MMIM weren’t the ones that recognized this talent. VIBE magazine had the opportunity to sit down and chat with rapper/singer Drake. They talked about everything from Degrassi, to his music career to Kanye and Wayne.
DRAMA WITH DEGRASSI:
VIBE.com: You were on Degrassi for eight years. It must have taken a lot to leave that comfort zone. When did you know it was time to go?
Drake: I can’t really say I left that show. One day we came in and all the names were just changed on the dressing rooms. Everyone got cut. We go upstairs and it’s like, “Who are all these people auditioning in the front?” They owe us a lot of money. The amount of loyalty, the years we put in with these people…they did us foul. As far as the producers go, I don’t talk to anybody over there.
Were people skeptical about your talent when they saw that the kid from Degrassi was trying to be a rapper?
Before people had heard my music they were like, “So you’re really going to be a rapper? That’s really going to be your thing?” Especially around that time, that dope boy rap was really popping. People were wondering what the hell I was going to do. And it took me a while to find my sound.
ACTOR TERNT RAPPER:
VIBE.com: There’s a shift in character from your first mixtape, Room for Improvement to your third, So Far Gone.
Drake:The first songs I made were all like “Replacement Girl” with Trey Songz. It was pretty straight forward, radio-friendly, not much content to it. And I thought that was the direction I’d go in. And then as life progressed, I grew and decided that to follow suit would truly be a waste of time.
I started to see my situation as more of an opportunity as opposed to a curse. Coming from Canada, coming from a TV show, it’s like “Wow. If I can really do something different, I may be regarded as the one of the first crossover film to music people to really be looked at as an artist.” Once I saw it like that, I started becoming more confident as a person. I started seeing my thoughts and feelings as something the world may want to hear, as opposed to some shit I just make up in my head. I think I did it a little bit on Room for Improvement. And Comeback Season was more of me proving that I had bars. Then So Far Gone was really my chance to open up and give people a true piece of myself because I had a lot going on in my life. Good things and bad.
VIBE.comStarting off unsure about pursuing a music career, what really solidified that this was the route to take?
Drake: I was friends with this kid that would put you on the spot all the time. I guess he read my rhyme books at my house and one day he just put me on blast at school. He told this kid I wanted to battle him and it became this big thing. So I went home and wrote all these rhymes for him—yeah, I cheated—came to school the next day and killed the guy.
Click here to read the entire interview.
