A Toronto rapper is trying to get Drake to let him swim in his pool
Drake's pools got plenty of attention last year when he showed them off on Instagram and in a music video, but the person who probably became the most interested in them is a local Toronto rapper.
Derek Christoff started out in early February by making a post to his Instagram, screenshotting a message he'd sent to Champagne Papi himself with the caption: "#HeyDrakeMayIUseYourPoolPlease Day01: If anyone knows @champagnepapi , or has an indoor-pool link...[your] help would be beyond appreciated! Thanks."
"Like everyone, the lockdown is fu*king with my head. I swim therapeutically," reads the screenshooted message.
"Before covid, I'd hit the indoor pool 5 x a week. Sometimes twice a day - depending how my wife was with the kids [I have 3]. I have no idea when I'll be able to swim again."
"I know you have an indoor pool," continued Christoff. "Would it be cool if I came over for an hour to use it? I promise never to bother you, or leave copies of my demo tape around the house. It'll be like I was never there. From my car, straight to the pool, then out."
The day after posting his first message, Christoff posted a list of seven rules he promised to follow at Drake's pool, including wearing undergarments under his trunks, not passing gas, always wearing goggles, not touching or smelling any belongings or "lotions" and "I will not spill pee pee:poo poo in your pool via my ding dong:poo poo cavern."
Christoff, who performs under the name D-Sisive and has been rapping for 15 years with four Juno nominations, has written a couple of raps/songs about his campaign to swim in Drake's pool in addition to following up with more Instagram messages to Drake's account.
Lyrical gems include lines like "You don't know what it's like to not be able to swim, no, 'cause you have a pool in your kitchen."
As his songs profess, Drake has yet to respond to Christoff.
On Mar. 4, Christoff showed he was serious with an official press release and a new, more compact hashtag: #LetDerekSwim.
And he truly is serious: though the stunt is hilarious, there's a somber past behind it.
"Swimming is extremely important for my mental health," Christoff told blogTO. "Aside from music, it’s the only thing that helps me relax. I'm three years clean from an opiate addiction that lasted, on and off, for about 13 years. I hit rock bottom in 2016. Lost my wife and daughter. Lost friends. My music relationships and buzz,"
"Entered a rehab program at St. Michael's Hospital, and started climbing that mountain. It was hard as fuck, but I pulled off the impossible. At my worst, if you would have told me I'd one day get my wife back, I'd laugh in your face," he continued.
"But once I was back to being me, that's when the fight began. Not only did I win her trust back, and get back to living with her and my oldest daughter, I was also blessed with twins."
It was his oldest daughter that got him into swimming when she asked Christoff to take her to the pool one day. He enjoyed the activity so much, comparing it to a natural high, that he started swimming every day all year round at outdoor and indoor pools, sometimes as often as three times a day.
"It all came crashing down with the arrival of COVID. All gyms and community centres were deemed non-essential. And I was fucked. I remember being on the phone with my counsellor, one year ago, almost crying to him about not being able to swim. I can see how that could come off sad and pathetic to others who can't relate, but swimming is essential to me," says Christoff.
"Summer was cool. I was swimming daily. Then, despite no proof that community centres and gyms were a cause of spreading, and trust me, the centre I was at followed the regulations hard-fucking-core, they were shut down again. I kept up with Ford's indecisiveness. That shit stressed me out even more."
Christoff, who has been working a factory job on top of parenting young children and grappling with sobreity, hit a wall one day when he was reading a cover story about Drake's Bridle Path mansion in Architectural Digest around 5 a.m. before the start of his shift.
"What really fucked my head up was the photo of the indoor pool. I admired the photograph. I fantasized swimming in it. I dreamed of one day having my own indoor, gorgeous-Italian-Rafauli-designed pool of my own. Then I thought…well…why not try to make a part of that dream a reality?" says Christoff.
"I'm a true believer that nothing is impossible. If you can see it, you can make it happen. So I sent Drake a DM. I'm aware we have a few mutual friends, so I decided to make the DM public, hoping it would have a better shot at getting on his radar. The response was out of control. The likes and comments poured in."
Some have accused Christoff of doing all this as an elaborate PR stunt to promote his music, but he swears it's a totally sincere plea.
"Some people have accused me orchestrating a brilliant publicity stunt to promote my music. This is why I haven't released any of the music inspired by the #LetDerekSwim movement, or any music of my own. This is about one thing, and one thing only: Swimming. Swimming in Drake's pool. I'm a huge fan of Drake's music. He's fantastic," says Christoff.
"I know he does amazing things for our city. I just happen to be in his city, and am in need of an amazing thing. And that amazing thing is slipping into my floral, George brand swim trunks and rocking a few lanes across his glorious indoor pool."
Derek Christoff
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