Drake Calls for Sam Bankman-Fried's Release in New, Critically Panned Album

In brief

• Drake referenced imprisoned FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on a new song, appearing to call for his release.
• The lyric appeared on one of three albums Drake released Friday, which critics largely panned.
• Though Bankman-Fried and his family have pushed for a pardon, President Trump has downplayed the possibility.

After years in exile following a brutal rap battle with Kendrick Lamar, Drake is back, and he has a message: free Sam Bankman-Fried.

The rapper released three albums simultaneously on Friday, featuring 43 new songs. One of those tracks, “Dust,” from the album Iceman, includes an apparent appeal to pardon FTX’s disgraced founder.

“An FTX penthouse high-riser, yeah,” Drake sings. “Samuel Bankman, free all my guys up, yeah.”

Later on in the song, the artist refers to himself as “a BTC crypto big-timer.”

The albums have already been widely panned by multiple critics, with The Guardian deeming the new collection of songs a “boring, bloated disaster.”

Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year sentence at a federal prison in California for the fraud he committed while operating FTX, a major crypto exchange headquartered in the Bahamas.

Almost immediately following President Donald Trump’s return to power last year, Bankman-Fried’s family—and the convict himself—embarked on an aggressive mission to secure a pardon from the crypto-friendly, pardon-doling leader.

Bankman-Fried has routinely posted on social media from prison in recent months, praising the president’s decision-making and celebrating recent achievements of the Washington crypto lobby.

But the industry and its friends in Congress have come out swinging against a potential pardon, seeking to distance themselves from Bankman-Fried’s politically toxic reputation.

Earlier this year, President Trump indicated in an interview with The New York Times that he had no plans to pardon the one time crypto mogul.

But all that baggage seems to be no problem for Drake, who himself is no stranger to crypto-related controversy. The musician has been named as a defendant in multiple lawsuits centered on his yearslong promotion of Stake, an offshore, crypto-fueled online casino.

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