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Drake – Successful f. Trey Songz (Preview)

blame it on Meka August 27, 2009

I’m pretty sure this won’t catch any flack “Best I Ever Had” got slapped with. Hit the cut for more words on this video.

It’s not exactly a do-over, but after receiving some backlash from his “Best I Ever Had” video, Drake tones things down in a clip for “Successful.”

The video was shot in the rapper’s hometown of Toronto. Drake and Trey Songz share top billing throughout the clip, directed by Jake Davis. Lil Wayne is featured in the original version of the song from Drake’s mixtape So Far Gone, but in the video version, Weezy’s verse has been replaced with a sung verse from Songz.

The clip is dark and opens with Drake overlooking the city. He continues to peer out from the balcony of a building during his first verse until he meets with Trey. As the two exit the condo, Drake turns back to the doorman, and his mind flashes as he and the man switch roles. The mood of the video matches the song; “Best I Ever Had” turned out to be a misstep for the upstart MC when the over-the-top clip didn’t match what fans felt the song portrayed.

Both Drake and Trey Songz called “Successful” eerie when they spoke about the song earlier this year to Mixtape Daily.

“It was so eerie. Like it was haunting, almost,” the rapper said of the production. “I was like, ‘Yo, that’s it. You need to use that.’ He started playing this patch, and just every note that he played fell into place.”

Trey Songz — who wrote the chorus for the song — echoed his good friend.

“It was simplistic, but it knocks. It’s eerie, it’s dark,” he explained. “The first thing I laid down was the gothic, reverb-driven harmony: ‘arrrgh, arrrgh, arrrgh.’ I couldn’t think of what I wanted to hear on it, so I did a whole bunch of harmonies [until I found the right one].”