"God's Plan" is a song recorded by Canadian rapper

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

, released on January 19, 2018, through Young Money and Cash Money. The song was written alongside Brock Korsan and producers

Cardo A ''cardo'' (: ''cardines'') was a north–south street in Ancient Rome, ancient Roman cities and military castra, camps as an integral component of Urban planning, city planning. The ''cardo maximus'', or most often the ''cardo'', was the main ...

, Yung Exclusive,

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da (a play on Boy Wonder) is a Canadian record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. He is an in-house producer for Drake's OVO Sound label and has prod ...

, and Noah "40" Shebib. It acts as the respective only and lead single from his second EP '' Scary Hours'' and fifth studio album ''

Scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

'' (both 2018). Musically, it has been described as

pop-rap Pop rap (also known as pop hip-hop, pop hop, hip pop, melodic hip-hop or melodic rap) is a genre of music fusing the rhythm-based lyricism of hip hop with pop's preference for melodic vocals, catchy hooks, and positive lyrics on pop-like p ...

and trap, with lyrics addressing Drake's fame and fate. "God's Plan" received lukewarm to positive reviews from music critics, who praised its catchiness and production but called it a typical Drake song. Commercially the song became the 29th song in history to debut at number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it Drake's fourth chart-topper in that country, and second as a lead artist. The single topped the charts in fourteen countries, including the UK and Canada, and reached the top ten in nine others. The song broke first-day streaming records on both

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

, and was the most streamed song of the year on both services. It was the number one song of 2018 in the United States, New Zealand, and Portugal. An accompanying music video for the song was directed by

Karena Evans Karena Evans (born December 17, 1995) is a Canadian director and actress. She garnered recognition for directing the music videos for Drake's 2018 ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart-topping singles, " God's Plan", " Nice for What", and " In My Feelin ...

and uploaded onto Drake's official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on February 16, 2018. In the video, Drake is giving away nearly one million U.S. dollars to people and institutions in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. It received five nominations at the

2018 MTV Video Music Awards The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards were held on Monday night, August 20, 2018 at 9:00–11:43pm EDT at Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City. The 35th annual award show aired live from the venue for the 12th time, t ...

, including for Video of the Year and three nominations at the 61st Grammy Awards for

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without re ...

, Song of the Year, and Best Rap Song, winning the latter.

Background and composition

The song, originally titled "Grace of God", was chosen from a series of beats sent to Drake in September. Drake apparently called up Cardo and said "We got one" before the production of the record itself began fully. "God's Plan" was written by Aubrey Graham, Ronald LaTour, Daveon Jackson, Matthew Samuels, and Noah Shebib and produced by Cardo, Yung Exclusive, and Boi-1da. The original instrumental for "God's Plan" was sent to Drake in September 2017 by Cardo. Cardo created the instrumental with

FL Studio FL Studio (known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different ...

and some VSTs. Boi-1da's addition to the song came when Drake gave him "God's Plan" half finished. Drake requested the song to have a more "bouncy vibe" and Boi-1da added more drums to the production. Musically the song has been described as a pop,

and trap song composed in

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

( time) with a length of three minutes eighteen seconds and written in the key of

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp, on the F. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: Change ...

with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 154.4 (or 77.2) beats per minute and a common

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

of Am–Bm. Following the release of his fourth studio album '' Views'' (2016) and his playlist '' More Life'' (2017), Drake did not release any music for eight months until the EP '' Scary Hours'' on January 19, 2018, following multiple leaks, like for "Pistols". "God's Plan", was first teased on January 1, 2018, at a New York New Year's Eve Party, and originally featured American rapper

Trippie Redd Michael Lamar White IV (born June 18, 1999), known professionally as Trippie Redd, is an American rapper and singer. Born and raised in Canton, Ohio, he has contributed to the progression of emo rap and rage, a subgenre of trap music. His de ...

. Redd had been talking about the collaboration since October 2017.

Release

"God's Plan" was released alongside "

Diplomatic Immunity Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.

" as a part of the '' Scary Hours'' EP and made available for digital download and streaming on January 19, 2018, by

Young Money Entertainment Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne in 2005. It was launched as an imprint of Cash Money Records — a joint venture colloquially branded as Young Money Cash Money Billionaires (abbreviated as YMCMB ...

and

Cash Money Records Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Birdman (rapper), Bryan "Baby" Williams. The label gained prominence in the late 1990s for having signed and released albums for New Orleans– ...

. It then also became the lead single for his fifth studio album, Scorpion (2018). The song launched with the largest on-demand streaming count in history, breaking Apple's first-day streaming record upon release with 14 million streams and breaking Spotify's single-day streaming record with 4.3 million plays in twenty four hours. The song was streamed 82.4 million times in its first week. Upon release of the music video, where Drake gave away nearly $1 million worth of gifts, a meme began circulating on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

praising daily, random acts of kindness.

Critical reception

Talking about the song, '' Noisey'' said, "This is a good song that I've heard Drake do about 600 different versions of ..I want to hear something different from Drake for a change, and this is definitely not what I would have hoped for." Maeve McDermott of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' called the song "middling".

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...

’s Joe Elliott said of the song,

"Where's the hook? Where's the hook, dude? You know what it reminds me of, it reminds me of an updated version of
Richie Havens Richard Pierce Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements of folk music, folk, soul music, soul (both of which he frequently cover song, covered), and rhythm and b ...
or something like that. But Richie would sit on a stool, play the guitar, sing and sweat and make more of an effort to perform and put melody and heart and soul into it."

Commercial performance

In the United States, "God's Plan" debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the chart dated February 3, 2018, becoming Drake's fourth Hot 100 number-one song. It achieved 82.4 million streams and 127,000 downloads in the country, in the week ending January 25. "God's Plan" held steady at number one for its second week on the chart, gaining 83.3 million streams. In the end of February "God's Plan" became the second song in the Hot 100's history to achieve more than 100 million weekly streams. The single topped the Hot 100 for 11 weeks, becoming the 24th song in the history of the chart to do so. It was later unseated on the issue date April 21, 2018 by Drake's follow-up single " Nice for What". The song is also the fourth to have spent at least its first eleven weeks on the chart at number one, and the first since " One Sweet Day" in 1996. "God's Plan" ultimately spent 26 weeks in the top ten and left the chart after 36 weeks. The single would go on to top the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Year–End chart. It became the most-streamed song of 2018 in the United States, with 1,565,711,000 on-demand streams (918.87 million audio and 647.84 video). It was also the second best-selling digital song of 2018 with 1,056,000 copies sold, behind Ed Sheeran's " Perfect". In the United Kingdom, "God's Plan" debuted at the top of the UK Singles Chart on January 26, 2018, for the week ending date February 1, 2018 after appearing to be first in the midweek singles chart. Drake had suddenly charted in what was expected to be a close race between

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

and

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

's "

River A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

" and Ramz's " Barking". "God's Plan" became Drake's third UK number one and had achieved 6.5 million streams in its first week and 54,000 sales. Hugh McIntyre of ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' wrote that the song "shockingly debuted at No.1 across the pond, proving Drake to be an artist with unparalleled power." In its second week on the UK Singles Chart, "God's Plan" achieved 60,000 sales with 50,000 coming from streams, retaining its position at number one. "God's Plan" faced competition in its third week as its sales decreased 7% with Rudimental's "These Days" only 5,000 sales behind. Despite this, "God's Plan" was able to once again retain its position as number one and was certified Silver by the BPI. "God's Plan" stayed at number one for nine consecutive weeks in the UK, seven of which kept " These Days" by

Rudimental Rudimental are a British drum and bass band, signed to Asylum Records, Atlantic Records and Black Butter Records. The band consists of Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon "Locksmith" Rolle. They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2013, and ...

at number two, until it became subject to accelerated chart ratio (ACR). The single was the second best-performing song on the British single charts, accumulating 1,56 million single-equivalent units. It was the most streamed song of the year, with 147 million.

Music video

An accompanying music video for the track was uploaded onto Drake's official YouTube channel on February 16, 2018. The

-directed music video was filmed by cinematographer Jordan Oram in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

on February 5, 2018. The shooting for the video attracted significant media attention due to Drake donating $175,000 during the filming of the video to random Miami residents. The video depicts Drake in

engaging in acts of charity like gifts in kind, cash handouts and money donation through oversized cheques. Parts of the video were filmed at the

Miami Senior High School Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high schools in Miam ...

in West Flagler. The video's opening states that its entire budget of $996,631.90 had been given away. At the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

, Drake presented Destiny James, a young woman raised by a single mother in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, with a $50,000 oversized check for tuition fees for a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

. The same gimmick was used in the 2004 music video of

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing (album), Surfacing'' (1997), for which she won two G ...

's ''World on Fire''. As of September 2020, the music video has received more than 1.2 billion views and is the 31st most-liked video on YouTube. NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown is shown in the video dancing with Drake.

Awards and nominations

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

"Drake's 'God's Plan' Video Makes Generosity Into Entertainment"
on ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...