Drake's Attempt to Take Down Drone with Yeezy Slide Raises Legal Questions in Australia

Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is investigating if any aviation laws were broken after a video of Drake smashing a DJI drone with a $1,500 Yeezy slide went viral.

In viral footage, the rapper responds to a drone flying above his posh Crown Towers penthouse balcony in Sydney.

Drizzy apparently tried to swat it down when he picked up an orange slide and threw the piece of furniture at the flying thing, but he missed. The drone then disappeared into the sky.

It happened during the Australian leg of Drake's tour. He had been residing in the Presidential Villa on the 88th floor of Crown Towers, which costs $25,000 a night.

Aviation Safety Regulations

On Thursday, CASA told The Australian that it was aware of the video and would review all reports of unsafe drone operations.

According to Australian aviation laws, recreational drones cannot be flown within 30 meters of people or above 120 meters above the ground. Breach of these laws can result in warnings and fines between AUD $1,650 (USD $1,025.26) and AUD $16,500 (USD $10,252.60) per offense, and in the worst cases, criminal charges.

If some fans took the incident as a lighthearted mistake, many on the internet had a different theory, suspecting that the video was part of a marketing campaign linked to Stake, the internet crypto gambling house that Drake has been associated with since 2022.

Opening with a screenshot of the Stake website on a laptop screen, the rapper shared the clip and a photo of himself in a Stake-branded T-shirt sporting the caption, "The stakes are high, but so am I."

Drake has not shied away from the world of online gambling, regularly placing multimillion-dollar sports bets. He's also been a Super Bowl winner with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2024, winning $2 million, but has taken a bath on soccer and UFC bets, too.

The Legal Fallout May Not Be All That Serious

Although the clip is going viral, Drake's punishment will likely be quite minor since fines for drone-related offenses are usually on the low end of the scale. The rap mogul is worth an estimated $248 million, and a fine would be little more than pocket change. However, if CASA discovers that more serious breaches have taken place, harsher sanctions could be considered.

It is unclear whether the video legally aired as a drone hovered above Drake's penthouse. Still, the footage achieved its goal: gaining worldwide exposure for either regulatory focus or a lame advertising effort.

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