully” mix rapping with singing. His words caused an instantaneous stir in the online atmosphere with commenters hitting up both our Twitter and Facebook pages giving tons of examples of reputable artists who not only prove that Drake has lost his mind, but are deserving of respect for paving the way for just about everything that he’s done.

We’re counting down the seconds until he comes back and pretends that his words were “taken out of context,” but above all else, Drizzy’s disrespect unveils a bigger issue among young rap stars: not paying homage to their predecessors. Anyone who was around during Hip-Hop’s inception will tell you that Drake is way off base, with his comments. Hip-Hop music is a progression of rhythmic sounds pulling from different genres including jazz and poetry. Therefore, rappers have been “successfully” singing and rhyming for years as it is at the root of Hip-Hop’s birth.

That said, just to make sure that Drake gets the point, we’ve compiled a gallery of rappers who also harmonized, and did so successfully, long before Young Money’s Canadian import belted out his first emo lyric.

Oh, and feel free to shout out anyone we may have missed in the comments section below.

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Photo: DrizzyDrake.org

Remember her Drake? She did it long before you, and 10 times better. Show some respect.

Missy has been doing it for YEARS.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s entire career was based off singing and rapping.

NOBODY does it like Three Stacks. Nobody.

Murder Inc. wouldn’t be what it was were it not for Ja Rule’s rapping and singing. Take note, Drake.

Ye dropped an entire album of dedicated to the very same auto-tuned singing that Drake thinks he started.

Does the song “Just A Friend” ring a bell?

Yes, the dog was into singing and rapping too.

Even 50 got in on the trend, and he wasn’t half bad either, Drake.

Cudi has no problem singing and rapping.

Yup, Mos did it too. He has a solid singing voice.

Rapper, singer, and an amazing producer. Step your game up, Drake.

Make no mistake, Cee Lo does both as well.

Maybe Drake never heard of Kevie Kev.

Let’s not forget about Uncle Snoop.