To say Drake set the collective internet ablaze by posting a throwback photo with Taylor Swift is a bit of an understatement.
Swifties and Team Drizzy alike lost their minds when the rapper casually snuck in the cozy snap at the end of an Instagram carousel with the caption “They too soft to understand the meaning of hard work” on Monday, and the throwback snap sent both fanbases down a rabbit hole searching for clues about what the post could possibly mean.
The pair’s low-key bond dates all the way back to at least 2013, when they were photographed together at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Rumors of a collab followed in 2016 after they were spotted in the studio together in another Instagram post on Drake’s feed, but no song ever materialized when Reputation arrived in November 2017.
Two years later, Swift posed wearing a Drake pin on the cover of Entertainment Weekly to tease the release of her seventh album Lover. Though instead of a collaboration, Tay name-dropped the rapper in the lyrics of opening bop “I Forgot That You Existed,” singing, “And I couldn’t get away from ya/ In my feelings more than Drake, so yeah/ Your name on my lips, tongue tied/ Free rent livin’ in my mind.”
According to several Swifties, all signs point to the theory that the “I Bet You Think About Me” songstress is on the verge of releasing her re-recorded version of 1989. And not just that, but that a collaboration between the two superstars could be included on the new album.
“It’s the fifth slide on his post and 1989 is her 5th album,,, taylor ft. drake coming,” one fan tweeted, while another wrote, “TAYLOR FT DRAKE ON 1989 TV? THIS PIC LOOKS LIKE A POLAROID OMG…” referencing the era’s polaroid-heavy visual aesthetic.
Others pointed to Drake and Taylor’s respective Apple Music commercials that were released 2016 — you know, the ones that featured the rapper singing along to 1989 No. 1 hit “Bad Blood” and the singer jamming out to “Jumpman” on the treadmill?
Still, some fans were convinced the possible Easter egg actually had to do with the re-recording of 2017’s Reputation, with one Twitter user writing, “Imagine there is a collab on the vault tracks of Rep between these two. I will explode.”
Check out some of the Drake/Taylor fan theories floating around Twitter below.
it’s the fifth slide on his post and 1989 is her 5th album,,, taylor ft. drake coming https://t.co/C04nJsIejL
— kaleb🦭 (@kalebhurstt) April 19, 2022
TAYLOR FT DRAKE ON 1989 TV? THIS PIC LOOKS LIKE A POLAROID OMG… pic.twitter.com/bP2bEPPsJO
— falah (@inmyheadtsou) April 19, 2022
remember when taylor swift and drake did apple music commercials using each other songs? pic.twitter.com/zexB2BhsfT
— ivy (@ohhhhherewego) April 19, 2022
remember there were rumors about drake x taylor swift collab during 1989 era? what if that song is in the vault tracks?? pic.twitter.com/ot02Y7YeG2
— kadriye (@tayspetsch) April 19, 2022
bad blood – taylor swift (drake’s version) pic.twitter.com/vQKAsAsgnY
— laura adkins. (@SWlFTSONIC) April 19, 2022
TAYLOR SWIFT FT DRAKE ON THE REPUTATION VAULT TRACKS IM SAYING pic.twitter.com/njunPcJ340
— ً (@folkIoriians) April 19, 2022
Imagine there is collab on the vault tracks of Rep between these two. I will explode #TaylorSwift #Collab #Drake pic.twitter.com/vKcdx4kHZa
— Leyara (Taylor’s Version)🧣 (@LeyaraSwifty) April 19, 2022