Morgan Wallen in Drake's 'You Broke My Heart' video, country's pop, hip-hop moment surges

Drake and Morgan Wallen — recently named the second and third-most streamed artists on Spotify in the United States in 2023 — are spotted together in the newly-released music video for the former's new single, "You Broke My Heart."

The track appears on the Toronto native's Nov. 2023-released album, "Scary Hours 3," a bonus edition of his eighth studio album "For All The Dogs," released a month prior.

In the video, Drake and Wallen appear in the first two minutes of the six-minute clip.

The duo are sharing a drink at a bar while conversing about ex-partners. The tandem leaves the bar, gets into the car, and the vehicle they're riding in falls prey to an explosive detonation caused by two women who are ostensibly their exes.

Neither Drake nor Wallen has directly commented about the video's release or future collaborations.

Morgan Wallen's hip-hop appeal continues to grow

However, in a Billboard interview two weeks ago, Big Loud co-CEO Seth England teased the pairing, stating of artists whose labels are both distributed via Republic Records, "Drake can do a hardcore R&B song, a trap rap song or a Caribbean-tinged beat, global pop song. I think Morgan is that in our genre. His voice is always going to be country even if he's singing pop melodies, and the verses are likely to have some country imagery."

In 2021, representatives from Big Loud Records told The Tennessean the following:

"Morgan is a fan of hip-hop and rap music in addition to country. Ever since we met him, he has often talked about ways to blend his music with some of his favorite rap artists. We are thrilled by music that is able to reach beyond one genre and be consumed and marketed to bigger and more diverse audiences."

The Drake collaboration is the second time in three years that he's closed the year by pushing his sound deep into the hip-hop pocket.

On Dec. 20, 2021, Wallen's pairing with Chicago's Lil Durk for "Broadway Girls" was released.

On YouTube, the song's music video was viewed nearly 2 million times within 24 hours of its release.

In 2021, Durk and Wallen dominated streaming platforms as the rapper had 35 appearances on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, while Wallen's Dangerous: The Double Album closed 2021 as the No. 1 Billboard 200 Album of the year. Also, the tandem had roughly 30 million regular monthly listeners on their Spotify tracks.

Two years later, Wallen's "Last Night" and "You Proof" were two of the platform's top-10 most streamed songs in America. He also has 50 percent more monthly listeners than he did two years prior. Compared to Lil Durk's 15 million monthly listeners in 2021, Drake currently has over 80 million monthly listeners.

For Wallen's crossover appeal in the streaming-led country-to-hip-hop crossover space, gaining Drake's cosign in the "You Broke My Heart" video makes it mathematically possible to claim him as 200 percent more viable in that realm than in 2021.

Wallen's surge in relation to his infamy

Wallen's surge is made even more curious almost three years after a series of highly-publicized transgressions — most notably being caught on camera saying a racial slur.

In the previously cited Billboard feature, Wallen addresses the slur and its repercussions (not being featured on Apple and Spotify playlists for months, radio stations ceasing playing his music and his record label Big Loud "indefinitely suspending" his contract, among many) plus conversations with 300 Elektra Entertainment chairman/CEO Kevin Liles, Universal Music Group executive VP/chief people and inclusion officer Eric Hutcherson, Grammy-winning gospel artist Bebe Winans and the Black Music Action Coalition with the following statement:

"There's no excuse. I've never made an excuse. I never will make an excuse. I've talked to a lot of people, heard stories [about] things that I would have never thought about because I wasn't the one going through it. And I think, for me, in my heart, I was never that guy that people were portraying me to be, so there was a little bit of like, 'Damn, I'm kind of actually mad about this a little bit because I know I shouldn't have said this, but I'm really not that guy."

In regards to how some in the hip-hop community feel about Wallen (and his potential for social 'cancellation'), during an appearance at Jan. 15, 2022's "MLK Freedom Fest" concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, Durk stated to the crowd that Wallen was "genuine at heart." He added, "Can't nobody cancel s**t without me saying it, you know what I'm saying?"

Two months later, again at Bridgestone, Wallen returned the favor by bringing Durk onstage during his third and final Bridgestone Arena show of the week.

Wallen's further hip-hop sonic explorations

Wallen's surge into hip-hop sounds and culture extended into his mega-popular 2023 album release, "One Thing At A Time."

The album's track "180 (Lifestyle)" flips Rich Gang, Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan's 2015 single "Lifestyle." Clearing the song for sampling required Wallen's team to take an unprecedented step.

For over a year, Young Thug (born Jeffery Lamar Williams) has been jailed in Georgia after being denied bail pending a 56-count racketeering case and seven additional felonies related to possession of illegal substances and illegal firearms. The charges allege that Thug participated in gang activity and criminal conspiracies.

"You know what ... went through my mind when Seth called me and needed ["180"'s] 'Lifestyle' sample cleared," stated Liles to The Tennessean.

"I told him he had to send the demo to me, immediately. [Thankfully], it was honorable, loving, respectful and truthful to being a rap record from a modern country perspective."

"[Morgan] is a creative person who tells a true story and loves hip-hop music and culture. ["180"] transcends genres," Liles adds.

Couple Drake and Morgan's work with the multiple 2023 chart-topping singles for country and rock rapper-turned-singer Jelly Roll and pop-to-country crossovers like Post Malone on the rise and the power of Drake and Wallen's collaboration merely scratches the surface.

As Jelly Roll stated in a Nov. 2023 Tennessean feature, "Hip-hop's swagger is the most defining 'cool factor' of modern country music."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Morgan Wallen in Drake video, Wallen continues dip into hip-hop, pop