Celebrity impersonators have been around for decades, and many make a living off the famous person they resemble. Such was the case with “Fake Drake,” a man who first went viral in 2021 after being booked to make club appearances in lieu of the real Champagne Papi. For his part, Drake and his team weren’t pleased with his job.
Drake was impersonated by ‘Fake Drake’
Drake is hardly the first celebrity to have people impersonating him; after all, impersonating artists such as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson is a career for many around the world. The Drake doppelgänger gained notoriety as “Izzyy Drake” back in 2021. He revealed on social media that he gets paid $5,000 for event walk-throughs to appear as the famous Toronto rapper.
“People DM me like, ‘Hey, you wanna come to my event because I can’t pay Drake—he’s too expensive,” he explained on the No Jumper podcast. “I’ll pay you $5,000.’ $5,000 just to show up. They pay my Airbnb, they pay the flight, they hook it all up.”
His booking price began to climb as he later boasted that he was paid $10,000 for performances.
Drake sent Fake Drake a cease and desist
In late 2022, Izzyy Drake announced that he was taking on a new moniker, IzzyyFamous, after he received a gift from Drake’s team at his OVO record label: a cease and desist letter.
“Happy birthday to the greatest artist in history and my biggest inspiration,” the aspiring artist wrote on Instagram. “I got this cease and desist letter from OVO [a] couple days ago and as a respectful b-day gift to @champagnepapi I changed my name from IzzyyDrake to IzzyyFamous,” he added.
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“This letter serves as a notice of your unauthorized use of the trademark, ‘OVO’ to promote your brand and likeness, as well as your unauthorized fabrication of media which is Per Se damaging and defamatory to our brand,” the letter said. “Your conducted actions are unwarranted, unwelcome, and inacceptable [sic].”
“In addition, this shall serve as a pre-suit letter demanding that you provide us written assurance within 7 days that you will cease and desist from making any further factually untrue statements involving OVO Sound and/or Drake, and that you will no longer fabricate media that portrays the aforementioned Trademarks,” the letter continued.
Despite seemingly biting Drake’s style, IzzyyFamous has nothing but appreciation for the rapper. In September 2022, he released the track “Letter to Drizzy,” where he showed his love for the rapper and expressed the positive impact he’s had on his life.
Drake wanted to slap Fake Drake
In June 2022, Izzy signed a deal with Celebrity Boxing and challenged Drake to a seven-figure fight. “If I win, you gotta sign me to OVO or you gotta give me $1 million,” he said in the video. “If you win, I’ll change my name.”
In an August 2022 interview on the We in Miami podcast, he revealed that Drake’s team wasn’t that keen on the idea.
“I pulled up to Drake’s hotel with my management. Let’s just say it wasn’t very inviting,” he said honestly. “They just tried coming at us, so I ended up texting him, telling him about the fight and he said he’s gonna pull up and slap me for free.”
