Durand Bernarr is a staggeringly talented vocalist. He was the second place finisher on the BET reality competition The Next Big Thing in 2019. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry since. Bernarr has linked up with Kaytranada, Anderson .Paak, and the Internet. And he most recently got a chance to perform alongside the queen of neo-soul, Erykah Badu. Instead of covering a soul standard, though, Bernarr fooled around. He decided to cover Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy.”
Bernarr posted the footage on his Instagram on June 3. He made it clear in the caption that the idea came about spontaneously, and that he was merely having fun with the audience. “Per usual,” he wrote. “We have no sense. It was good to be back with the crew.” The footage sees him absolutely lay into the chorus of the infamous Metro instrumental, adding tons of vocal runs in the process. The rest of the performers onstage are stunned by Durand Bernarr’s ability to squeeze passion out of such a silly phrase. Erykah Badu walks into frame towards the end of the cover, and practically falls out.
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Badu wasn’t the only artist who was impressed by Bernarr’s rendition. The post was flooded with comments from other musical superstars. SZA commented: “My GYAAADDD.” The praise from her is especially meaningful, given that she just released a bold cover of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Summer Walker and Rapsody commented with a bunch of heart and laughing emojis, respectively. DUCKWRTH praised the pairing of Bernarr and Badu. “Best superhero team up honestly,” he commented. Isaiah Jaay, meanwhile, lauded the confidence to pull such a bold cover off. “It’s always the confidence for me,” he wrote. “You know you can sang and it makes it even better.”
“BBL Drizzy” has proven to have legs. The instrumental spawned dozens of viral covers. Then it was sampled by the target of the diss, Drake, on the Sexyy Red song “U My Everything.” Drizzy tried to reclaim the trollish meaning of the original beat and flip it to his advantage, but fans didn’t buy it. “U My Everything” has more dislikes than likes on YouTube, despite the star power of both artists. To make matters worse, Drake decided to take down all his disses against Kendrick Lamar. The decision has led fans to do even more trolling online.
