‘Now We’re Here’ – Billboard

What does one of the world’s wealthiest businessmen have in common with one of modern hip-hop music’s most celebrated artists? A lot more than you might think. In an unexpected Instagram bonding moment Wednesday (July 6), Jeff Bezos and Drake shared their respects for each other’s inspiring success stories, both of which started with humble beginnings and ended in international acclaim.

The exchange was first initiated by the “Jimmy Cooks” rapper, who posted a black and white photo of himself, presumably from when he was just starting out his music career, alongside an old photo of Bezos, pictured in the 1990s during the beginning stages of Amazon. “Gotta start somewhere,” Drake wrote.

The multi-billion dollar entrepreneur was one of several people to comment on the post, simply leaving a fitting reference to one of Drake’s most famous tracks. “Started from the bottom now we’re here,” Bezos replied.

In his photo, Drake is captured standing outside Apartment 1503, aka the apartment he recorded his first pieces of music with producer Noah “40” Shebib around 2009. It’s a time he’s opened up about before in both interviews and in his music, rapping in his 2011 Take Care track “The Ride”: “Apartment 1503, some couches and paintings/ Where you record with two others that want the same things/ Yeah, it start to feel better than home feels.”

Bezos, on the other hand, started his meteoric rise in the early ’90s, when he and his wife at the time MacKenzie Scott founded what was then simply an online bookstore, Amazon, in a rented garage space. A few decades later,  the mogul is currently the world’s third richest person and, at the time of publication, is worth an estimated $142 billion.

See Drake’s Instagram post below.