For years, Drake was the perfect bae. He was different from all of our other celebrity boyfriends, ya know?

Drake has spent most of his adult life crafting a unique and impressive public image of a lovably soft, just-smarter-than-the-rest, reliable (both personally and musically), attainably hot dream boy. He’s a Nice Guy.

Nice Guy Syndrome describes dudes we all know — the ones that perform their niceness so loudly in order to convince women that they are more deserving of their sex and affection. They hope to be the rom-com background friend she’ll notice has always been there, and is hotter than she originally thought. They want to be, and often are, held up on a pedestal for meeting minimum standards of respect and politeness.

Drake’s built this image in many ways, but primarily through 1) his lyrics and 2) his professions of love.

Drizzy wants to “Find Your Love”. He told you you’re the “Best I’ve Ever Had”, he’ll “Take Care” of you, he hates “Fake Love”. “I’m just saying you could do better”, an iconic line, reads like an encapsulation of Nice Guy Syndrome- this sad-sounding man telling you how much better off you’ll be if you choose him.

In 2018, Drake hit his Nice Guy saturation point. First, the release of “God’s Plan” gave every bus full of teenagers a handfull of bars to scream-rap. “She said ‘Do you love me’? I tell her ‘only partly’/ I only love my bed…