Drake Talks Meek Mill Beef, Ghostwriting and Keeping It Real in The FADER
Drake is a busy man. The Toronto rapper started off the year by releasing If You're Reading This It's Too Late, an LP that would later go platinum. Then, after a famous beef started between him and Meek Mill, he dropped two diss tracks, "Charged Up" and "Back to Back" -- summer 2015 was his. Now with What a Time to Be Alive under his belt and his highly anticipated studio album, Views From the 6, expected to be released "imminently," it's safe to say the 28-year-old rapper is winning the year as well. And he talks about it all with The FADER.
FADER's Leon Neyfakh didn't even have to bring up his beef with Meek Mill; Drizzy did it all on his own. “I’m just gonna bring it up ‘cause it’s important to me,” he said. “I was at a charity kickball game -- which we won, by the way -- and my brother called me. He was just like, ‘I don’t know if you’re aware, but, yo, they’re trying to end us out here. They’re just spreading, like, propaganda. Where are you? You need to come here.’ So we all circled up at the studio, and sat there as Flex went on the air, and these guys flip-flopped [about how] they were gonna do this, that and the third.”
But when Meek Mill went mum, Drake became annoyed.
“This is a discussion about music, and no one’s putting forth any music?” he said with a "furrowed brow" according to Neyfakh. “You guys are gonna leave this for me to do? This is how you want to play it? You guys didn’t think this through at all -- nobody? You guys have high-ranking members watching over you. Nobody told you that this was a bad idea, to engage in this and not have something? You’re gonna engage in a conversation about writing music, and delivering music, with me? And not have anything to put forth on the table?”
As for the LP that dropped in early February, Serena Williams' rumored boo said he did it to set the year off right. "It was like an offering -- that’s what it was. It was just an offering. I just wanted you to have something to start the year off. I wanted to be the first one. I wanted to set it off properly," Drake stated.
For the next album, Drake will be looking for something a little different though. “I love dancehall flows, especially as of late,” he shared. “I pretty much won’t even rap on a beat unless it’s got some magic element of new tempo or new pocket, where I hear myself and feel like I’ve stumbled upon something new.”
The interview ended with introspection as Drizzy opened up on how he wants people to see him. "I just want to be remembered as somebody who was himself. Not a product.”
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