1. Drake Shoots His “Find Your Love” Video with Mavado in Cassava Piece (2010)
Drake has reserved some of his biggest shows of love for Jamaica for the visual realm. True, the melodic loop at the center of the Kanye West-produced “Find Your Love” evokes dancehall in a subtle, undercover kind of way. But the song’s connection to the Caribbean was solidified when Drake and director Anthony Mandler headed to Kingston—specifically the Gully Side, Cassava Piece— to shoot the video, with local legend Mavado cast as a don whose girl Drake foolishly pries away. The video got some flak at the time from Jamaica’s then tourism minister Edmund Bartlett for its portrayal of shotta culture, but was mostly well-received by fans of dancehall. (It’s also said that Drake pledged to donate $25,000 to a learning centre in Cassava Piece). It was this video that gave the newly minted Canadian rap star dancehall credibility, establishing a precedent for just about everything else on this list. — Desmond Alphonso