Drake addresses Blackface photo used for cover art for Pusha-T’s song “The Story of Adidon”. ( LISTEN HERE) In a public statement on Instagram, the rapper, who is biracial, said that his poses in blackface were a commentary on race from his days as a young actor.

“I know everyone is enjoying the circus but I want to clarify this image in question,” Drake wrote on his iPhone’s Notes app on Wednesday night. “This picture is from 2007, a time in my life where I was an actor and I was working on a project that was about young black actors struggling to get roles, being stereotyped and type cast.” (Onscreen, Drake is best known for his role on the Canadian teen soap “Degrassi.”)

He added, “The photos represented how African Americans were once wrongfully portrayed in entertainment,” and said that he and a friend were “attempting to use our voice to bring awareness to the issue we dealt with all the time as black actors at auditions.”