June 2024 was a weird time to be a music fan. We were all still recovering from the Kendrick Lamar fallout when suddenly, a SoundCloud link started making the rounds. It was a cover of the 2006 Plain White T’s classic, but it sounded... off. Actually, it sounded bizarre.
People didn’t know if they were being trolled by a computer or if the 6 God had finally lost it. The track, titled "Wah Gwan Delilah," featured a heavily autotuned Drake singing about Dundas Square and "bare traffic" in a thick Toronto accent. It felt like a fever dream.
Was the Drake Hey There Delilah Remix Actually AI?
The first instinct everyone had—from casual listeners to die-hard OVO fans—was that this had to be artificial intelligence. You can't blame them. We had just watched Drake use AI voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg during the Kendrick beef for "Taylor Made Freestyle."
It seemed logical. Why would the biggest rapper on the planet jump on a parody of a twenty-year-old folk-pop song?
The internet was convinced it was a deepfake. Then Drake posted it on his Instagram Story with the caption "@snowd4y wake up the city" followed by a laughing emoji.
That was the moment the "is it real?" debate ended. Mostly.
Even after the IG shoutout, some skeptics thought he was just leaning into a good troll. But the reality is more "Toronto" than most people realize. The track is a collaboration with Snowd4y, a local comedian and social media personality known for satirizing "Toronto man" culture.
The Snowd4y Connection and Toronto Culture
Snowd4y isn't exactly a chart-topping artist. He’s a guy who makes people laugh on TikTok by exaggerating the specific, Caribbean-influenced slang used in the 6ix.
If you aren't from Ontario, the lyrics probably sounded like a foreign language.
- "Wah gwan": A Jamaican Patois greeting meaning "What's going on."
- "Cheesed": To be annoyed or upset.
- "Cro’nem": A term for your close friends or crew.
When Drake hopped on the second verse, he wasn't trying to make a Grammy-winning hit. He was participating in a regional inside joke. It’s a "judo flip" move he’s used before—taking the things people make fun of him for (like his fluctuating accents) and leaning into them so hard that the joke becomes his own.
Why the Plain White T’s Were So Confused
Even the original creators of the song didn't know how to react. Tom Higgenson, the lead singer of the Plain White T’s, literally went on social media looking baffled.
"That’s not Drake," he said in a video, shaking his head. "It’s crazy that everybody thinks that it’s real."
It’s a funny moment in music history where the guy who wrote the song couldn't believe the biggest star in the world would touch it. It highlights the massive gap between the "very serious" music industry and the "chaos-first" nature of the modern internet.
The Fallout: Post-Beef Damage Control or Just Fun?
Timing is everything in PR. This track dropped right after Kendrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us" became the undisputed anthem of the summer. Critics argued that Drake was "spiraling" or trying to distract people from the loss.
Others saw it differently.
To the people in Toronto, it felt like a love letter to the city's specific brand of humor. While the rest of the world called it "the worst song ever," certain neighborhoods in Canada were blasting it as a local anthem. It’s a fascinating case study in how "regional" music can be in a globalized streaming era.
How to Navigate This Weird Corner of Music History
If you're trying to figure out if this track is worth a spot on your playlist, you're probably asking the wrong question. It isn't a song; it’s a meme.
- Don't take it seriously. If you listen to it expecting Take Care vibes, you will be disappointed.
- Understand the context. This is "Weird Al" Yankovic energy coming from the 6 God.
- Check out the original. If the remix gives you a headache, go back to the 2006 version. It still holds up.
The biggest takeaway from the whole Drake Hey There Delilah saga is that the line between "authentic" and "troll" has completely vanished. Whether it's good or bad is almost irrelevant—the fact that we're still talking about a SoundCloud parody months later means, in some weird way, the stunt worked.
To really get the full experience, find a lyric breakdown of the Toronto slang used in the track. It turns the confusing "gibberish" into a very specific story about dating and traffic in one of North America's most diverse cities. Once you understand the "Top Left" and "Dundas Square" references, the song stops being a mystery and starts being a very intentional, very localized comedy sketch.