Entertainment
How Did Rihanna & Drake Meet?
Rihanna and Drake are just so confusing. Are they dating? Are they just friends? Are they friends with benefits? Are they even on speaking terms? It is so difficult to know what's going on with these two at any given moment. Between the ambiguous song lyrics and the unclear Instagram posts, I never know what to think. There are just so many unanswered questions. But there's one fundamental question that needs an answer. When and how did Rihanna and Drake meet? How did this on-again-off-again romance get going in the first place?
Rihanna and Drake have collaborated on steamy duets. They get asked about each other in every interview. They've been spotted hanging out all over Europe and in the clubs. Drake and Rihanna's ex Chris Brown have gotten into fights throwing bottles at the club. Clearly, these two have been through A LOT together, but how did we get to this point?
To take things back to the beginning, Drake really broke out as a rapper in 2009 with his hit single "Best I Ever Had." Up until that point, most of us knew him for his role as Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation. During a 2011 interview with Elle, Drake revealed that Rihanna was the first female star to pay attention to him when he got famous. This happened when the duo first met at an unnamed person's birthday party. What a great inauguration into the celebrity lifestyle!
[Rihanna] was the first girl with any fame that paid me any mind. You spend days reading about this person in the magazines. All of a sudden you have this number-one song and you're at some birthday party and there she is. And you're just some naive kid from Toronto staying in some sh---y-ass hotel who got invited to this party on a whim. That's just how it happened.
I wonder what Rihanna said to him that night, because apparently it worked out — well, sort of.
There's no confirmation about anything happening immediately after the birthday party encounter, but they did end up going on a date in May 2009 at Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge, a famous bowling alley in New York. This was a pretty big deal since it was after Rihanna's first breakup with Chris Brown. Page Six described the date saying, “She was drinking whiskey and apple juice and making out with him all night. They were really cute together.”
While obviously there was some gossip about Drake and Rihanna's bowling date, Drake himself seemingly elaborated on the night with his song "Fireworks" in 2010. Apparently, the date was a pretty significant night for the rapper:
Who coulda predicted Lucky Strike would have you stuck with me? Damn, I kept my wits about it, luckily. What happened between us that night it always seems to trouble me... But I was curious and I’ll never forget it baby. What an experience you could have been the one, but it wasn’t that serious...
Well, there you have it. Rihanna spoke to Drake at a birthday party, and then they went bowling. Now I just have to fill in all of the other mysterious details of their interaction over the years — if that is even possible.
