Did Drake Just Reference a Solana Meme Coin in a Sneaker Ad?

Moving on from his rap beef with Kendrick Lamar earlier this year, Aubrey “Drake” Graham is gearing up for the latest launch from his NOCTA apparel brand, formed in collaboration with Nike—and some crypto traders believe he may have referenced a rising meme coin.

Banana Tape Wall (BTW) was created on Pump.fun at the start of August, peaking at a market cap of $18 million. This Solana meme coin is exactly what it says on the tin, with the associated image showing a banana duct-taped to a wall.

In NOCTA’s latest ad for its all-yellow “Hot Step II” sneakers, the brand posted the shoe taped to the wall using gray duct tape. Crypto Twitter went nuts.

“Did Drake’s shoe brand just promote a meme coin or is this a complete coincidence?” crypto content creator Orangie posted on Twitter. The meme coin poured fuel on the fire, retweeting the brand’s post and adding, “you don’t know who we know.”

BTW leaped 38.25% in just under an hour and a half, hitting a market cap of $9.51 million following the post from NOCTA.

But not everyone is convinced.

While the NOCTA promo could be referencing Banana Tape Wall, the meme coin is itself a reference to a 2019 art piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan called “Comedian.” It’s literally a banana taped to a wall, and the controversial debut at Art Basel Miami garnered headlines the world over.

Two copies of the artwork sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami, with a third copy being donated to the Guggenheim Musuem. In 2023, when on display at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, an art student ate the banana from the wall, later claiming that he was hungry because he skipped breakfast.

Those outside of the blockchain bubble, such as fashion and lifestyle platform Hypebeast, believe the ad is simply a reference to the polarizing art piece rather than the meme coin inspired by it.

Decrypt reached out to NOCTA to inquire about any association with the meme coin, but did not receive an immediate response.

Drake is a well-established art aficionado, acquiring an impressive collection showcased in his 2020 video for “Toosie Slide,” including works by Andy Warhol (whose own banana artwork memorably adorned the album The Velvet Underground & Nico) and KAWS.

The artwork to his 2019 album Certified Lover Boy, meanwhile, was created by controversial artist Damien Hirst—who dabbled in the world of NFTs with his “The Currency” collection in 2021.

As if to prove he’s not like us, the rapper deployed his mega riches to help restore an art theme park that displays works from the likes of David Hockney and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Drake’s public ventures into the world of crypto, meanwhile, have been fairly tame; he’s engaged with the technology by way of a partnership with Stake, a crypto betting platform, and has flexed an iced-out Ledger hardware wallet in public.

Edited by Stephen Graves and Andrew Hayward