"Gimme a hug, Gimme a hug!," pleads Drake on one track from his new album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.

After the month and year he's had, perhaps it's no surprise.

As rap battle humiliations go, the rapper's defeat by hip-hop's lyrical supremo Kendrick Lamar has become a cultural phenomenon, and saw Drake sue Universal Music Group.

Lamar's diss track, Not Like Us, a viral hit since last summer, accuses the Canadian star of inappropriate relationships with underage girls - claims Drake denies.

First the track swept up at the Grammys, with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dancing along. Then came Lamar's Super Bowl half-time show, with a record 133.5 million people estimated to have tuned in to watch the whole stadium sing the lyrics accusing Drake of being a paedophile.

And on Friday the single finally topped the UK charts nine months after release, matching its stateside success.

But rather than lay low, Drake, the dominant chart-topper of the past 15 years, is coming out fighting with an "intriguing" strategy after being put in a "cultural chokehold", says crisis PR expert Mark Borkowski.

As Lamar grins through the bright lights of his victory lap, Drake's chosen to sidestep the beef - bar one embittered freestyle denouncing fake friends - and instead focused on repositioning himself.

Currently on tour in Australia, he's been loosening up, gently leaning into the softer image he's spent recent years trying to toughen, even performing an........

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