March 14

Album: Scorpion (2018)
Charted: 57
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Songfacts®:

  • Having previously acknowledged to fathering a son with French model Sophie Brussax on the track "Emotionless," Drake further addresses fatherhood on Scorpion's closing song. He kicks the tune off by confirming that he took a DNA test and discovered that he had a son by flipping the famous Michael Jackson line from "Billie Jean."

    Yesterday morning was crazy
    I had to come to terms with the fact that it's not a maybe
    That s--t is in stone, sealed and signed
    She not my lover like Billie Jean but the kid is mine


    Drake goes on to note that the only time he spent time with his son in the first nine months of the baby boy's life was around Christmas.

    I got an empty crib in my empty crib
    I only met you one time, introduced you to Saint Nick
  • Drake's musician father, Dennis Graham and Jewish-Canadian educator mother Sandi Graham divorced when he was five years old, after which his mom raised him in Toronto. This song finds him bemoaning that, much like his own parents, he has ended up as a single father.

    It's breaking my spirit
    Single father, I hate when I hear it
    I used to challenge my parents on every album
    Now I'm embarrassed to tell them I ended up as a co-parent
    Always promised the family unit
    I wanted it to be different because I've been through it


    Drake regrets that has ended up in a co-parenting situation rather than a traditional nuclear family.
  • "March 14" finds J. Valle and T-Minus teaming up behind the boards. Inspired in part by the sampling of Smokey Robinson's version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" on Kanye West's "Devil in a New Dress," J. Valle decided to flip D'Angelo's 1996 Brown Sugar track "Lady" for a potential beat. "I sampled the intro, reversed it and pitched it," Valle recalled to Rolling Stone interview. "I really fleshed it out to where it is now, added drums and chords. I added a synth line you hear every now and then. We probably did the idea in 30, 45 minutes."

    The pair finished the track and played it for Drake and the Toronto MC held on to the beat for a few months before adding an outro that interpolates Boyz II Men's "Khalil Interlude."
  • The song title does not feature in the song's lyrics. According to T-Minus, he assumes Drake called the record "March 14" because that's when the OVO rapper did the record. The beat maker told Rolling Stone that he didn't hear the lyrical contents of the song until Scorpion dropped. "It was something private; it was supposed to be kept secure," he said.

    Drake reportedly visited Kanye West in Wyoming and played him early versions of his Scorpion songs, including "March 14". It is thought that it was then that Ye's GOOD Music artist Pusha T found out about Drake's then-secret son. A few months later, the child was referenced by Pusha T in his Drake diss track "The Story of Adidon."

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