With Drake being one of the biggest artists of this decade – if not the biggest – the Canadian star recently sat down with with the Rap Radar podcast to reflect on the past ten years of his music career.
Sitting down in his home in Toronto, Drake is joined by Elliott Wilson and B.Dot where they speak on his breakthrough project So Far Gone, the influence of his mentor Lil Wayne, rapping and singing and his legacy.
However, the past ten years of Drake’s career hasn’t always been smooth-sailing and he talks on some of the controversies such as his feud with Pusha T, allegations of cultural appropriation, his relationship with Chris Brown and much more.
You can view the very in-depth chat above, while the biggest takeaways from the interview can be read below.
Drake on cultural appropriation criticism:
“The definition of appropriating a culture is not supporting that culture, doing songs with people who are deeply rooted in that culture, giving opportunity to people who are in that culture.
“That’s not appropriating. Appropriating is taking it for your own personal gain and denying that it was ever inspired from this. That’s the true disservice that somebody could do to the UK, to dancehall, to afrobeats. Me, I’ve always… I ensure that not only paying all due respects verbally but… I make it a point to give opportunity.”
Drake on Pusha T:
“Some people like his music, I personally don’t ’cause I don’t believe any of it. And I like to listen to guys I believe.
“When I was whatever, 16, thinking that [Pusha T] was the biggest dope dealer in the world serving bricks to all, every corner of America […] Now that I’m grown-up, and I know him and the truth, it’s just not as appealing.”
Drake on Kanye West:
“There’s something there that bothers him deeply and yeah, I can’t fix it for him. It just is what it is. I could never ever ever ever turn my back on the things that I’ve said about him in a positive light, and I still feel all those same things.
“Things have changed. I’m not just some kid that’s a fan anymore. Now we have personal situations, and like I said, a lot of his issues with me, I can’t fix them for him.”
Drake on being booed at Camp Flog Gnaw:
“I was a little confused. I was kind of sitting there, going like, ‘You guys know Frank’s not here, right? You may as well get over that… let’s rock, I’m the guy, I’m the replacement. I got a couple joints if you wanna hear them.”
Drake on ghostwriting accusations:
“Anybody that knows me knows that my strongest talent is writing… That’s why people ask me to write songs for them […] All my biggest songs and any song that really really did damage for me, I wrote every single lyric.”
Drake on not being signed to Young Money and Cash Money:
“I’m always going to be involved in the Cash Money/Young Money imprint, and my loyalty, like I said, always lies there. I’m just signed direct myself to Universal.”
Drake on his next album:
“We’re really just kind of taking all the energy that I’ve talked to [Elliott and B.Dot] about and tryna project it into music – the good and the bad that’s going on in my life. Definitely taking my time a lot more with this album.
“I’ll go like three weeks in between making songs, just because like I’m just kind of enjoying life. I’m enjoying living, going out with people. Investing in personal connections, and it’s just making my music better.”