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Alongside Drake’s investment in the company, Aspiration will aim to reduce the environmental footprint of Drake’s personal life — and eventually also his professional life as a globally touring musician

Drake has signed on as an investor and collaborator with Los Angeles-based sustainability and financial services startup Aspiration, the company tells Rolling Stone.

The rapper joins other celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., and Orlando Bloom in investing in Aspiration, but Drake’s partnership goes deeper than financial backing: He will use Aspiration’s personal and enterprise services to monitor and cut down his own carbon footprint, the company’s execs say, with the hope of making his personal life carbon neutral. Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg declined to give specifics on how much Drake invested. But, on the collaboration front, Sanberg says his team is working with Drake — whose environmental footprint is larger than the average person’s, given the star’s frequent travel and Hollywood lifestyle — to cut down his environmental footprint.

Aspiration offers environmentally-focused financial services, positioning itself as a sustainable alternative to other banks and fintech companies because it doesn’t invest in fossil fuel companies or other non-sustainable endeavors. It also gives its customers tools to track their carbon footprint and put some of their spending toward tree planting and charitable donations. For example, Aspiration has a credit card with an option to round up every customers’ purchase to the nearest dollar to go towards planting trees. Aspiration currently has five million users and has planted 15 million trees from its users’ financial activity, the company says. 

“The way we deliver carbon neutrality for Drake or larger partners of that size is with the extra analysis our team applies to all the things they’re doing in their lives,” Sanberg says. “They give us information with travel and activities that’ll have a carbon footprint, and then we draw on our reforestation program in excess of what we’d do for an everyday consumer. But fundamentally, we’re delivering the same outcome for them as we can deliver for anyone who wants to open an Aspiration credit card, and that’s knowing they’re aligning their money and their values.”

The Drake deal is the latest in a busy celebrity investment cycle, buoyed by artists who have spent the past year looking to other revenue streams and business opportunities while the touring business shuttered.

Through Drake, Aspiration hopes to evangelize its concept to millions of fans and other influential artists who might want to jump on the platform. Drake and Aspiration are currently exploring how to implement the company’s services in his professional life as well as his personal one. (A career as a global music artist carries a hefty physical impact — from printing vinyl and CDs to charting an international tour shipping tons of cargo, flying in jets, and taking buses all over the world.)

We want this to be the beginning of a trend,” Sanberg says. “Part of our intention here is making the music industry sustainable. This is our first leadership move together with, I’d argue, the most influential artist in the world, and I can’t think of a better partner to open this book that we’re going to write. And I think that kind of audacious vision is exactly what Drake is in for.”

In a statement, Drake said he is excited to partner with a “company that’s found a simple way to offer everyone the ability to reduce their carbon footprint,” and that “Aspiration’s approach to climate change is really inspiring and I hope together we can help to motivate and create awareness.”

“Nod is about the solace we find in community. It’s about the comfort in knowing that we are not alone," said vocalist Tim McIlrath

Rise Against have released a new single, ‘Nod’, their first new music since 2022.

The new track kicks off the punk band’s “inspired next chapter” and was produced by Catherine Marks. “I swear to God this can’t wait,” vocalist and lyricist Tim McIlrath sings at the top of the song’s chorus. “Not one more minute, one more day.”

“Nod is about the solace we find in community,” said McIlrath in a press release. “It’s about the comfort in knowing that we are not alone. This comfort can temper our anger and our frustration, at least temporarily.”

‘Nod’ follows the band’s 2021 album ‘Nowhere Generation’. It was followed by an EP titled ‘Nowhere Sessions’ which included live versions of songs from the album.

Tracks such as ‘Talking To Ourselves’, ‘Broken Dreams, Inc.’ and the LP’s titular single were re-imagined as live recordings, as well as a cut of their 2008 song ‘Savior’ and covers of Misfits‘ ‘Hybrid Moments’ and Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s ‘Fortunate Son’.

Check out ‘Nod’ below:

the release of ‘Nod’ arrives just before Rise Against head out on a UK and European tour alongside L.S. Dunes and Sondaschule.

They’ll kick off the shows on January 28 in Dublin, before heading to Belfast on 29. Then, in February, they’ll head to Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Zurich and more, before wrapping up the tour in Vienna on February 22.

The tour also includes stops at London’s O2 Brixton Academy, Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse and Birmingham’s O2 Academy on February 6, 8 and 9 respectively. You can find a full list of dates further down. You can find tickets to the UK and Ireland dates here.

Rise Against’s 2025 tour dates are:

JANUARY
28 – 3Olympia – Dublin, Ireland
29 – Telegraph – Belfast, Northern Ireland

FEBRUARY
2 – L’Olympia – Paris, France
4 – O13 – Tillburg, Netherlands
5 – Forrest National – Brussels, Belgium
6 – O2 Brixton Academy – London, UK
8 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester, UK
9 – O2 Academy – Birmingham, UK
12 – Velodrom – Berlin, Germany
14 – Mitsubishi Electric Hall – Düsseldorf, Germany
15 – Sporthalle – Hamburg, Germany
17 – Zenith – Munich, Germany
18 – myticket Jahrhunderthalle – Frankfurt, Germany
21 – Volkshaus, Zurich, Switzerland
22 –Stadthalle – Vienna, Austria

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