Standing onstage at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Wednesday night (February 19), Drake appears surrounded by fans holding up signs asking for hand-outs. It’s a dystopian scene. “Papi help pay off my mum’s mortgage,” one pleads. “Drizzy help him buy my mum a Birkin, he tryn’” reads another, pointing to a smiling attendee to their right. One sign even asks Drake to simply “give my dad a break.” Eventually, hip hop’s own Dr Barnardo spots a sign held up by a single mother claiming to be 20 weeks pregnant. He lifts her out of the moshpit and into the VIP section and gifts her $30k. This is a good deed… right?

These fans didn’t all just have the same idea out of nowhere, Drake has long presented himself as a charitable figure who makes lavish donations to people in need. His 2018 “God’s Plan” music video went viral for apparently gifting a total of $1 million to various residents of Miami and, in 2024, Drake’s philanthropy appeared to reach a fever pitch. In the last year, he’s been spotted paying off fans’ mortgages, student loans and even giving free concert tickets for life to hopeful attendees of his shows.

While this isn’t meant to downplay the suffering of those in need (if you’re reading this, Drake, I definitely wouldn’t say no to some help with my student loan debt myself), looking at the situation cynically paints a different picture. Drake’s rep recently took a beating during his infamous beef with Kendrick Lamar and has become the butt of jokes worldwide for his rather pitiful lawsuit with Universal Music Group. If anyone’s in need of a bit of good PR nowadays, it’s definitely Drizzy.

The “Hotline Bling” singer has consistently ranked as one of the most streamed artists on Earth over the last decade, and currently sits on an estimated net worth of over $250 million. Compared to this immense wealth, these donations seem like a drop in the bucket, not to mention being likely recouped through the positive publicity he has subsequently received for them.

Elsewhere, Boygenius singer Lucy Dacus made headlines last month when she announced she would be donating $10k to trans people’s GoFundMes in the wake of the Trump administration’s horrific backsliding on trans rights. That same month, Chappell Roan sparked a series of matched donations from Noah Kahan and Charli xcx when she pledged $25k to struggling musicians during her highly publicised feud with major labels. While all of these artists are probably not hard for cash either, their actions at least have the added benefit of calling out the systems and unscrupulous business practices that produced such inequalities to begin with.

At the biggest level, these discussions parallel debates around the efficacy of charity as a whole. Over the last few decades, international aid gifted from developed to developing countries has increased year-on-year, reaching an all-time high of $223 billion in 2023, yet global inequality has remained relatively consistent. In the words of international aid organisation Oxfam, this disparity owes itself to the fact that our current international system is firmly “rigged in favour of the rich”. For every penny that is sent to countries in need, magnitudes greater are extracted by Western organisations through unfair trade agreements and structural adjustment policies.

The problem with celebrity philanthropy is the same as with international aid: if we’re truly dedicated to tackling inequalities, any action needs to target the systems that produce them, otherwise they just serve as feel-good campaigns for the wealthy. Roan and Dacus’ pledges at least partially address this disparity; the Drake-A-Wish Foundation definitely doesn‘t.