On Saturday night, Drake and 21 Savage shared a video of their SNL performance of “On BS” from their newly released album, Her Loss. Except… wasn’t the SNL musical guest supposed to be breakout “Bad Habit” singer Steve Lacy? What’s going on here?
In fact, yes, Steve Lacy was the legitimatedly booked performer for Saturday’s episode of SNL, and he did truly perform his smash hit “Bad Habit,” as well as “Helmet” from his new album, Gemini Rights. So, how could Drake and 21 Savage also have a video up performing “On BS” live on SNL?
As it turns out, the video was a faked (with some help from “host” Michael B. Jordan) as part of the duo’s longer rollout for Her Loss. Throughout the rollout, they shared other faked media, from a photoshopped issue of Vogue to a phony interview with Howard Stern, trolling the idea of a traditional rollout while also technically participating in one.
Normally, when artists are dropping an album, appearances on various outlets’ gimmick interview shows and NPR Tiny Desk are a great way to draw attention to the project. But they’re also time-consuming and tricky to schedule, and with their joint album dropping just two weeks after its announcement (after it was pushed back due to engineer 40’s COVID diagnosis), this was a fantastic way to get that attention on their own terms.
Of course, now that the album’s out, it’s getting attention for all the wrong reasons, but in the end, that could work to their favor anyway.