DrakeArtist profile →
Don Toliver’s year keeps getting bigger, and he would like the Grammys to notice. In the space of a week he has talked about a long-held dream collaboration with Drake, and, according to HotNewHipHop, entered himself in the Best New Artist category, a move that has already started an argument.
The Drake songs are “Solar Eclipse” and “Cold Shoulder,” which first surfaced in Drake’s FOMO short film and reached streaming on Oct. 2 as part of the expanded HABIBTI (FOMO). Drake uploaded official videos for both to YouTube on Tuesday (Oct. 6), Complex reported. “Solar Eclipse” interpolates Ella Langley’s record-breaking “Choosin’ Texas,” and Yebba joins on “Cold Shoulder.” Watch the “Solar Eclipse” video below.
Toliver spoke about the pairing at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday, in an interview with Heran Mamo that Billboard covered. He grew up on Drake, he said, and So Far Gone is one of his favorite albums.
This record to me was just really everything I could possibly ever want.
Don Toliver, at the Grammy Museum, Billboard
The collaboration caps a banner year. His album OCTANE gave him his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in January, all 18 of its tracks landed on the Hot 100, and the Octane World Tour took over arenas across North America. Drake joined him as a surprise guest at the Toronto show in August and performed ICEMAN cuts live. Toliver is still working on the follow-up, NITROUS.
Read moreDrake’s HABIBTI (FOMO) Is Tracking for No. 2 as Coachella 2027 Talk Builds
Then came the submissions. HotNewHipHop reports that Toliver entered OCTANE for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, plus “E85” in four categories, among them Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and “BODY” for Best Rap Performance. The surprise was his entry in Best New Artist. His first album, Donny Womack, came out in 2018, a day before Travis Scott’s Astroworld, which carried his breakout feature on “Can’t Say.”
It is a long-running Grammys argument. Victoria Monet won Best New Artist a few years ago despite being an industry veteran, and HotNewHipHop points to her as precedent. Whether the Recording Academy treats Toliver as a newcomer will be decided when nominations are announced. Drake, for his part, is staying out of the 2027 race, as we reported in our look at who is sitting out.
