Drake's New Vid Features A Familiar Face

Drake dropped a video for his songs "Childs Play" from his latest album VIEWS on Saturday night, and it is amazing for a few reasons. My personal favorite is the fact that the video answers the question of who is "Texas Hammer", the creepy guy featured in the clip. The character is played by OVO contributor OB O'Brien, who runs the strip club where Drake ends up after he and Tyra Banks (yes, really) get into a food fight at the Cheesecake Factory. This short film/music video is a perfect representation for a song known for the line, "why you gotta fight with me at Cheesecake/You know I love to go there," and the addition of both Banks and O'Brien make it an absolute must-see for fans.

With Tyra Banks and the Cheesecake Factory, I don't think I need to go to in to detail about how both of those things are amazing. So instead, let's talk about O'Brien, the guy who rocks a Southern twang and an epic beard in Drake's new video. According to Billboard, O'Brien is from Ontario, just like Drake, and the two have been friends for a long time. The magazine reports, "[OB O'Brien] met Drake thanks to video gaming, just as the future rap superstar was finishing his run on the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation." Through their nerdy beginnings, the two both began to collaborate on music and other projects.

O'Brien has appeared in several of Drake's music videos, playing a hype man in "HYFR", Drake's disgruntled co-worker in "Started From the Bottom," and the dude in an owl suit in "Worst Behavior." But according to Chart Attack, before that, O'Brien was just an regular guy growing up in Westdale, Canada, with his musically-inclined family. His father, Michael O'Brien, was an award-winning blues musician, and his brother, Jesse O' Brien, is an accomplished keyboardist. O'Brien himself, meanwhile, has been slowly working on his own solo career, and released the song "Hazelton Trump" on Drake's label OVO as well as a collaboration with Drake, "2 On/Thotful."

For all of Drake's "woe" talk, it's nice to know that he does actually have a core group to role through the Six with. I can't help but want the best for Aubrey Graham — and a good creative team and friend group is key to that.

Images: Apple Music (2), ItsATrap/Youtube