Drake dishes out compliments to Vanessa Hudgens

Rapper Drake made actress Vanessa Hudgens blush by giving her a shout out as he accepted a top prize at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (21May17).

The hip-hop hitmaker won the Top Billboard 200 Album accolade for Views and as he stepped up to the microphone, he let it be known he had been admiring event co-host Vanessa from afar.

“We’re all here on earth for a limited amount of time and we gotta show love while we’re here,” Drake began, “so tonight, I wanna say Vanessa Hudgens, you look incredible tonight.”

The comment didn’t come as much of a surprise for eagle-eyed viewers, who had noticed Drake’s expression after Vanessa proved her lyrical skills early on in the show by spitting Nicki Minaj’s verse on Kanye West’s hit Monster. She also hit the high notes for a brief rendition of Celine Dion’s The Power of Love.

However, Drake’s friend and frequent collaborator Nicki appeared to be a little annoyed that he didn’t publicly compliment her outfit too, as she was caught on camera jokingly exclaiming, “Excuse me? What about me?”

Nicki eventually got her moment in the limelight as Drake praised their renewed friendship, after reconciling earlier this year (17) following the Anaconda star’s split from his rap rival Meek Mill.

“I wanna say, Nicki Minaj, I’m so glad we found our way back because I love you and I could never ever ever see it any other way,” he said, as Nicki shouted back “I love you” from the audience.

Drake also expressed his gratitude to his Young Money Entertainment label boss Lil Wayne, and used the opportunity to clear the air with rapper/actor Ludacris, who was co-presenting the awards show with Vanessa.

“Ludacris, I know we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but I’ve always been a big fan of yours man, I got a lot of love for you,” he shared. “I want to let you know that face-to-face while I’m still here.”

The two MCs had previously traded lyrical jabs back in 2011. music news.com