Why fans think Taylor Swift and Drake are collaborating

Drake posted a photo with Taylor Swift. Let the conspiracy theories begin

A split image of a woman with blond hair and cupping her hands together and a man with black hair posing in a suit

April 19, 2022 10:22 AM PT

Fans of Drake and Taylor Swift were in their feelings Monday after the rapper shared a photo of him with the singer on Instagram.

The image of Drake wrapping his arm around Swift appeared in a carousel of photos the “One Dance” hitmaker posted of himself and his son Adonis. In a cryptic caption, the Grammy winner wrote, “They too soft to understand the meaning of hard work.”

Naturally, the throwback(?) picture of Champagne Papi and the “Champagne Problems” artist raised a lot of eyebrows and questions online. Where was the photo taken? When? And why? Who are “they”? And most importantly: Does this mean a T-Swift/Drizzy collab is on the way?

As Kris Jenner would say: This is a case for the FBI.

“What does the captionnn meannn is that a lyric???” one curious Swiftie tweeted along with some crying emojis.

“It’s definitely a collab right cause this is randommm af l mean must have a had a conversation with her it omhdhdhbd I’m clowning now nothing makes sense What are yall’s theories.”

After going down the Twitter rabbit hole — for science — the most popular fan theory seems to anticipate a Drake feature on Swift’s next re recorded album. Following the blockbuster releases of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version),” the majority of conspiracy theorists seem to believe “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is on the horizon.

On her previous rerecorded albums, Swift has included old songs “from the vault” that didn’t make it onto the original records. Some of those resurrected gems have featured other musicians, such as Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and Maren Morris. Could Drake be next?

“remember there were rumors about drake x taylor swift collab during 1989 era?” one person tweeted. “what if that song is in the vault tracks??”

“drake recently posted a photo of him and taylor on his insta,” wrote another. “the last time him and taylor took a photo together was in 2016 during the 1989 era. 1989 TV IS COMING WITH A DRAKE COLLAB!!”

Adding fuel to the rampant speculation is a rumor that Swift’s label, Republic Records, “liked” Drake’s post on Instagram. If that’s true, however, Republic appears to have removed the like as of Tuesday morning. So, do with that information what you will.

See more reactions to the buzzy snapshot from the internet sleuths below.