Rap artist Drake released a new music video this week. Which isn’t particularly exciting for me. But what was quite intriguing was that gold PSP he had in the video!
It has been creating quite the buzz in the gaming community, for obvious reasons.
That thing looks siiiiiiick.
I was immediately curious about so many things: Is that a real Sony PSP? Does it work? Who made it? What game is he playing?
Well the gaming community (and gaming media) were quick to dig up the details on the console in question.
Turns out, this masterpiece has been around for quite a while.
Gold PSP
I am quite late to the gold PSP story. 15 years late, in fact.
The gold PSP featured in Drake’s new music video once belonged to fellow artist Pharrell Williams, who had the custom console made in 2008.
As the story goes, Pharrell commissioned a 14K gold shell replacement to be made, which has a value of approximately $20,000.
Drake can also be seen wearing a few of Pharrell’s custom jewellery pieces in the video. All of which he purchased at auction from Joopiter, Pharrell’s own auction house.
Pharrell also auctioned his gold Blackberry 8700, which sold for $45,000.
I’m not sure if that is seen as a ‘no-no’ for a celebrity to purchase and wear someone else’s jewellery.
But Drake seems to have no shame in his game. Obviously, he is a fan of Pharrell and Pharrell’s gear. So when it went up for auction, he snatched it up.
So my next question is: Does Drake actually play that PSP? I sure hope so.
That’s high level opulence right there. Sippin’ champagne on a velvet love seat with women on both sides cheering you on as you play Ratchet & Clank on a golden PSP.
This isn’t the first golden console we have covered here at Retro Dodo, either. We’ve also written about Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Nintendo Wii.
We never saw the PSP actually on, but Drake does appear to be playing it a few times in the video. This could be good acting.
Celebrity Gaming
There’s a ton of famous people out there who spend some serious time and cash on video games.
The names that come to mind are Snoop Dogg and Post Malone, who are both known to spend a ton of time gaming. Both artists even streamed on Twitch.
I tried to figure out of Drake was a known gamer and this is what I found:
Just last year, Drake was gifted an $8,000 gaming PC by steamer ‘Xposed’, and he began streaming on Twitch. Most notably, playing a few rounds of Fortnite with steamer ‘Ninja’. Which led to a falling out and online beef.
Oh god, even his gaming turned into beef?
It is hard to say if celebrity gaming helps or hurts the community. I’d say it’s probably neither. If people want to observe celebrity behavior, let ’em.
I’m not particularly affected by celebrity. But obviously, if I see somebody famous with a Game Boy or a gold PSP in hand, I’m gonna perk up.
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If you wanna check out Drake’s new video and see how many times you can spot that gold PSP (and how many times he pretends to play it), you can see that here:
Anthony has been a video game lover ever since he can remember. He became a fulltime nomad in 2018, living throughout most of Asia. He focused his passion in retro gaming and began creating a game for the Game Boy Color while living in Nara, Japan during the 2020 pandemic. He is now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spends most of his time gaming, going on long walks and meeting as many stray dogs as possible.
