Drake – TSU | Lyrics Meaning Explained

“TSU” is the eighth track on Drake’s 2021 album ‘Certified Lover Boy.’ The song talks about a stripper, specifically from Texas Southers University (TSU). Drake goes into details about her broken home, her story, and how her past haunts her.

‘Certified Lover Boy’ is the highly-anticipated sixth studio album by Drake, released on September 3, 2021. Drake talked about the album in July; “we aim for that head. We don’t aim to please. Certified Lover Boy on the way. And that’s for anyone in the way.” This is his follow-up project to his 2018 album ‘Scorpion.’

Texas Southern University acknowledged the shoutout by Drake on this track. On the song, there was no explanation as to what TSU stands for, which the University cleared with this Tweet; “Are y’all seeing how confused Twitter is today about what TSU stands for?.”

Listen to “TSU” by Drake

Buy ‘Certified Lover Boy’ album on Apple Music & Amazon

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Drake “TSU” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review

Intro

In the intro of the song, OG RON C shouts out to different cities of the state of Texas. Specifically, he shouts out the ladies from cities such as Bay City, Louisiana, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Marshall, Prairie View, Wharton County, Texas City, and Houston.

Last but not least, he shouts out the ladies from TSU.

Chorus

In the hook of the song, Drake gives some background details about one specific lady who is stuck in his mind. She is a girl who left Texas to make it big in the city. Alas, her big plans did not work out well and she became desperate. She had to make some money and she turned to stripping. This girl had already defied her family when she left Texas. Now, being a stripper, she is almost as if disowned from her family.

This stripper tries to get a loan to start her own business. Presumably, she has no credit history or source of income to support her loan repayment. She is even more helpless. Drake says he took it upon himself to help this girl. She gets the capital she wants from Drake and quits the stripper life and turns a new page in her life.

This is a story, it came from my life and I’m just recordin’ this sh*t

It seems like this is a real story by Drake’s life.

Verse 1

In the first verse, Drake reminisces how he met this girl at the strip club and likely got to talking with her after her pole hours. Her story moved Drake and he wanted to help her outside of the club. Instead of throwing money at her in the club, Drake lends out the money she needed to start her business. Drake advises her to make the best of this opportunity.

‘Giving bread’ is slang for giving money (earning bread) and before this girl used to perform oral sex in return. But now she is in a better place. Now she can keep her head held high.

Verse 2

In the second verse, Drake reveals that this girls father is not around and her mother is definitely not around. Maybe her mother is passed away. Maybe she left them when she was young. She has a sister. She also has a guy who is not in her life for the most part. All these traits paint a picture of a broken home. Her hometown had nothing to offer her except for foul memories. This is why she left Texas.

Drake says he could have easily trapped her in the stripper life. He could have just thrown enough money for her to survive on the daily. But Drake says that you have to do some things right in your life so that at the end of your journey, you can look in the mirror and be happy about the things you have done;

Look in the mirror if you wanna look at some things on the bright side

Verse 3

In the third and the final verse of “TSU,” Drake tries to relate his story to that of this girl. He says that both of them come from broken homes, so he knows the feeling she went through back in the state. He understands the thirst to make it big and make a name for yourself.

Drake says that neither of their past is going to vanish just so that they made it now. The past is always written in stone. But this does not mean that the past should be allowed to determine your future. Change is always possible.

Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.