Salman Rushdie is now part of the proud tradition of people reading Drake lyrics

Salman Rushdie has a new book called Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights coming out. His book tour has taken him to Canada, where he sat down with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s new show The Exhibitionists, who had him read Drake lyrics:

Rushdie gamely, if tiredly, makes his way through Drake’s lyrics from five songs: “Know Yourself,” “6 God,” and “6PM in New York” off Drake’s mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, which came out earlier this year, as well as “Forever,” and “What’s My Name?,” which it is important to note is a Rihanna song Drake was featured on.

The author delivers his lines after telling a producer who’s offscreen that it’s for the best he hasn’t heard the song, so he can just “read it like free verse.” He liked “Know Yourself” best (good choice, Salman).

With this exercise, Rushdie joins an exhausting tradition of having people who are not Drake read Drake lyrics. Earlier this year, The Bleacher Report had several NBA prospects undergo this ritual, and just the other day the internet was very excited by “Grandma Hilariously Confused By New Drake and Future Song”:

It’s weird to treat rap lyrics like they’re a silly joke.

Ethan Chiel is a reporter for Fusion, writing mostly about the internet and technology. You can (and should) email him at [email protected]