Rap Radar: Drake

Yeah, rapper, a top podcast. Le Will, Selena, you know what's up, babe? You know, feeling great. You believe this, man? Yo, look at this place. Third time's the charm. Did you steal from a guy who goes by the name of Dre? Yes, sir. Yeah. Thank you guys for for coming out, Shadid.

Yeah, well, we are in Toronto, Canada, at my at my house, which is a nice thing to say because it's been a few years in the making. I just moved in about like two weeks ago, maybe, so still getting settled, getting adjusted, but yeah, it's great. I was I've been just actually just had a conversation with the guys the other day because we are kind of intertwined for music, and I took like the last like two weeks to myself pretty much, and I was, you know me, I feel guilty when I don't work, so I just sent this apology letter out to everybody, like, you know, but the I say that to say the reason why is, you know, I feel like I haven't felt like my life belonged to me this much and probably in that like the whole span of my career. I mean, you know, you just get so caught up in work that um that you forget that like, you know, you have like a personal life, and this is kind of building a balance. So yeah, yeah. I mean, it really is like sort of like, I mean, I live here like pretty much by myself, you know, so yeah, it's just it's just it's just bringing me a lot of balance, a lot of peace, you know, a lot of time to reflect. You know what Oliver told me the other day? You know, I hope you're just like, you know, like lighting one spliff and just walking around the house realizing like, yo, you really did it, you know, like celebrating whole birthdays.

Oh yeah, yeah. That's what I do. I wake up in the morning, I started drinking espresso. I wake up in the morning, yeah, I started drinking espressos. I wake up, have like a, you know, a nice balanced meal, put on some great music. I don't know if you guys went to the toilet, yeah, but you know the toilet plays a part. I did. I think being, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just like, just carry it in the the space, but it's it's in it's in great, and it's uh, no, it's really it's setting me on a new path, and you know, especially at the turn of at the turn of the decade, it's almost it's almost perfect timing. You live here, but you've been living on the charts for like the last ten years, man. That's what we want to say. I mean, the main thing is, we want to say to you, to everybody, man, you're the artist of the tens. Yes, this is your decade; it's a decade of dominance, right? I just feel like that needs to be said, like I think a lot of times it's not. I mean, what, that's there was some statistic came out about like 400 weeks or something he was in the top ten or whatever it was, and then if you didn't count Sycamore where you weren't credited, it's really five hundred, like that's insane, by the way. I don't know why I wasn't credited, what would be obviously you know what you're doing, but then they just see that like really written down and see those type of stats like, what, like that's got to even impress yourself, rather, if you see that what you've been able to accomplish in these last ten years.

Yeah, I mean, usually when it's what you know when people start to put it in your face, when it's one of these moments like the turn of a decade or something, is when you really start to sort of see it more and realize it. I never let myself get too too too invested in the in the lows or the highs; that's kind of how I stay focused, but uh, but ya know, it's it's it's an incredible. I, some one of my friends sent me a video the other day, and it was just like all the top numbers from the last ten years and the people, stato know if you saw that video where all the artists start moving and taking over different spots, and that was pretty crazy because it was like for the whole like last two minutes of that video, I was just sitting at sitting up there, you know, what the exception of like getting, you know, flipped out with like PSPs. I was like, now it's it's great, man. It's um, you know, it's everything I always wanted; it's what I work tirelessly for and relentlessly, you know, just constantly trying to, you know, create, stay stay refreshing, stay consistent, you know, learning the right amount of time to take off, but you know, so yeah, but now it's over, so it's just time again. But said years ago, did you ever anticipate having to run like this?

I think I had like, I think I had things in my mind that I wanted to accomplish. I think I had the utmost faith in myself and a lot of confidence in myself. I don't necessarily know if I ever saw it going like this far, but also, you know, as you receive things in life, money, blessings, whatever, your appetite begins to grow, right? So it's like, if I give you a million dollars tomorrow, you're gonna learn what it's like to have a million dollars, and then you're gonna start being around people that have 10 million dollars or 100 million dollars; you're gonna learn that there's other things that you can't get with a million dollars. So you know, your your appetite, your appetite grows, and I think the initial visions that I had for myself just kind of manifested those goals then at that time. Um, I think when I first started out, I just wanted to be just as important as Lil Wayne because I felt like nobody was ever going to be as big as Lil Wayne like during like lollipop times and obviously at Carter 3 times, and you know, I just never seen rap be that; it just was such it was like this bright flash bulb; like I just never seen it look so massive and so big. And member like I'm on tour with the guys, so I'm I'm at his shows, and you know, I'm watching it all everything like, you know, I'm and by the way, I don't think that anybody like ever in music from now and before and the future, I don't know if they'll ever be anybody that will work harder than that guy, so that was a big a big thing that I paid attention to as well; it was just like he has the most insane work ethic, and I see like a lot of glimpses of that in like guys like Future, Thug, guys that really stay in there and they're like, again, the relentless, like yeah, but like, man, there was nothing like waiting like I used to watch, waiting cut like four or five classics and a night like joints that like would just go on to be like it would be mind-blowing, you know, get four verses often, and then like two months later, three months later, those songs would would come out of it. I can't believe this is like, you know, Make it Rain or like, you know, but but anyway, yeah, I think initially my goal, my goal was was just to be a protégé that didn't flop, you know. I just wanted to be somebody that was like remotely as important as my mentor, and yeah, from there, you know, I think a lot of things change when when we went to jail because it was really a moment of realization like, all right, this guy pretty much put all his trust and and all his like power behind us, and now like it's on our shoulders to like make sure that when he comes home, you know, it's kind of like the same thing like if your man goes in and does a bid and you guys are doing a thing together, you want to make sure that when he comes out you come pick him up in a nice car and say, yo, here, you know. So it was it was that type of responsibility where it's like, yo, we might when my guy comes home, I just want to make sure that this thing is bigger than where where where it was when we left off.

So how do you think you held it down in that period? Um, just from all the teachings, all the things that all the things that I learned, you know, I um I think I just clicked into a different zone naturally, you know, because like I said, I was out here by myself. I mean, obviously it was me and Nicki, but you know, I always felt like, okay, I'm wins, I'm Wayne's little brother, and he's dependent on me to to carry this name, you know, and at that time Young Money was a lot more connected, so I felt I felt like I felt that obligation to everybody – Mack – Nicki – Tez – you know, to really take things to whatever level I could take them to, and I think I just I think I just did it by like, again, observing him. I knew, you know, I I knew what it was to try new things on records. I wasn't I wasn't afraid; I loved to work, and Wayne always embraced me working in my own space. He never told me, oh, you have to work like me, you have to stay up these hours, you have to do these drugs, you have to; he never was like that; he never pressured me to do nothing; he always always wanted me to work the way I felt, you know, the way I've been my assistant right now, who I've been with for years. I'll never forget the first time I was like, well, look, the way I work is I need 40 here, you know, cuz he's that's my engineer, and I like, you know, he knows what to do with my vocals, Memphis, CJ, you know, who again is like, you know, we formed a 10-year we formed a 10-year bond, if not more now, but but I remember CJ being like, yo, what we're not we're gonna book this guy's boy a flight to come, they're like, just get in the booth with who we got here, you know, why we booked at his boy a flight, and Wayne, any producer, well, I mean, it was just he date we were at Hot Beats, and they had engineers, so he's like, what, like this guy's gonna fly another guy from Canada, you know, obviously CJ doing his job trying to watch over the money, you know, it was like, why are we flying in Drake's boy, or at night, I wasn't even Drake; it was probably just like, oh, why are we finding this light-skinned kid's boy if I come and help him with his music, but Wayne, you know, Wayne stood up for me, and he's like, yo, get him whatever he needs, and I think with those with those tools was how I how I was able to maintain for that that stretch of whatever it was. I think there's a little under a year, but you know, just to have it primed for him to touch road again and and and know that it didn't take some deep plummet to the bottom, you know, is just it was it was bigger than ever. I think we need by the time he came out, even musically, it sounded like you changed as well, because like you listen to your old records, it sounds like someone's doing a bad impersonation of you. It is like fast-forward; it sounds like night and day.

Yeah, I mean, like, used to stretch out the vowel, yes, like that's be honest, yeah, you know, moving forward, it change was that coming was that stemming from that situation with Wayne? Oh, I think that was just the times, man. It was like finding myself, you know, you you can always hear you can always hear a rapper finding themselves if you give them more than like five or ten years, you know. So yeah, I mean, I used to rap like button back in the day, like what, just like with the way I used to try and get like certain flows off, and then you know, when when I met Wayne, I realized that the goal was to like get bars off but also have these catchy nuances that people that people can grasp on to, and I think a big thing that changed my music too was understanding the performance element, so to watch what records work on tour for Wayne or to start doing my own shows and see, okay, like cool, you know, like I do love to make, you know, R&B music, slow music, melodic music, but like, man, it feels good to have one of those slappers; like it feels good to have people screaming, they're screaming those words back at you, and they start mashing and they start going crazy, and and you know, again, your appetite starts to grow, and R&B music or Bette songs like Best I Ever Had, you know, aren't aren't enough to satisfy the palate; you want more, you know, you want to tap into two different things, and I think I'm, you know, probably the biggest case of that where it's just like I've almost left no genre untouched at this point, but that's also just because, you know, like it's been it's been quite a while, and I like to also enjoy what I'm doing. I mean, I still love making music, and part of part of loving it is is a challenge, right? Like I need it; I need new challenges, so you know, people often question like, oh, why, you know, all of a sudden you're switching your accent or making this type of music; it's not that it's just, you know, at the end of the day, I can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again because one you'll get used to it, and then you'll be over it, and – for me it's like, you know, I want I want to I want to try my hand at something, and you know, I don't I don't really think I [ __ ] it up yet, so that's that's the good.

You mention Best I Ever Had; that was your first, I guess, legitimate like serious hit, right? Like, how did that change your life? And like, it's interesting; a lot of times the song that breaks a hip-hop artist, Drew, may not even be in the setlist anymore, but that's the record that was like the record that changed everything for you, right? Yeah, I mean, yeah, Best I Ever Had was was; III remember how hopefully told the story before, but I remember that it's okay, Jake; it's the rapper in a pan. Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, I don't want to be repetitive with the stories, but I'll never forget it was Rich Paul that was telling me that uh that Uptown was the single, right? A little, no, no, sorry, it was me telling him that Uptown; I was like, yell Uptown is the one; this is what we should go in, and he was like, yo, nah, he's talking about this other one is the one, and yeah, I mean, it was it was just, you know, for lack of a better term, it was it was the definition of like zero to 100; like that [ __ ] went crazy, and you know, at a time when you know Hot 97 was thriving and radio was thriving, and yeah, that that brought in all the other like, you know, my first like celebrity admirers like other artists and other, you know, famous people just showing me that that they were listening, which is obviously, you know, through to G Robeson at the time, which is how we got Ye to do the video, and yeah, it just started feeling like, I mean, I was the fret; like if you watch that video, I'm so scared; I can't even wrap into the camera; I'm looking anywhere else but at the lens, but you know, that that day, probably shooting that video, was the first time I was like, oh [ __ ], I'm a rapper in the rap game now; this is happening. With the whole So Far Gone project, that that was gonna be your breakthrough; that was your third tape, brother. Did you feel like this was getting getting better as an artist, and this was a different?

Yeah, I knew I knew when we were finishing up at uh I knew when we were finishing up the the tape. I thought we finished recording the tape in the Beverly Hills Hotel, cuz at the time, Wayne needs to live like a like a shack like a prince. I used to have like like four – not seriously, he used to have like probably like what 30, 40, 30, 40 rooms at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I was at the Beverly Wilshire; they had a Beverly Wilshire Hotel. He's to have like 30, 40 rooms open, room service like, you know, been ready to order $1 everybody. So so yeah, at the time, you know, he was just posted up; he was posted up in in LA, and we just we were posted up to, so we decided, you know, we were gonna finish the tape out there, and I was where, you know, we we did like breeders in a lure; like Omarion came through and did his piece, and yeah, remember I remember I think there's actually a clip of it; I don't know 40 hazard if it's all in line, but we're all in the hotel room, and Jackie Long was there; we were all toasting to this to this tape, and I remember I went out to the car; I think was like a BMW like 645 or whatever, um, you know, 40 just played the played the tape fully front to back in the car, and I I remember just we just looked at each other like, y'all, I think this is I think this is it; this is really about to happen for us, you know; there's just that really showed me like, you know, what it is to have a an album with like, you know, seven or eight joints on Earth. I know people are like, they have to be invested in this; there's no way, you know, there's no way to just ignore this, you know, starting with like Lust for Life; like I knew from that from that intro, like, I dig this doesn't sound like anybody else or anything else.

Yeah, yeah, say you, well, yeah, I mean, you know, obviously like, come in that became a soul moment at the shows, like, yeah, that develop um, well, yeah, once people started I mean, once people started sharing the tape, like at the time, you know, back it back in those days, yeah, it really had to spread from word-of-mouth, you know, it would really, you know, it was it was still people playing the CD in their car, and it was that whole who is this moment, which is, by the way, the best moment for any artists in music, you know, don't today. Yeah, don't ever don't ever not like just be present in your who is this moment, cuz you're gonna be chasing that who is this moment for the rest of your career, trying to keep people as interested as they were when they felt like they were one of the only people listening to you. So if they were gifted the music from a friend just by being in the same car, and now they've taken So Far Gone with them back to their school or their neighborhood, and they started, you know, shared, that was that was the beauty of back in the day when it when it wasn't like, you know, so readily accessible, and new stuff dropping every day, and and you know, still, I think there are people who scour all platforms to find that next wave in that next sound, and I still get joy out of getting new music from friends of mine sharing, yeah, but but your who is this moment is a big moment, so far gone for all new artists. Please be present in that moment because it it does escape you, and you'll be trying to get it back forever. So but your question was, say you will remember I started seeing like on the now writes and all that we like you waited to see you do the freestyle to say you will, and again would just go craziness. Well, I think it was also because I made that a part of the show that was unpredictable. So at the time, I was legit, you know, getting sometimes I would, you know, do the first few bars and then switch it, or I would genuinely just freestyle with the auto-tune, you know, so I think people started being like, oh, what's what's he what's going to be said tonight, but yeah, a lot of just a lot of those a lot of those things picked up, and even just like solidifying my relationships with places like, you know, Houston, Lana Vegas, really solidified my relationship with Houston, Texas, obviously as well as November 18, but you know, expressing my my admiration and love for that place because it you know, it has such a it's it's such a big piece of all my realization that this was happening, you know. I mean, me and me and Wayne, I know I've told the story before, me and Wayne, you know, met at the hotel Derek; that was the first place I'd ever really…

I've flown out of Canada for anything besides Degrassi, so I flew to Houston. And you know, I went on the bus, and Wayne was getting the biggest tattoo, bleeding out with, like, black ink. I was like, I was just like, "Oh, this is crazy." And then I remember just sitting there, and like, I'm looking up, and like, Kobe Bryant walks on the bus, you know, to get his, like, Carter III iPod because he wanted to get the album early. But, you know, so Houston was a big part of my story and my—the first time my eyes got really wide. So yeah, I think that that tape was also important in solidifying relationships, like that solidifying the fact that I can do more than one thing was a big deal to, like, you know, with a night off and Bria's interlude. And then, you know, having the bars from, say, you know, "Say What's Real," or, you know, the Uptown's or whatever, just showing people that, you know, this—this is gonna be an exciting artist, it's a singing and rapping, like, unleash.

Jon Caramanica wrote an article about you: "set a blueprint for the newer generation to come," and everybody on Twitter went crazy. But it wasn't—it wasn't saying that rappers hadn't been saying it before you, but—we—people who met—I realize all the heat you caught in the beginning. Yeah, you were. And like, so what was your take on all that? Started hearing that, bruh? Yeah, I mean, well, now it's like—it's obviously, I guess there's a lot of people who contributed to that—to that thing. Like, there's people who inspired me, you know, obviously 50 Cent, you know, "21 Questions" will probably be my most inspiring example of a guy, you know, who's not supposed to be singing, singing, and girls loving it and going crazy. Obviously, you had, you know, T-Pain and Wayne doing their, you know, their style of things, which was huge. And you know, and then you—and then obviously another major example was someone who always makes the massive commitment when, you know, when everyone else is wavering, he's gonna go in fully commit, which is 808s, you know, a guy who's known for—for his bars and his rapping, comical, you know, rapping on *College Dropout* and *Late Registration*, going straight to like, you know, just basically, are singing—a singing album inspired by like genres and music that maybe people in rap didn't even, you know, know about. But I think that, you know, I always give credit where credit is due, so I credit all those people with—with that—with that movement. I think I was probably the one that took it the furthest, to go and make like full-blown R&B songs and just to kind of not be like afraid. Like, to me, like making music for girls is just the—the easiest thing you could do. So I was never really—you know, out of all the things that people will say about me, I was never affected by the whole like, ah, you know, "this is softer," "this is—he's emotional," or whatever, because I was just kind of like—I mean, I guess I just make music for, like, dusty guys and [ __ ], but like, that's just not really like what inspires me, you know. So yeah, I was always just super hyped to be that guy. And—and I think over the years—over the years and leading into this next decade, you know, it's something I've grown to just embrace—embrace more. It's actually a piece of my—my musical character that I love the most, which is just the fact that I, you know, I do both those things and almost am able to split the time evenly.

Yeah, yeah. I never lean too heavy towards one or the other. Yeah, again, I try and find that balance. But yeah, I mean, I definitely was a part of it, you know, especially now, like a lot of the music that's coming out now is like, you know, these kids are like singing deep emotional pain, you know, like, you know, you get like a lot of, you know, a lot of the guys like—I mean, so many, but like, you know, a kid like YNW Melly who like just has the craziest melodies, pain in his voice, you know, but not afraid to just be like, "Yeah, sure, like I might be this way on road, but I'm—not music—this is what is—is what I enjoy doing." And you know, or I mean, there's so many of them that I could not—tip my hat to and—and—and pay my respects to. A lot of these kids right now are just breaking the boundaries of—of what—of what—what music is. It's just no longer black and white, and I love—I love it. Yeah, I'm really happy. But that's part of, like, your legacy, you know. And I feel like since the beginning, you always legacy-minded. I saw like in previous interviews and Complex and even like on Underground Kingz, you talked about how like, "I'm the greatest," you know, you said it before you knew you was—was that—did you always have this confidence coming into it, just thinking about the long game?

Yeah. And I also feel often that that things that I repetitively think about or say, I'm able to manifest, like, you know, this house, for example. I manifested this because I obsessively used to take my uncle's—out, and I used to take a girl to Yonge and Eglinton Silver City to the movies and then to Pickle Barrel for dinner because I was—you know, "What I'm gonna miss ya," we'll be excited, no chicken fingers and fries, you know. Okay? And then I used to go tell her like, "Go—you—you want to go see where I'm a live one day? Yeah, 'cause this is where I'm gonna live one day." And my uncle had a—Howdy Drop, and I used to drive these same three streets right here that used to be my route right there. I used to come down—down Park Lane where we're at, then back—back to Post Road and back Bridle Paths. And I used to—and Prince used to live around here. Uh-huh. So I used to—I used to pretend like I knew which one Vincent's house was. Every night I'd pick a different house. But yeah, I just—I truly believe, you know, a lot of those things I—I said, they may not have been the case at the time, but I did believe that they were possible.

What is interesting though to now, because with all the success though, I don't necessarily—if you *Thank Me Later*, your debut is like the hip-hop debut success. We've seen a lot of artists have their—their debut album, whatever that means in this sense, I think so far, but you know, mixtapes are albums now—now that—lose one project. But back then, *Thank Me Later* was—built—this is gonna be your studio album video debut, and to me, it wasn't the complete victory that maybe you intended it to be. I think *Thank Me Later* was the one and only project that I have where I was in that big label—that—that—like artists just got signed, record label, "We're gonna get you features, and here's what we think could—" That was like probably the only one of my albums that was remotely influenced by my—by that—by where I was at in my career at the time. I think I felt a lot of pressure to prove that I knew like big famous people, just being from where I was from and stuff like, you know, like I just wanted to show like Toronto, like, "Look who I got on that album," and—and—and yeah, I think I like made majority of that album on a tour as well. I think we were eager to get it out, and I still—you know, I still love it as part of my story, but—but yeah, it was definitely—it was definitely probably the one project that like maybe had like the least personal touches, and it was just really about like, "How big can we look, and how big can we be?" And that was just kind of just based off how people were making me feel like, "Yo, you need to be—" You know, it was just—it wasn't—it was in a different era, man. I was in an era where like, you know, people—you felt dwarfed by pop stars and superstars, and there was no like, "Oh, I can just get famous from my mom's basement." Like, I was the lottery—I was the lottery-winning lottery ticket. Yes, I was like—but not even the number one draft pick. I was like the—I was like the lightning that got hit by lightning, and now I can like fly—like in—you know—and now I'm like invisible, like, you know, I was like—I was—I was a rare—rare—rare case. And yeah, I think I just felt a lot of pressure to be like, oh, like, you know, "I'm gonna kill something with Jeezy and Jay-Z and Alicia Keys," and I was just enamored by like the whole space, you know. I was just—it was just pretty crazy to me that any of these people would even make music—so yeah, I think that's the best way to describe that album was, you know, kind of a victim of my surroundings at the time—and not like victim, but like a product of my—product of my surroundings at the time, you know, really just trying to—trying to execute for the people around me. And also, I'm pretty sure being from Canada was some pressure, you know, coming out of Toronto.

I saw the previous interview with Complex, like in 2009, you said like, "The city is known for hate," and he never had really had an icon, but you know, like a hometown hero, but now you're the guy. Like, how does that feel, you know, look, being looked on as that person? I think—I think that it's just probably the most important—probably the most important achievement of mine, which would just be—you like—well, there's a few layers to it, so it'd be giving—giving the city an identity at a time where, you know, I remember wheat—like a lot of my friends and stuff used to speak with like fake American—be or like, you know, if they went—something like if they went—instead like a summer in like Buffalo, they'd be like, "Yeah, I'm from New York—up from Detroit," and they don't like Windsor for the night. Yeah, it was just a different time. Nobody was really proud to be from—from here within the music scene, like it—we used to be called the Screwface Capital. We just had this thing where like, I don't know, we—was wanted to—I think—I think everyone was just waiting and being like, "Yo, will it—will it ever happen?" You know? And—and so you get a bunch of people kind of just competing at the same level for the same shows and the same radio spots and stuff, and it breeds a lot of head-butting. And yeah, I think—I think as we—as we started to rise, the biggest thing and the most important thing was that everyone else got to see that it was possible. Because at the time, the pitch was far-fetched. Like, "Okay, so you're telling me this Canadian Jew child actor is gonna be—what is gonna be—like someone that we say is in our top five—top whatever. It's like—it was—it was a hard sell. And I think that it took—it took me probably being the furthest candidate and—and—and making it happen for everybody else just to realize like, you know, it's like even with like—man, all these guys like—you—you look at the footage of Abel downtown Toronto singing, you know, back when he was just roaming the—roaming the streets and, you know, and just up to no good, but just had raw talent. And you know, Tory Lanez who used to be like outside like shopping malls trying to battle people and [ __ ], like, you know, all these people had drives, and—and all these people had—had talent. And I think that just the—the—the realization that is possible was extremely important. I don't credit myself for anything other than that. I don't credit myself for just opening that—that next chapter in everyone's minds where it's like, "All right, like if this person can do this, I can do this too." That's only thing I ever want to take credit for. And when it comes to, you know, when it comes to whatever—whatever the—whatever impact I had on other artists from the city, because I truly believe that all these people deserve to be where they're at and, you know, probably would have found their way, but I think that that moment was a turning point for everybody. Like, "Yo, that's crazy, and like I got to get—like I—I know I can get there too." So that was—that was—that was big, man. I was big for daycare—was the first bridge of bringing that to the table. That's so—do you feel—only take care—you kind of took control back in your career in a sense and built—you and 40 building your sound?

Yeah, I think I just like really came back home, you know, after running around with Wayne on God knows how many tours and studio nights. And yeah, it just kind of came back home and—and reconnected with my friends, reconnected with, you know, 40 sonically. We reconnected and just realized that we have a true opportunity to again establish ourselves separately from everybody else. So that was when we were truly hell-bent on—"We're gonna have our own sound that sounds like our city, and it's gonna be—and it's gonna be dark, and it's gonna be moody, and it's gonna sound like how cold it feels outside." And—and of course, Oliver being a genius that he is, goes, "Well, look, I got this kid—come downstairs in the rain and listen to this kid, his name's The Weeknd," and like, you know. So that was a huge thing was just like, you know, realizing that there was just other kids cooped up in this dark—a studio cooking up dark music, you know. And—and again, like I remember even like during those times, like, just being inspired by different things. Like, I remember when Abel first played me "Dirty Sprite 2," and we were just like, "Oh, man, this is happening in Atlanta—somebody's—somebody's on—on," and like it was just—it was over, like, you know, like disrespect to—you know, no disrespect when I—when I say this, but like, you know, the days of like just trying to get like a pop smash with Alicia Keys on the hook was like—it was over. Yeah, I didn't want that anymore—on me. I didn't—I just didn't want—I didn't need a shiny big—I just needed something that like I can look back on and say, "Now that—now that's me—that's me and my friends and my city and my people." And yeah, I think from there, I've never—I've never strayed from anything. You don't—before you kind of read the file what it hit is in a sense, right? Because you're this chart-topper, but all you listen to these songs, they're not like what we were taught were—like some of them are, but some of them aren't—most of them aren't like what you would think the radio single is. Do you—do you think you sort of read the file where the hit is because this is—he—um—

Yeah, I mean, I don't know what we were thinking at the time when we decided to drop "Marvin's Room" as like a lead thing. So yeah, I definitely think that we—we've always kind of—um—we've always kind of—I guess broke the mold in that—in that regard, and it just continues—it continues. I—I mean, even all the way up until "God's Plan," right? Like, "God's Plan" was a song that I recorded like on a whim in my condo and thought nothing of it. I only had the first verse and the hook. I sent it to Trippie, and I was like, "Yo, maybe this could work for your album," and he was obviously, you know, caught up busy, whatever, doing his thing. I know people punished him for that; they shouldn't punish him for that, though. You know, sometimes artists—artists send a song—you know, I was looking through my texts the other day, and Young Thug sent me that Lil Baby song to get on, and I was so mad 'cause I just—like Lil Baby off his—off so much. He had seven—yeah, well, he had sent me like 12 songs, but in that 12-song package, Lil Baby was in there. I was like, "Damn, that's like my one of my favorite—how did I not get a verse off on there?" But uh—but yeah, you know, I—uh—I sent—I sent it to him, and you know, whatever—whatever happened, it didn't really work out that way, and then it leaked, and people forced my hand because they were like, "Yo, that [ __ ] sounds hard," and we had to rush and around because I was worried that another artist was gonna get a diversion and just start playing like random verses on it, you know, which back in the day was a huge hustle for people getting leaks with like one verse—idea leaks and then like a random artist off like, you know, whatever would just be like, "Yeah, this is me and Drake's news." But yeah, so we rushed—like I remember like that night when the clips came out and MP—I think it was like around New Year's Eve, right? Yeah. And—um—we were rushing—rushing—rushing to try and turn it around in the next two days, and I remember I just was like, "Y'all have to do a second verse—it has to be hard," and I did the line—you know, the line of the song, you know, "I only loved my bed and my mama," you know. And—and when Noel put the job on that line, I was like, "Okay." But—but even then, I mean, you know, I never—my point is, I never would have like—I never could have told you a week before that that "God's Plan" was my single and it was gonna be the biggest song of my career. I never would have known that, and that my hand just got forced. And it is truly, you know, I—I do feel as though I like—I can put in the maximum amount of effort, I can use all my heart of my soul, you know, in my writing, but at the end of the day, I am being guided by some other power. I don't know what it is, but somebody likes me somewhere, you know, and it's just—that's just the facts, you know, like I—a lot of this is organic; it's not that—it's not that calculated. And so yeah, when we talk about singles not being traditional, it's just—it just kind of works out that way. I think we all have a good ear, and there's, you know, there's a core ten—eight to ten people that I really look to for opinion, and once those people tell me that—once one—yeah, the ever-elusive one—once those—once those people, you know, gimme—gimmi—they're—they're not—of approval, then, you know, I'm usually comfortable enough to say, "Well, [ __ ] it—let's try." And again, I don't—I don't—I can't think of that many times—that's the thing—a lot of artists to the point where it is successful, they don't even listen to any of—even eight other people's voices. Like, they—

Yeah, at this point of your career, you're still willing to say that feedback from your core—from your team—

Yeah, I mean, I think—I think I'm way too self-conscious to not—to not like require approval from people who I respect. I mean, I'm—you know, I'm—I'm a very insecure person when it comes to my music, and especially when we're talking about starting a whole new chapter like what we're working on now. And that's only because until you've surrendered it to the world, you really don't know how people are gonna feel about it. And even when you surrender to the world, now we're in the times where, you know, the first reaction is just people just want to say that like it's the funniest [ __ ]. So it's always like the—the album will drop in at 12:01—trash—trash—trash bins, you know, whatever—whatever for any—for any artist, you know, it's like, you know, I think people are more—more excited about, you know, being top comment than being, you know, actually really taking an album and listening. But inevitably, you need music in your life, so then to—three weeks passes, and you get an honest gauge on what you just surrendered. On you set on—motionless—you set—opinions from total strangers take you out of your ways that still bother you at this point in your—correct?

Um, depends on—depends on what narrative we're talking about, you know, but definitely—of course, there's things—you know, we are currently in a time where the stand-up comedian is a—is a—is a—like—is it—it's almost like a newspaper—

The new comedian is, is, is the just people with no filter on social media platforms. And while they are extreme, I mean while they are undefeated and extremely fun, yeah, of course, people can start saying things that, that, that hurt you, that bother you, that take you, you [ __ ] your day up, take you out of your character. Especially when they're just like there, they're curated by a group of people that are ready for the downfall of Drake in this case. So it's like, you know, it can be some, it can be some, it can be some hurtful stuff. And when it's, when it's completely false, and when it's, you know, when it, when it hits you, rubs you the wrong way, of course, I mean, I, I think I don't know anybody who ever tells you they're not—it's not—why don't you stay engaged? Like you, you, you're on Instagram, you're active, you'll like things, will see your presence, will fill your presence on Instagram. Like, yeah, I just can't find that balance, and they don't want to be on social media. Yeah, I just feel like then, then they beat me, you know, because I enjoy social media. It's good for so many things, you know. I've met so many great people, so many great songs have come from me being active and me actually checking my DM, or me, you know, you know, I've had great friendships form over social media. I met great women over social media, full disclose. But uh, works. Yeah, but you know, yes. So I feel like, you know, for people just to like, just cuz you know a few bad apples want to violate it, it would be a shame for me to just like be like, I can't deal with this. It also is just like, I mean, a bill, it builds strength, you know, as, as tough as it may be, it definitely strengthens your character. I mean, I've heard it all, I've seen it all, I felt the worst of the worst, and I felt the best of the best. So it's like, it's nice to be aware of all those emotions, you know. I definitely keep them in my, in my Arsenal, in my, in my, in my mind, you know, and you can use them to channel into other things.

Musically, like when it comes to criticism, I'm like you said, mentioned earlier, how some people might say, hey, Drake's appropriating this culture of music or, you know, for your own personal gain, how do you feel about those kind of critiques? Um, I think that there, it's kind of a similar thing, they're curated by a bunch of people who just aren't on this, weren't on this boat to begin with. I like, even the definition of appropriating a culture is, 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 that it was ever inspired from this—that's, that's, that's the true disservice that somebody could do to the UK, to dancehall, afro beats. Me, I've always, always, always met—well, any time I embark on one of those journeys, I ensure that I'm not only paying all due respects verbally, but like I give, I mean, I make a point to give, give it, give the opportunity to people that I respect, you know.

That's like been a constant theme throughout all of your albums. Like, yeah, a lot of new artist looks. Yeah, 100%. I mean, again, I'm not one of those people that can be inspired by something and be like, oh well, that was inspiring, thanks, and then like just move on with, with it, like, you know, under my arm, like running down the field. I got a, I got it, like, you know, at least honor the person that handed me off the football before I ran for the touchdown, you know. I definitely feel like, like because I can, because when I do things they do get magnified and amplified, people can sometimes feel uncomfortable, like, okay, like, you know, one dance goes number one, and now all of a sudden, you know, this Afro-inspired, but it's like, yeah, but like, you know, Wizkid was on the song with me, and like, you know, I had blessings from like the real dons in that space, you know. I know those guys, I linked with those guys, they go to their shows, they come to my shows, they touch my stage. So it's like, you know, the chatter is one thing, but in, in the community amongst the real G's that are really doing a [ __ ], I'm solidified for sure. You can ask anybody, nobody's gonna sit there and say, yeah, like anybody that with real respect that's in any of these communities, you're talking about any of these genres, nobody's gonna be like, yeah, you know, it's gonna be the guys that are like, you know, that didn't get the look, yeah, you know, or guys that like are no longer even relevant in that space, but they have a radio interview that day and they want to be like, oh yeah, Drake, yeah, I'm doing Jamaican music is wack, you know. But it's like they're all so mad that OVO signed Popcaan, they're all so mad that I was with Lavato back in the day, they're mad, you know, I linked with this person and that person and not them. So, you know, some people also feel it—you can always tell when it's personal, right, fueled by personal, personal gain that was never granted.

There it's interesting because like listening to your music, is like you're super successful, you're one of the best to ever do it, yet you still have this chip on your shoulder. I remember listening to Diplomatic Immunity, you know, you have the line where you say you're black excellence, but it was come to you, it's not the same though, like why do you think that still like, I guess that dark cloud is over you, over your head? Well, I think I've been in a lot of rooms and in a lot of conversations and just felt, I felt the other side of, of judgment, and you know, racial judgments sometimes, like being, being light-skinned, you know, being Canadian, having people that I look up to and respect tell me that I can identify with what's going on because, you know, granted, I'm also not the most outspoken person when it comes to political issues. I prefer to talk about it amongst my people, and if we're gonna do something, I prefer to go and make the change or actually, actually do something and not just like post about it so that people are like, oh wow, this guy is really conscious about what's going on, like, you know, the work we put it in the communities, you know, the way we give back is, is legit, it's on the ground, you know, it's not, it's not so you guys can all just like, you know, double tap and say wow, oh my god, Drake. So like you said, if you hold your tongue, you'll get crucified. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you know, sometimes you can feel that way, but now I just feel like, now I feel like the first reaction is, is to post about something, and then people often just forget to do anything about what they posted about, you know. But I, I think, I think, I think that there's definitely a sad thing that goes on amongst, in celebrity culture where people post things because they feel like they're obligated to, people post things because they know that it makes them look like they're actively in, in certainty, but they're really not, you know, they're really actually not giving their money or building any, any, any, any opportunities for kids, building basketball courts, building schools, helping kids get through, you know. So yeah, I'm just one of those people, I just like to, I like to really do it, you know, and especially, you know, what moved me in, and The Elusive One, you know, we, uh, we, uh, we, we, you know, it's something that we really, we really just, we really just do it from way back in a day, from Strawberry Mansion times, from, you know, we were, we've always left our footprint in the community in a real way, even back in Jamaica, you know, when, when I did shoot the video there, like we didn't just go shoot the video, when I went and shot Find Your Love, we didn't just shoot the video and did, you know, we built a place for people to come, we left our money there, we let, you know, it was so.

Yeah, going back to your, going back to your question, no, I, I just felt the other side of it, so that's kind of where that line came from, you know. I obviously understand the times that we're living in and how serious it is and how divided we all are across the world, you know, with, with this, with this, you know, with the person that's, that's currently in the, in that position, and you know, having that, that energy trickle on down, but that line is just me speaking to the other side of things, which is like, you know, sometimes, like, you know, some of like my blackest friends can be just as, as cruel on the other end, you know, by making you feel excluded or making you feel like you're not, you're not, you can't get in on this, and, and sometimes I do feel like, sometimes I do feel like if, you know, sometimes I don't feel celebrated when I know maybe somebody else would be celebrated for those accomplishments, you know. I don't feel like people say when, when, when, when Drake is the artist of the decade, I don't think anybody says, wow, a black artist is the artist of the decade, I don't think anybody says that really, I never heard anybody say that in the last few weeks, you know, and I associate my, you know, my associate myself as a black man, so for me, I, yeah, it just sometimes I, something, it's something that I just acknowledged, I just keep it moving, but you know, like I said, I feel like if the situation was different, I feel like maybe some of the, some of the massive accomplishments and accolades that we've, that we've, that we've conquered on behalf of all of us, not just me, it's not like some, you know, it's for all of us, right, just like how excited I am when anybody else in our space does something great, you know.

Yeah, of course, there's a part of me that wishes that I was celebrated a little more. I mean, we wants to listen to me cry about you talk about a kid when we rankling tell people celebrate talk about what records in classes, so what albums are classics and those kind of hip-hop standards, like do you view your catalogue that way? Do you view like Take Care of classic? Like do you get caught up in that in any way or do you try to stay objective about? Oh well, again, like I know that there's a narrative, I know that there's like a narrative that is appealing to certain people to latch on to, which is like, hard Drake doesn't even have a classic, great doesn't even have a classic, which is obviously, I mean, it's just not, that's not true, but it's just not, but also it's just tough to be like in the moment talking about classics, like we're still in the moment, right? Like, you know, like I have, I have, I have trouble defining what a classic is anymore. To me, a, a classic would be a body of work that shaped that year and the years and the years afterwards and had a massive, massive impact on the music being made on the culture, you know. So in that regard, like yeah, for sure, I think I have classic albums, you know, which will go on, Take Care, I think So Far Gone is, is definitely because it being technically my first, you know, recognized offering out. Yeah, yeah. I definitely think that, I definitely think, I definitely think Take Care, of course, is, is it was a big moment, you know, was a class. I hate, I had like, I, I don't like to give myself compliments, so it's tough for me to say, I need something else. I talked to her, hope loves to debate about where his albums rank, weird, ska, goofy ranks, like yeah, to have this output in this decade, do you view your albums as like these is just where I was at that time and this is my story, but I don't want to judge them almost each other. Oh, that's, yeah, I think they all just, they all just stand alone for what they are, and I think when you just look at the year in review of that year, I mean, you can, there's not too many of those albums that you can say that I had one that wasn't important, you know, maybe with the exception of like More Life being a bit of like a bit more of like just an impromptu, but like, you know, even for me, like, you know, even for me, obviously, if you're reading this was a huge moment, and I think as the years progress, you know, views and, and Scorpion will also be the albums that you just can't really ignore based on the amount of songs on those albums that were, that were important in the space in that year, you know, like, you know, Scorpion obviously is a high-volume album, but you know, it's also like nice for what, in my feelings, gods playing non-stop, it's a, you know, yes. My favorite Drake album was Nothing Was the Same. Yeah, and I feel like why is this, why is this still your favorite? I feel like maybe Kendrick's ascension at the time, you know, was part of it, but I feel like it wasn't fully embraced as I thought it should have been. Yeah, yeah. I don't know, it was, it again, as time progresses, I have a lot of people come to me and say, you know what, I like Nothing Was the Same better than Take Care, it's just time has to pass for people to like, you know, I also make, I make music that age as well, so, so sometimes you have to revisit some of the projects and realize how, you know, how well they were asking letters, they'll go. Yeah, yeah. The reason why Nothing Was the Same is my favorite album is because of the fact that it was probably my most concise album, and within that concise offering was a lot of, a lot of great [ __ ]. So it's like, you know, I didn't need to go make, for example, 25 songs at that time, I had, I think it's like 15 songs on there, somebody, and it's like, it's, it's a great number, I just like where it sits, and I like the ratio of like, you know, there's, I don't know, I just, there's not, there's not too many songs on our album that I can look back on and say I would have done something different there, you know. I really do like that body of work.

Do you listen to some of your old stuff when I'm making a new album? Yeah, okay. I'll reference it. I actually do this thing where I chart out all my, so I'll write each tracklist out, and then up, and then I'll pick a number, so I'll say like, you know, like right now I have like this, this new album up, up next, we'll take care, and I'll say, okay, like if I had to like, let me take all the songs I have to batch of songs, and let me start plugging them in places and just see how does this stack up to, to an album like that. So I often challenge myself in that way, we're all taking album and just, you know, if I had to, if I had to clash that old album with this new album, what would I put where? What would be the intro that I would say, you know, could compete with Over My Dead Body and what, you know, what's, what's gonna be my Marvin's Room, what's gonna be my Headlines, but you know, so just trying to like, using it as a road map almost. You mentioned If You're Reading This, you know, that intro's a legend, you know, talking about the legacy, at what point do you say, did you realize that, yo, I, if I die and I'm on the [ __ ] legend again? I think it was just one of those, one of those, those overly confident statements that felt like a great note to start an album on. I definitely think in the last probably five years or four years I've really realized that far after I'm gone from here that I will be a part of music history, and to me, that, that is a legendary thing, you know, because there's just so many incredible artists over all these years, and you know, when I think back up people, I used to just look at pictures of when I was like five years old or like, you know, and just to think that like people even mention my name and the same sentences any of those individuals is lets me know that I've accomplished something far beyond probably my wildest dreams, you know. That project's obviously riddled with controversy because of Quentin Miller, right? A lot of people feel like, well, he helped you with some songs, and even to this credit, I feel like you're still battling these ghost-riding rumors and this type of thing that in some sense, some sense I think does try to tarnish your legacy, whether it's effective or not, like does that, how does that album, how do you look back on an album and does that still take away anything from that album for you, or how do you view it now? When you look at it now, I really have, you know, I've really made my peace, I have no embarrassment when it comes to what I did on that album, you know. I mean, I worked with somebody on, I think four or five songs on that record, I pulled my weight when it came to my pen, it wasn't like I just, you know, I didn't, it wasn't like I needed somebody to facilitate, you know, entire ideas, we work together, and if I need to be the poster child that took all those hits for all my peers hiding behind me that do the same thing every [ __ ] album, that's fine, I'll do it, you know, because there's a lot of people that link up with other people and make records that you guys love, you know, and that's kind of how music is, a collaborative thing, you know, it's, it's, and I understand, and rap of course, in your comments section, it's a little different because we, we conduct ourselves, and I still associate myself in that community, we conduct ourselves by a few different rules, we tweak the rules a little bit in the sense that it's okay, yeah, it's like, you know, there's things like that, you know. But you know, with that being said, like, you know, I, anybody that knows me knows that my strongest talent is writing, that is my strongest talent, I'm not a great singer, I'm a great, I'm a good performer, I've grown into a great performer, but my greatest talent is writing, you know, and that's why people ask me to write songs for them, that's why people like to get in the room and write with me, and yeah, I want to just encourage anybody like, look, if it makes a great song and you're the one that's voicing it, but it's you and this other person that's cooking it up, you're not doing anything wrong, you know, and that's like, just again, for me speaking to any new artist like, don't let anybody tell you that you're not supposed to collaborate on, you that's, that's what this is for, we should, you know, whatever, whatever gets you to that destination where you have, you know, a great body of work, if you need somebody to write the whole thing and all you do is just go in and track it, there's still artists that, that exist like that to this day that people love and revere and they sell out stadiums, that's not, you know, that's not, you know, I wrote all, by the way, all my biggest songs and any song that really, really did damage for me, I've wrote every single lyric, so that like, yeah, not even know the hits and the ones that you would like, it's like I never, I'm not gonna collaborate with somebody on any of the timestamp records, I'm not collaborating, I'm not collaborating with anybody on, you know, Marvin's Room or, you know, like the R&B records that are suit, you know, other than me and Party, there, I love working with Party. You say the times I record that is like the MC like the Azureus, right? It was like, so what? I think the idea was like, try to discredit using them, seeded that all of that doesn't come from your pen, of course is saying that comes from your pen, but again, curated by the people who are ready to see the downfall of Drake, so again, just another, another little like, let's try this angle, you know, it's, it's really any, like, again, like I said, I've done studio sessions with people, I've all, when I collaborate with people, I always send the idea first, you know, I'm

The one that picks the beat and goes, "Oh, here, just put it, put a, put a verse on this and take that for your album, you're single or whatever," you know? I put work in, and people know me. I'm good for it, you know. So that's why I'm never really stressed about like that narrative. It's cool; it's fun. Again, it's cool for like memes and people that want to laugh and all that dumb [ __ ], but I feel in that moment of me sort of putting that out there, and then everything goes crazy. Right? Oh god.

It was your friend, you know? Things, things get a little hectic with you guys at that point, right?

Yeah, yeah. He was uh, I think he was in a, he was in a bad mental spot, and yeah, he just made like a decision to, to go crazy, you know? It was uh, if I remember correctly, it was based on a show that I didn't show up for that was really was like the tipping, tip of the iceberg. I think we had, we had a little miscommunication, and he was under the impression that I confirmed that I was pulling up to one of his shows, and I think it was one, maybe one at Philly, and I didn't, and I didn't show up. And you know, my management, somebody reached out to say I wasn't coming. And I think, you know, that being coupled with whatever, you know, conversations were happening amongst him and his lady, and you know, him just kind of getting this idea and maybe I don't [ __ ] with him or whatever, whatever. And you know, he'll tell you himself, he wasn't in the best mental spot at that time, and you know, I think he just took a hard left and decided to just go for it and felt like he had that enough ammunition to maybe, you know, put a major dent in my armor or, or decapitate me, you know?

And again, I'm really, I'm really good at channeling those, those that negativity and those pressures into pushing me to a next level where I just, I go into a calculated reactive space, charge back to bed. You almost took a bully position, like, "Where y'all at?"

Yeah, I mean, I just, I just felt like, you know, in that moment I was like, all right, well, if we're talking about music, let me just show you better than I couldn't tweet you, you know? Or better than I couldn't text you. Let me, I'm just gonna show you what I'm about. And I don't think, I don't think anybody really expected me to just jump out there and defend myself and go, and go first, and it's Weiss. So yeah, I think, yeah, you know, "Charged Up" was, was uh, was it, it was the thing that, you know, I was just seeing, I was just seeing if it was real. I was just seeing if it was, because you know, you never know how calculated someone's playing is. Maybe they've been sitting on the record for six months, they hated you all this time, and then they just want to fry you. And so "Charged Up" was my way of being like, you know, "Is it real or is this just like a sporadic like outburst," you know?

Yeah, I just wanted to know if it was real, if it was a package or if it was just like maybe like a mistake on his part, you know? And I started to realize that it was there, an adversarial stance, innocence.

Yeah, yeah. And then, and then I had made the decision that I was gonna, I've made a decision that I was gonna go again. And I remember I was, I was working on some, some beat, I think it's like a Boy Wonder beat or something like that, and it was like kind of more like rapping, you know? It was gonna be another like 100-bar thing, and uh, and uh, I was with Serena at the time, and uh, we had been talking a lot about, about her and Sharapova going back and forth over the years, and uh, she had made this, made this comment to me, and she was like, "Well, look, if you're gonna go, if you're gonna go again, you know, you, you," that she's like, "That beat that's on in there, it's just," she's like, "You gotta finish it," she, and you know, she's a top competitor, so she was like, "You got to finish it, like I'm talking about, done, over, and it's got to be something that got everyone that he's with and him, half to here, can't ignore it," right? You can't, you can't do some [ __ ] that's just for the moment, and then it goes away. Yeah, she kind of put this battery on my back, funny enough. And then at the time, just, you know, again, timing, this kid Dax walked into, walked in the studio, and never met him before, played a beat, and it was the first beat, right? And it was slow, it was super slow, it was way slower than it was, and then I told 40 like, "Yo, speed, speed it up a bit," and that was just when we heard that, me, mmm-hmm. I just went, "It's a demon mode," alright.

And then, you know, from the ha me, I really, you know, I don't like to glorify a situation or talk about too much, obviously, because, well, I'm just giving you the background on how it happened, but you know, I'm not trying to sit here be like, yeah, my record was so conciliation. I mean, the bosses show you, bring them out, like a lot has happened after that battle, right? I mean, you could write a whole, you could do a whole 30 for 30 on, mmm-hmm, a battle, right? But oh yeah, there's, I mean, by the way, you know, also these things go to another, another place, right? So you know, one thing I could tell you firsthand is like, you know, Meeks not a pretender, he's not a joker, he's not like beefing with some of these other rap guys where it's like their stories all made up, and they're, they're really not their characters, not like that makes me really about that, mm-hmm. And so, you know, and I can tell you firsthand, straight up, you know, I'm not gonna, you know, I know obviously he's made a change in his life, but I'll be the first to tell you that meets that guy for real. So it's like I wasn't beefing with no punk, right? You know? And it's like, yeah, for us to be able to turn that, turn that up, turn that around was, it was a big thing. I think, I think we both felt our obligation just to everybody that had eyes on us, all these young kids, we had to turn that around 'cause we know how far it was, it could, it was going.

Yeah, and almost went, you know? So we talked about reconciliation, you know, obviously have Kris Meeke, Tori Puff, to an extent, you know, and things have been as aspirated by, push it. At this point in your career, in your life, do you think you could ever squash things on many things with it?

Well, you know, I mean, I'm gonna, I'm at a great healing place in my life, which is why all those people you mentioned, all those people you mentioned, I really never, when I really break down the issues, when I started to sort of stop thinking from such a confrontational, paranoid, violent standpoint, I started to just really break down, what's our issue again? What is this over again? Like, it's over a fight we had in like 2009, or it's over, you know, it's over the fact that we're from the same city, or it's over, you know, I was able to, you know, I was able to, to mend a lot of those situations. A lot of people ask me like, you know, why, but why are you doing is, why, why, why would you do it? And I want, I want mostly I wanted my closest friends to know that it's for me, you know? It's, it's really, it's, it's got a lot to do with me. It's not a fun life when you're like, just in a lot of beefs with people, you know? You got a check on who's gonna be at an event, you start moving different, you start, you know, I was changing, I was changing as a person, becoming a guy that was, you know, definitely willing to do some terrible things, definitely moving with a different energy, and you know, like I said, it's just not a fun life when you have to just look over your shoulder all the time or wonder, you know, RA, if this goes left, who's gonna, who, which one of my friends is gonna go sit for two, three, four, ten years, you know what? Like, it's just not, it's, it's not, it's not a really, it's not a good way to live.

In that particular situation that you're talking about, don't know. I have no desire to ever mend anything with that person, and um, yeah, that situation just went, you know, went, it's just when you just went where it went, and it's just there is no, there is no, there's no turning back. It's not like those other situations that you might, push, you go too far by revealing the child and um, was ending that to the world.

Um, well, I'll say this, I tip my hat to the chest move. I mean, was a genius, it was a genius play in the game of chess, and definitely, you know, warranted my first quote-unquote, you know, loss in the competitive sport of rapping, by choice, obviously, because IIIi bowed out after realizing like the gap between us allowed him to drop, you know, a bomb on the world that, that, that really became it, that was all, that was all anyone cared about, you know? I, I, I sleep well at night knowing I didn't get out bars and I didn't get, you know, done doff by some crazy song that I, it was just, you know, he told the world that the biggest artists at the time has a kid that he hasn't told you about. So I, I knew kind of from you, was it, was it, was it over at that point? Wasn't even about battle rap or any of that, it was just the information was too shocking. It was like I said, it was, it was on his part, it was a genius chess move. He obviously has no like, you know, when it comes to me, he's not gonna have any like morals of respect. So the other elements of the record, whether it be like just like them [ __ ] that he's making up about my mom and my dad and all just like dumb [ __ ], or, or you know, obviously the part that hit me the most, which is like, you know, wishing like I, my friend, I has an illness, like dies, they go that [ __ ] to me is just not really wavy, like I, I'm just not really with that. Like, and when I did say, "Oh, there's rules to this," I didn't mean there's rules that anybody has to follow, but like in battle rap, you know, they just, they just had shot at that guy the other day because he was on stage and he pulled out a picture of the guy's dead aunt and started rapping about, you know, that type of [ __ ], and it's just, it just is what it is. There's a point where, there's a point where you're gonna want to stop rapping. I'm sure I could say something about, you know, your lovely lady or, you know, a child or a family member, and you're just gonna want to not really rap anymore. So that's just kind of where, that's just kind of where I got to. It's just, I just had to admit like, yo, I'm really, you know? And, and when I was making, when I was making the record in response, which was a real record, I know people think it's like some myth, it was like honest vinyls beat, and I just found myself saying things that like one seemed really out of character just because I was really deeply invested in the situation and getting very angry and saying things that I don't know if in two years I'd want to hear myself say. And yeah, I just, I just really, I just realized that like nobody cares about this guy, so it's not really much I can say.

Big better than Drake has a baby, ie, one, you know, he one off that, off that, off that bomb, you know? And, and so again, you know, it's a dub that like, ya know, he could take it. Is that true that you want to reveal the child with Adidas campaign and things like that? I wasn't, I had a, at the time I was working with Adidas, and we were toying with the idea of a name being the play off of a name off of my son's name. I wasn't revealing my son with a deal, so I wasn't gonna have my son like, you know, but ya know, I was just, you know, to be honest with you, I actually did a DNA test for my son, and, and they came back to us, and they said that the DNA test got ruined in transit, and that they couldn't be a hundred percent sure that that was my son or not. So I was in a really weird pending situation where I didn't want to go tell the world that that was my son and it wasn't. So, and if you see my son, you understand why, but ya know, if you see my boy, you'll understand like, you know, at the time I was there, I mean, he's just, I mean, he's just a stunning child, you know, the brightest blue eyes, and at the time I was, I don't know, but you know, it wasn't til, it actually wasn't till a week before the album came out that I got confirmation that that was definitely my son. It took me two more solid tests with two different companies. So yeah, I mean, again, I wasn't, I wasn't like, all the, the details of, of his record are all just like fabricated, so just to make it more interesting, the story is actually not really that interesting. The biggest part of it is that I have a son, but it wasn't like, oh, I'm hiding in more, right? And I still, by the way, I still won't post my son because the world's [ __ ] crazy man, and like, you know, you know, I'm in a co-parenting situation, anybody that's in a co-parenting situation understands that you have to split time between two locations, so I can't always be there to make sure he's good.

Last thing I want to do is have people running around going crazy trying to get my son and do all the crazy [ __ ] that they do to me, here showing up outside and with, you know, voodoo dolls and naked pictures. Isn't, but do you feel like maybe you kind of crossed them? That did happen the other day. Oh my god, we did pull up with some nudes. No, no, me, no, like event, no. Now they pulled up with like some, some news, and and we had to burn them in the backyard, man, out there like obeah, and it's like a seance. But do you feel like you crossed a line? Were you talking about push it? I'll mention his woman, you know, the "Dumpee" freestyle, like he has a point, he can say, yo, you brought up my lady's name, oh, all bets are off the table, that's fine, you know? Like I said, we all think differently, right? And even like, you know, even, and even in the me and Meek situation, if you listen back to those records, and it's something that we talked about before - if you listen back, yeah, it's, you know, we like, we didn't really go that crazy on each other, and we left Nick out of it, and we left kind of family out of it for the most part, like it's two weeks out, the more stuff about each other that you didn't go to.

Yeah, it's, well, whether, whether there was information I didn't get revealed or not, the point is like, there's just some unwritten rules in the sport, for some people, obviously not for him, and that's fine, you know? And he's just made an entire career off of it, you know? And some people like his music, I personally don't, because I don't believe any of it, and I like to listen to guys that I believe, but um, but you were a Clips man, you had the sign mic and all that stuff that don't have it upstairs paddles become your rivals, right? And like, and genuinely lose respect for someone, yeah, but it's also you get to peek behind the curtain - right? It's like, you know, when I was whatever 16, thinking that he was the biggest dope dealer in the world, serving bricks to all every corner of America.

Yeah, sure, I'm sure, I'm sure I was, you know, again a fan, and, and obviously more, more than, more so just a fan of like Pharrell and Neptune's, I always wanted to be signed to Star Trak and stuff like that. I was like the way, but yeah, I mean, you know, now that I'm grown up and I actually know him and the truth, it was just kind of like, I don't know, it's not, not as appealing as I think it was like a Saab almost - the biggest conflict, which is the ups and downs of your relationship with Kanye West. At the end of the day, um, I think that, I think that, that's where all of this kind of stems from, it's all kind of rooted and, in, in that, in that situation, yes, you know? I think that he definitely recruited a guy with a similar dislike for me, no matter what he says in interviews, you know? I know, I know that, I know that he can tell whoever, you know, I got love for him and whatever, but it's not love, you, it's, there's something there that bothers him deeply, and yeah, I can't fix it for him, so it just is what it is. I can 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. Yeah, he's still my, you know, obviously with the exception of Lil Wayne, just because Lil Wayne will always just forever be like something else other than one of my favorite artists, but you know, and, and if I look at home as like the, the guy who truly probably shaped majority of my thinking, skill set, all those things, I would say that Kanye West would be my favorite artists, you know, all around, you know? And that's just facts. I mean, I have no problem saying that. It's not like a, you know, I'm always willing, like I said, I'm always willing to give the love and the credit, but yeah, things have just changed. I'm not just some kid that's a fan anymore, and now we have personal situations, and like I said, a lot of his issues with me, I can't fix them for him.

But would you be open to communication?

No, not really, because it's uh, it's just, it's, it's not on my end. I have no problem with any of these guys. I don't even know these guys, like I have no problem with. "Sicko Mode" is a song. It seemed like in December he went on a Twitter rant, and he started to feel like those lines were directed in Flores, though, of course, that's an, I'm not like, I can't lie to you, of course they were, but it's also, you know, in, like I said, this is a sport at the end of the day, and you know, from a very early point, I've never shied away from defending myself, and I'm also sometimes eager to engage if I feel that you want to be slick or be offensive behind the scenes, I might choose to address it in music, and you know, that was how I ended myself, over how I ended myself up in the, in the, in a pusher situation, which you know, some of my favorite fighters in the world, you know, take a guy like Nate Diaz, you look at his record, it might not look, it might not look like the craziest record, but you know, it's still one of my favorite fighters, he's still, and that's just the sport of fighting, you know? Somebody, somebody's gonna catch you at some point, you know, unless you're Floyd pretty much, you know? But for the rest of us, you know, you're gonna get, you're gonna get, you know, robbed one time by something you didn't expect. So that's just kind of how I chopped that situation up, and again, you know, learn from it, channel it into, channeling into something else, and right now I'm in a space where, I mean, those got like, those guys don't come outside, I don't see those guys anywhere, so like it's not the same as when I was beefing with Chris, or if you, I don't, those guys, they hide and God knows where, and they don't come outside unless it's like an event where like security and [ __ ] like that. So III, you know, for me, I mean, I had a great place in my life where it's just like, you know, my life is about peace, my life.

It's about drinking espressos and wine. I'm trying to make this album. I'm enjoying being a father. I'm enjoying my house and my mom lives there. My mind isn't plagued by beef, though.

You think Sicko Mode was your final thing on it, in a sense, because of your final statement about him with the camper and everybody in general? Because I reckon it went number one like last year, and it seems like this year you're in a whole different zone. And like, yeah, I mean, I I guess I don't know. This is, I mean, he, you know, he's—God bless him—on on it, on his new journey. But he's making, like, yeah, I don't even know if he's ever gonna make like secular music again or not. I don't know which one is non-secular, second, yeah. But um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, yeah, if he turns up on me again, I'll turn up on him again, I guess. I think that's just what it is. I'm always down. And yeah, just is what it is, I guess. And I'm just not something I really like, I'm looking forward to, or like thinking about too much. But I'm also like, I'm just not, I'm not, I'm not just gonna sit by while somebody's, you know, just talking loose about me or whatever I have going on. So yeah, I guess it is what it is. I mean, it never fails. All right, some something he'll come one day, but knock on wood, I pray that I stay in this place of peace, because I'm enjoying it more than—more than a lot of the pastures that—that have been, like I said, plagued by confrontation and just, you know, it starts dark clouds, man. It's negativity. And like, if I'm never here, reply from it, too. Yeah, everybody, yeah, we smoke, but you like to spar, you know? Because like you say, you take shots with the GOAT. You talk about the shots that you send it with Jay-Z. Like, why has that relation remained intact? Why has it never gone left?

I think that we have—I think I think Jay has a lot of respect for me, and he's aware of the massive amount of respect that I have for him. At the end of the day, and I think we both enjoy the—we both enjoyed our moments of, you know, him, you know, checking—checking the young boy, and me trying to be like, "Now I'm here," you know? Like, "Hey, I stick out to you." Be like, "Oh, I know what you're talking about." Uh, yeah, of clapping. Yeah, there's plenty. You know, we've been—that bar from that song is a real—is a real thing. You know, we met up and really spoke about all our jobs and fallouts and, and you know, what—what prompted some of those things. And you know—but which songs—that was—no, I said we're talking about Survive. Want the bars? Oh, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I mean, it was—it was great. It was—it was—it was—it was a—it was a—it was a really important moment for us. And I think from that point on, we haven't really engaged again in anything. And I don't think I want to at this point, because I—with everything that's going on, you know, we're losing so many people. And I do think it's really important that we, you know, as—as wrapped up as you can get in this competitive side of things, I do think it's important that when you have that much respect for somebody, or somebody has that much of a, you know, fingerprint on who you are as a person, it's just important to start showing it. So I also had to man up and just realize like, "Yo, this is hope," and like, you know, I gotta, like, you know, while I'm here, while he's here, while all these other people are here watching, I gotta at least, you know, pay my respects.

So how they talk, I'll come about you into the puttin' money. I'm—I was surprised to see that. I was like, "Old man, yeah, talk up" is like, talked up. We just—we just always have had like these super lyrical records. And I was trying to get like Jay on a club record, like, you know, I knew it might be my last Jay—like the last hurrah—like, "Let me try and go Sicko Mode number one with J," like, but it was—it was—it was tough. He was—he was on—he was—he was doing shows at the time. And you know, obviously, like, thank you too, like, No I.D. and Guru, those guys really like pushed hard to get me that verse. But yeah, looking back on it, I probably would have just rather do like Light Up 2 or something like that. Yeah, I think I think everybody just wants to hear me and J rap for real. So yeah, that—that song, you know, was—we definitely got to get one more after that, so we can at least solidify the—solidify the ratio.

Yeah, why would you say last one? I mean, I know you said on Western Road flow, then gonna retire 35, like, "No, not last one for me." I just thought—I thought—I don't know—I don't know what his plans are. I just thought it might—you know—I'm not sure—I'm not sure his plans are. But is that your reality—retirement at 35? Um, no, not anymore. I think when I was like 20-something, it sounded—it sounded better. I do have trouble—I do have trouble—I just turned 33. I do have trouble thinking to myself rapping like past 40. Mm-hmm. But then again, it's the same way I had trouble of thinking of myself rapping at 35 when I was like 26. I think it's just—you start putting these far away numbers and you're like, "Am I 7 years from now, like, there's no way I'm gonna be, you know, doing what—a time 3 with Future, talk about, like—" So yeah, you just—you just—yeah, I don't know. I guess you just always set these like distant—distant things and you're like, "I know how"—but I love making music, man. I just—I just finished my studio in the house. I haven't recorded the first song in there. I keep trying to do everything. This guy wants to talk about the new album they talked about, but before you look around, we didn't get to talk about what I want to talk about. Someone you do like a big chef can have another—you make good music. We have Rick Ross. You know, talk about the career breakers, you know, "Bury Me a Grave," you know, "Gold Roses." What is it with the chemistry with Ross? Like, why do you guys make so much good music together? And where the hell is a Yellow mixtape? So what's the Yellow mixed—Yellow then y'all little mixed up. Yolo makes it all though. Yeah, Elliott got it. Yeah, not—I think Ross has just always been one of my—one of my favorite rappers ever. And I think when we hit each other up to do a song, it's just always an enjoyable text to get. You know, no, it's always enjoyable when he hits me and says, "Yo, I need one," or you know, I hit him and say, "Yo, I got one for you." We just know what time it is. I know he's gonna bar up. I know he's gonna—you know, I know what he's gonna bring. And he's just one of the most consistent people. If you ask something of him, like, you know, sometimes it's tough to collaborate with people because if they don't deliver exactly what you were thinking of, how do you tell them? I know this isn't—you know, it can really sever relationships. Yeah, and Ross is just one of those people I've never had to worry—I've never had to like question when he's gonna bring. You know, he didn't just—like, I didn't send him like a—like—like a Gold Roses, and he sends me back like—like him like singing in falsetto. And like, Otto's like, "What is going on?" And like, yeah, he's just consistent, man. He's just really one of the best and one of the most thorough that does this for River. So some people would use—crossed it with me feels like that means Drake—everything else connects records again. That was—that was—that one of the most painful parts for me. I mean, aside from just like the rift that—that situation put between the family and like, you know, obviously changed me and Nicki a lot—probably forever, you know, like that situation took its toll. But—but one of the most painful parts was just being like, "Man, Ross is like one of my old G's, one of my mentors, and one of my favorite people in the game, and I might not be able to make a record with him again, 'cause he has to pick a side." It was like, "Damn," you know? And that was kind of the case with a lot—with a lot of it—with a lot of that, you know, more so meat because, you know, makes a bigger artist and like—and then they gotta—and be for me right now. So it's like it really came down side—more people picking sides, you know, people liking those. Yeah, and that's really tough, man. Wants people who like—people that you just have history with feel like they have to choose a size.

How do you and Chris Brown get back together and make a damn smash? 87 songs of this album, and that's the hit, though. God, it's those shots. But talk about a little guidance, like, how does that—how did that come together? Well, I think we've come together before and—and tried to link and make music. I think we were always kind of forcing it. I think there was always like resentment on both sides, you know, really at the end of the day, you know, again when you kind of step away from it and break it down, you start to feel silly because it's like over—like girl stuff, you know? But obviously that can snowball into like real [ __ ] and that's what happened in this situation. True in the New York Club life shut down to your club life, man. I have no recollection. I have zero recollection. Yeah, but yeah, so what made—no, God is different. Yeah, it was—well, I think we've just both grown up to the point that like—like that person that was kind of, you know, in the—in the middle of us is like no longer a part of like either of our like lives currently. And I have the utmost love and respect for her. I think of her as family more than anything. And I felt—I actually had like kind of a moment of hesitation before because I didn't want her to ever feel disrespected by me linking up with him. But I also know how many nights she knows that me and him have both been consumed by this issue. And I think she's a good person with a good heart that would rather see us put that issue to bed than—um—continue like childish [ __ ] that could end up in a serious situation. So I decided to go ahead with it. And you know, I was hearing from people that he was in a really good space to link up. And yeah, I was like—I think like at that show when he came out, it was like one of those like best buds moments, you know? It was like, "My head, we're best—we missed all these years." And yeah, I just always really had a lot of admiration for his talent. And I think finally he gave me the—the mutual respect and admiration by allowing me to take the lead on—on the song, you know, which was always kind of like—not like—whenever we link up, he'd always have something in mind. And then I'd be like, "Well, maybe we should," you know? And—and again, you—people can take those things personally when it's like—when the one they think you know—that—that you should get on, you're like, "Ah, well, let me try something else." And this was just—yeah, this was just a big moment for me because he—you know, he let me send him a joint and—and yeah—and—and he just bodied it. And I knew right away when the song was finished, I was like, "Oh, man, this is crazy. Like, not only did we link back up and like have like a cool show—a moment, but—let you did up." Right, right. And it's serious. It's not a joke. Yeah, it's not some—you know, it's not some [ __ ] that's just gonna disappear. This is a joint that ran—is someone. Yeah. And then again—again at the video. Yeah, yeah. I—I—I really do thank him, you know? I don't know—I don't even know if I ever got to say this in person, but I really do thank him a lot because, you know, just him—just—just both of us being able to put ego aside and him just trust in me again, you know? Initially, that video didn't have that scene at the end, you know? Chris—Chris Robinson was directing it with another guy. And I met up with—with Chris the day before and I was like, "Yo, this is—if you want this video to have the impact, we can't just shoot some [ __ ] where we're trying to look cool. We gotta address the issue at hand. It has to be—it has to feel—it has to have that SNL element to it. It has to—" I'm like—I'm like, "I promise you it'll be watched a hundred times more if we just both admit that this is happening and don't try and act like, yeah, well, you know, you got it, girl," like—so—so yeah. And—and um—and it involved shooting an extra day and, you know, to Chris's credit, he stayed the extra day. He bodied it. He was hilarious. He kept a straight face while I was, you know, pulling my heart out of my chest and doing all that dumb [ __ ]. So yeah, he was—he was just amazing. And I think we both really felt, you know, satisfied after that. And you know, he's—he's also on my album as well. Wobbles, if—if it's all—I don't know what's gonna make that. Anyway, we did do—we—we have done—we have done more music. CW approach in this album? Um, well, really just kind of taking all the—all the energy that I've talked to you about and trying to 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 like living, going out with people, you know, investing in personal connections. And it's just making my music better, to be honest. I'm touching on things that when you're just kind of on go mode and you're in studio every night, you kind of just—my night is—year 2019. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely—I definitely was trying to fall back for a bit, like I said, Scorpion was a high volume—high volume album. So yeah, and it was just a high volume year. I mean, I suppose when people do like—with—with Blueprint 2, like you do a lot of songs, it's like, maybe I shouldn't—they gave you so much. Do you look like you maybe could have cut Scorpion down?

Yeah, a hundred. I mean, when I—when I—when I look back on it, I definitely like could have refined it to a project that maybe would have gotten like a bit more like critical acclaim. But I was obsessed with Life After Death, man. And I was just so baffled at how big—had so many good songs on a double album with like 20. So I was locked in on this idea, like, "I'm gonna do a 20-something song album," and it—well, 15 songs are gonna be remembered for being amazing. And funny enough, I mean, I did it—she—I did—I came close. Yeah, just, you know, there's—there's other—there's—again, like I said, going back to Nothing Was the Same, I think when I deliver my vision in a more concise fashion, I think any—anybody—when you deliver your vision in a concise fashion, it really gets the point across a lot more than having moments for people to be able to drift and be like, "Aha," yeah, you know? Like, when you really—what it takes—it takes a lot of discipline because it's like you can get connected to songs, and then you can get down to it and be like, "Well, what would I cut," you know? Like, "What am I supposed to cut?" Yeah, and want people to hear it. Yeah, and what am I gonna do with these songs that took me, you know, a month to finish, you know, all things included? So it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's—it's discipline—is discipline. And that's kind of what I'm—what I'm really trying to exercise on this next album is just making the best music possible and then like having the heartbreak or being like, "All right, so—" Is he going for—kind of with Nothing Was the Same, you fit making it the most concise? I guess I wouldn't say most concise. I mean, I don't think I'm gonna be able to ever make like a 12—13 song album, but only because this is what I want people to give me credit for. The reason why you'll never get like that 10 song classic—11 song—because you know that's—forties thing, huh? I need to tend the story, but it was—it—I need an 11—I need the 11 songs—rate classic. But I'm the only one that has a commitment to do two things. I have to do two things every album. I have to give the people that like to hear the singing enough—hold on to. And I have to give my—you know, I have to give Brown enough bars for him that—you know—that—that's my—you know—that's why God brought in—that—those are my bar. We have a bar group chat. It's like we bar up on each other all the time. Straight just freestyle battles and the group shadows and Mike goes my rap guy, you know? And of course like the elusive one, you know, is another—another guy who like is always gonna love—you know—love that—love the other records. But the ones that we connect on most of the ones where I'm just giving those life talks, like that—the wanting to record—I heard the other day you sent me and Elliott this record, "When to Say When." Nobody to make the album obvious. Oh, no, yeah, yeah, Lucy. Yeah, I just wanted you to hear some—some talks before—before we did this because I felt like, you know, I felt like it's like weird to do an interview with—with no new music context. So I was just giving you a little—a little preview. But yeah, I—we'll see—we'll see what happens with that. But yeah, just—just to show you I could still ride. Basically, I just sent the credit. You talked about Baby Wayne and test responsible for this [ __ ]. It's one of the lots in LA. Mm-hmm. People are curious, like, with the whole Young Money—Cash Money—when his conflict with Baby, like, where do you stand with all that? And then we saw like—was it first though—froze the moment. It's a frozen moment as a baby, like, where are you signed to? Like, how did all that situation—business-wise—affect you?

Well, you know, my loyalty obviously lies with the people who gave me the platform—my first shot. So that's what really—where that line comes from, despite, you know, how things may have ended up. I'm like—I—I'm always so grateful for those three people selflessly giving me a chance and not being intimidated when it was working out, you know, for another artist to give an artist a shot and then see that artist get as big or bigger at the time eventually can be tough. A lot of people wouldn't be able to handle that. A lot of people who have artists sign can't handle that. Yeah, and Wayne, you know, to his credit, was the most selfless person. My current situation is—uh—yeah, I mean, I'm always—I'm always gonna be involved with like that, you know, Cash Money—Young Money and like, you know, my loyalty, I said, always lives there. But you know, I go—I'm just signed direct myself to Universal. So yes, I mean, it's—you know, that was—that situation was a lot of mess that needed to be cleaned up over the years. And you know, you just think of where those guys started. I mean, it's only right that there's gonna be a lot of gray area over 20 years of, you know, hustlers coming out of New Orleans to go on and pretty much keep Universal alive. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, you know, and that's—yeah, so it's really—it's—it's really kind of—I—I kind of stay out of it. It's not really my business. And obviously this guy over here is insured that my business is straight and that I'm able to…

You know, just see the fruits of my labor, and that's that's what I'm very grateful for. You know, and and and and you know as well with with with Jay and Rap-A-Lot and those guys who were also involved in our situation, and obviously very grateful for them. So you never felt like you had to hype up so many people involved with your career? You didn't never felt like there were too many people in your pockets per se, or like, no?

I was grateful. I had like all these like all these like just cheese around me, you know? Like I had a bunch of guys that, you know, I'm obviously I'm obviously out here giving them return on investment, and what that comes, you know, just support, love, a family atmosphere. You know, me and Birdman to this day, you know, still talk, of course, me and Wayne, you know, talk forever. But yeah, I never felt like I wasn't I wasn't in some scared artist position where I was like being like, you know, blackmailed or taken advantage of. I was never in that position. I just had like real G's around me that that supported me, and I'm so grateful for that because yeah, it's just that's that's that's what it is. That's what the mob ties is.

Isn't so your ties, Brandon, don't that mean mob ties as just a person's involvement and like him still being so involved in your life and in your career?

Yeah, I mean, well, when you do when you do good for somebody and you guys like work work together, it just, you know, you naturally just be build a family atmosphere. You know, Je' prends like a father to me, and he takes anything to do with me personal as if I'm one of the sons. So you know, that's what being tied in is. You know, we're just, you know, I mean, anyone that knows J. Prince knows what he offers as a man and that he's, you know, a true man of respect, a made man. And yeah, you know, I'm a guy that was able to do well, you know, I was just I was one of his sons that was able to turn up and bring some money home, so he's always just gonna he's always just gonna show love. And yeah, but it's real. It's, you know, it's really just based on like hard work and love. That's that's kind of where our that's kind of where our relationship stems from and what is rooted in. And yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have it any other way.

You know, you mentioned labels, you know, you got OVO Sound Records. There's a lot of criticism that, you know, when it comes to OVO, Drake is the priority on the label. You know, you have other artists on there. Do you feel like pressure to like continue to build another superstar on the same level as you?

When it comes to our label, we've always taken the same approach that Wayne took with us, which is you do what you want, how you want. There's they'll never be a time where it's where the answer is like no, or like, you know. I really try and stay out of the way of the other artists and give them support whenever they need it, but I'm not that I'm not a guy that like, you know, like again with the jokes about like all parties in a in the basement parties not dropping music's parties not ready to drop music. You know, and those two records that came out the other day were a great celebration for all of us because, you know, Party's gonna drop one, Party wants to drop that, suit Party is anybody that's ever worked with him knows like he does [ __ ] on his own time, and you just have to respect it. And you know, same with the other guys, you know, with Majid and with 40, with Roy, everybody's allowed to do whatever they want. You can make music with whoever you want, you know, you can drop whenever you want, you can make whatever kind of music you want, and if you need the boy on something, then you'll ask for the boy, and he'll call me, and I'll chances are I'm gonna do it. So yeah, I mean, our label is actually an incredible place and a great breeding ground for artists that just really want to do their own thing.

Do I feel pressure to create a superstar? I mean, I feel like we've definitely have some incredible Superstars that are cemented in the music scene. You know, all these guys have had great contributions. Do I feel pressure to make like another like me? No, not really. I I I honestly my my my big thing would be I'd love to like sign up a female artist because I enjoy writing songs for like from from that perspective, and obviously, you know, I don't really have too many places to place those records, so it would be it would be nice to link with a female like in the years moving forward and try our hand at that at that. But yeah, it's it's it's it's just an easygoing atmosphere. You know, I think again, people like the jokes are funny and [ __ ], but it's really that's not really the truth behind it.

Anybody else writers to help you?

Yeah, Majid, when it comes to like collaboration with this. No, but if you think also one thing that do you think also the fact that things didn't work out with The Weeknd, you know, he ended up doing his own thing, you know, like you said you would embrace almost building another start, you're not really going anywhere trying to make it happen, but if it did happen, you'd be able to deal with it, embrace it. And then that didn't work out. Do you think that kind of overlaps a little bit of this kind of organic thing you're building with OVO?

Well, with with Abel, we like we had our run, you know, we had our moment on to our moments on Take Care, and you know, my features on his projects, and he just really came to me at one point, came to all of us and was like, look, like I I don't want to sign under another artist because I feel like I could be just as big or bigger, and I want to start my own thing. And it was never like I was I'm to this day I'm always excited, always super happy for all those guys, and I never like had any resentment towards Abel didn't stay on OVO. That was never really like I'm not I'm not gonna say there weren't people that didn't feel a way about it, but that was never my thing. I never expected Abel to stay under OVO as soon as I heard him once expressed that he wanted to do his own thing. So it's like my biggest regret would maybe be that we probably wasted seven years not communicating with each other when we had something something beautiful going on, you know, that OVO XO still could have been a thing and still will be a thing, by the way.

Martin, list number one right now.

Yeah. Here's a Drake coming back, 2020.

Yeah, yeah. Well, like you know, it's like obviously like you said, people have to grow, and we got to work through things, and I have my fair share of [ __ ] to apologize for, as does he. We've obviously had our, you know, our bumps in the road, but yeah, my bit my biggest regret isn't that like he never signed to OVO. My biggest regret would just be that, you know, we didn't give people that album, that tour, you know, yeah, cuz it's just like, you know, the two biggest artists from the city don't link. Yeah, so it's just not a good look for where we're from. So you know, hopefully we can fix that and um and and make good on the years that we missed, kind of like me and Chris did, you know.

Yeah, yeah. So I look forward to that, and you know, hopefully he's open-minded to it. I still didn't get the Wu-Tang Forever video though.

Yeah, yeah. It was just what happened with that? I was like, we we needed a whole nother shooting day, and Mark, can you bring me a can you tell Chef to make an you ain't gonna have a glass of wine, please, cuz I'm parched.

Yeah. No, we we we needed just more time. We needed more time and more budget. It was it was getting out of hand. Yeah, we yeah, it was getting out of hand, and I remember like at some at some point like the labels and I pulled the plug on it like, not weren't like, this we're not doing this for like some where he makes video to a song that's not even a single, like, right. That was back in the day when I actually when people could actually tell me no.

Well, you The Weeknd alluded to the ride on the way with The Weeknd on a record, too late. Let's say he says that should be that's record song The Ride a better record than The Ride yet. Is that fair to say?

No. But so you have records that are like hit records, right?

Yeah, that's I have a hat, but that's not even on the set list anymore. No. And then you have records that could be a it's not a performance records, but it could still be a big record, like well in your catalog. My goal always is if my last four songs of my previous tour don't change and I didn't I did something wrong. So for example, like I still if I still have to end the night with God's Plan on this next tour, then I did something I need like I need clothes. Yeah, just those last four slots to me are like that shows your work in the last whatever it's been, you know, since your last project. I'm not gonna be happy to not in the show, but God's Plan at this point at this point yeah, I would be a big thing for me if I have a record that that's big enough that like people want to hear it more, and God's Plan moves up to the middle at the beginning of the show. Like five five great Drake songs that aren't setlist or singles, songs that like you have to appreciate what's a good debate, right? There's somebody wrecked Move 5 by Drake records, Bank I'm still great records, but you pie I'm perform them. They weren't necessarily single.

Trust Issues, 4PM, Calabasas, Fire and Desire.

[Music]

I kind of think Bars and Folk.

Yeah, that's my doll.

Yeah? Huh. Nah, over that. Okay. Um, dress issues, 4PM, Calabasas, Trust Issues, 4PM, 5 AM, find Desire. It was summarily something real. Tuscan Tuscan feel, baby. Their fears that same thing where I hear like a dated version of myself. Yeah, I could wrap that better. Sauce. Yeah, I don't know the fifth one. Sure. I got a lot of song.

So what went wrong with Tyler, man? At the Camp Flog Gnaw, man. I I just walked I just walked myself into a situation. I kind of felt it backstage, too. I kept making dry think I actually made a jump on camera. Someone showed me the clip the other day. I'm like, how long do you think it's gonna take before they boot me off stage? But um, yeah, I just thought it was more jeering and trolling. Yeah, it was boy, Willy befuddled it. Sam, she was like I was I was a little [ __ ] with me like what was going on. I was a little I was a little confused cuz I just didn't like I was kind of sitting there going like, you guys know Frank's not here, right? So it's like you may as well just like get over that and now like let's rock cuz like I'm the guy I'm the replacement. So we, you know, I got a couple joints if you want to hear that goes. Actually, now in hindsight, wish I would have said like, yo guys, there's no right or just like been like broke out into like tornadoes and just made it was like the to like four biggest regrets of my life. But yeah, I just walked myself into a situation that like, you know, people thought they were coming to a Frank Ocean concert. That was what everyone was there for, and like, you know, it's been that festival's been on for eight years, and he hasn't come once, and they thought this was the year, and and it wasn't. So I think I'll get really upset. Yeah, I think from that position. Well, I think Tyler was upset. I got a lot of, you know, me and Tyler have a lot of respect for each other, a lot of love for each other, and you know, I think he went out on a whim asking me to do this, and I had to change my schedule around for it, and I yeah, I just I think he I think he thought it was gonna go over really well, especially like, you know, like Feel No Ways and Wu-Tang Forever, we were like his request.

Yeah, that is no five.

Yeah. Yes. Feel No Ways and and and Wu-Tang were his requests, and I think he just thought like everyone's gonna love this as much as me, and yeah, they just that's what you lost a crowd a little bit. Yeah, they were just they were out of it from they were out of it from Uzi's second song. I mean, they were already like Rocky came out and yeah, you can bring it. And Rocky came out and Tyler and Rocky, you're like brothers, so people are excited to see Rocky because he's like part of the, you know, Golf Wang family. And then who's he came out and they showed him love, and then he tried to do a second song, and they did not show love on that second song. That was when I got worried. I was like, oh, he should have crazy, and then I came out and like the first song or two was was good, they were going off, but at the end of the day, I just I knew right away. I'm like, they came to see a different show, and it didn't matter who walked out. I don't think they wanted to see their guy, and so you know, and it was like 2,000 people out of like 50,000 or whatever 30,000, but it had an impact enough for me to be like I walked offstage like my next songs were about to slap the place. I got had like non-stop Sicko Mode, God's Plan. I had a bunch of joints to still be funny in a grave I was gonna do, but yeah, it's just I just had to cut cuz I was like, you know, this could this could go really bad where if I over I've already overstayed my welcome. If somebody throws something and hits me or like if there's just if this really if this tide starts to turn even more, I already knew I was I already knew I was to talk at a gram for like the next two days, so I was like let me just

But does it fire you up like the competitive nature of you like no matter I mean you understand circumstances, but just like that no matter how much success people can still try to doubt on you one time, right? Like no matter what?

Yeah, that's that's a really tough group of kids to make happy though, you know? Like it's just like a really like it's a cult, it's a cult following, you know, Tyler has built like a cult, and it's a tough it's a tough group to uh to make to make happy. So yet I just took it with grace. It was a nice moment of humility. I could, you know, I remember like, you know, I would I remember old Wayne shows where like one person would be like yell while he's talking, and he'd be like, and I was thinking like, huh, should I pull the Weezy Baby one time and just go to Never Dies? It was it was it was all good, you know? It was it was it was a show.

It was important for me. What I do a B-side show?

Yeah, sure. I would love to do that. We've we've talked about maybe doing an unplugged with with all the records I like. I never usually perform. I think it would be great. I think would also just showcase how serious I take performing as well. I think majority of time people seniors on like shaky cell phone cameras and arenas, and I think would be nice to have an intimate moment. But sorry, what I was gonna say about the Flog Gnaw thing was um it's funny, I feel like it builds up the story because I feel like maybe you know when a when a new album drops, I feel like maybe next year they might be they might be calling for me. You know, that's how it is sometimes. The story just needed to go like that sometimes, you know, next year because that could be the moment where you know I pop out and just in a and they you know it's only a thousand people. Bring the story one night.

So you and sports, man. I feel like you want an NBA championship.

Yeah, that was life is anybody like I wanted that. I'm a so you go crazy after that game 5. When will you is really like letting the people know the passion of the city, like what would personally goes that experience like ambiance for you guys?

I was drunk, but uh but that's we just didn't exhibit that is true. Yeah, but I pretty much have zero recollection of how a piece that's piece, but it was a surreal.

Let's go.

Yeah, I was just natural again. It was organic. I just turned to my light, and it was thirty microphones. They wanted to hear me speed, but no, it was it was that was like one of the, you know, you talk about not realizing how crazy something was until like it's all calm down. That that entire playoffs and you know, building that like that connection with Kawhi, obviously I've been friends with Kawhi for years and years, and you know, all the rest of the guys that have been playing her heart out on this team, even when we were not doing well. But that that parade I've honestly never seen anything like that with my two eyes in my entire life. I've never been so sure that something wasn't real. Like I was like, this is not real. I must be like I must have like, you know, dislocated my knee, and I might get in the hospital. I like morphine or something. They're gonna wake me up like, you know, it just it was it was crazy. I I it was just so much luck, so much alone. Give somebody a hug.

Yeah, yeah. Not for real. It was just like we were all there, we were all in it together, and you know, I remember just I was on the bus. I was like standing next to Kawhi. We're coming out underneath this bridge like into Financial District, and you would look up at these like 50-floor skyscrapers, and every window had 20 people in it going like this. It was like I just never seen anything like that. I don't know if any sports team I'll ever have a parade like that. It meant so much, and obviously because he was playing for our country, and they were all playing, you know, on behalf of a country, so it wasn't just about Toronto. This is about being Canadian that day. It was about showing love. It was about, you know, the unthinkable happening, which similar to my story as well. So I was very connected to it because, you know, I didn't know if I'd ever see an NBA championship in my in my lifetime. So yeah, I mean, thank God for Kawhi. Thank God for Kawhi.

I think the big ring you got.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Security think that was okay for then.

Kawhi move on. You did you feel like you had to try to help to keep him like it was painful to see him go to the Clippers?

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Any shot to give him the stay. Um, look, you know, you can never fault a man for wanting to go home, right? So that's that's pretty much just the simplest way I can put it. Yeah. But yeah, I'd hurt. I think he's like the only franchise player to ever like walk away from a team after a championship, and the way the NBA shaped up this year, like we definitely would have been back in the finals and probably, you know, I mean, obviously LeBron is is is a force, but I truly believe that this team that team played with heart, and this this team this Raptors team this year has heart.

And about that. Yeah, I just think that maybe what Kawhi staying and one more one more small move, I think that we probably could have ran it back and had it back to back, a real back to back. So yeah, it is it does hurt, and I could you could kind of feel it in the arena the other night. It was like everybody of course we're always gonna show him love, but it was just tough to see him in a Clippers jersey and tough to get smacked by like 20 points.

Bro, can you talk about some verses on GoDJ Rules, as you say, you know, you're 10 years?

In, we still haven't heard some of your most impressive verses, but which ones are you most proud of? Something that you made you stand out like, "Oh, I did that."

Just a majority of the ones that really, like, I pat myself on the back for are the ones where there's a constant fluid conversational style; sporadic thoughts going everywhere, but somehow all connecting. So funny enough, like "Gold Roses" would be one of those verses, or like the "Record Day" — I'll let you hear that other day — would be one of those verses that, like, I'm most proud of. Because traditional rap, when I say traditional rap, like rap without melody, is kind of like going instinct of it, you know? Like, already brought back the smooth, we trigger. Oh yeah, language. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I feel like, just, you know, in in an in a mainstream space, I feel like, you know, the art of bars and and just that traditional, you know, rap, the long verses, it's kind of going, it's kind of going extinct. And then you got like, you know, you got guys like Griselda making it wavy again, just to be on your like gutter straight rap [ __ ] no, you know, like, you know, the doctor, the the the interesting structures and just like that that gutter [ __ ].

But other than that, you know, any kid that that's gonna want to make music right now, their first, their first thing's gonna be like Pierre Bourne-style beat on YouTube, and then it's like, "Yo, let me just," like, first line is gonna be about like the Draco and like whatever. It's like that's like, that's kind of, you know, that that is kind of where it's where it's going. So I think just honestly, I'm just grateful to be able to rap, and the fact that people even still want to listen lets me know that I have a lot of good [ __ ] to say about life. Because I think it is really hard to captivate the younger audience by just like rapping, yeah, you know. I think without a hook, without a melody, without a beat that slaps, you know, it's it's it's tough. Like, 47 Meters beat yesterday is a primo beat, and I was like, "I gotta go crazy on this beat." I started writing to it, and it just hit me like, "Wow, I'm gonna really rap on a primo beat in 2020." And uh, yeah, I mean, I'm just grateful that I still even have the like desire to do that, because I think a lot of people, you know, probably in my position would have just abandoned it and just said like, "[ __ ] that," you know. And like, you know, that to be honest, like, you know, your comments section and your followers are like an unforgiving group, you know. And that's just Vasu Graham. Yeah, yeah, just like, you know, the people that subscribe to the music that we all love and you know the real core of this of this rap thing, you know, that it's an unforgiving space; there are unforgiving group. Nothing is ever really good enough, you know, not me anyway, you know, because I am the unconventional one. But uh, but yeah, obviously, you know, I always keep my ear out for the hardest [ __ ]. I have a lot of respect, I have a lot of respect from, you know, the other two guys that I'm constantly, you know, up against, which is like: Kendrick, 300, still. Yeah, yeah. So I have a lot of respect for those guys, cuz they also continue to, you know, stay true to what we started, started with and finding new ways to do it. And uh, yeah, I mean, I'm just I'm excited that the decade's about to turn, and we're gonna see who can, you know, who can who can go that extra stretch, because it is really, I think for all three of us, it is it is the time to see who can transcend the generations, much like Jay did, or much like Wayne did after the Hot Boys days, going until "I Show Me What You Got" freestyle when he just completely switched up and was like, "Oh yeah," you know. So I think I think that that that year is coming up for all three of us where it's time to see, you know, are we capable of, you know, another five-year runs? We just saw, you seen around a decade from now. Yeah, I feel like with them, I love them, but I don't know if they really want to keep going. Like, I feel like you may hear that thing and a lot of times with rappers, you guys want to, like, hip-hop artists, you want to go out on top, right? You know, nobody wants to overstay their welcome. You know, you put out two or three projects and no one's connecting, so I could see Cole saying, "Okay, this is it for me for a minute." Kendrick saying, "This is it," but I feel like what you, I feel like your spirit is more from that competitive thing that I don't see you saying like, "This is my last one. I'm gonna take a couple of off." It's the competitive thing, and it's also just like I'm probably one of the few people that really lives this rap life. Like, I really lived this rap life for real. I'm really out here partying. You see the house, the baby, you seen it? Yeah, yeah. I'm out, I'm in the streets, I'm I'm really out here, and you know, the life's to those guys' credit, and a lot of like some of the inspiration I've taken from them for the last six months, it's just like, you know, they come, they do what they need to do, and they go back to that real life, you know. They go back to their their beautiful families, and you know. And so yeah, that's that's something that like I've invested my time in lately, but like for the most part, you have, I'm out here, man. I'm really out here, like, living life.

So I remember five, you say you pride yourself being the only one known for the music; you still feel like that?

Yeah, of course. I mean, I think I think that despite all the different narratives and the jobs, and I don't think anybody could really cattle discredit a lot of my offering in this in this in this lifetime, you know. I really do feel like I am known for now how I dress, not um, you know, not not for all the controversy, not for all the shenanigans, not for you know how thunk out I am, or I'm just known, you know, that I've been going down right. No, I'm not gonna flop, yeah, you know. I'm coming with some [ __ ] always, you know. And that's that's just something I pride myself on. Like, I think people can't question the fact like, you know, like, okay, if there's a Drake album dropping, I know there's something on there that's gonna, you know, so, or that feature.

Guess I think we was talking about our "Stay Schemin'" yeah. I think your verse on there, like arguably one of the top guest verses of a decade.

Thank you. Do you remember like the approach when you was trying to do, better your approach with you and make it that record?

Yeah, I remember. I remember we were at Ross's house, and he was playing his project, and he just completely was like, "Oh yeah, this is like a song that me and French we're working on," and I heard it and I was like, "Yo, right, this is this is it, right? For me, this is the right guy." Who just, again, it was a rap record with bars that was wavy that had a hook; that's very rare and very hard to come by. Like, like it was pure bars, but the hook kept you engaged. The beat wasn't some like boom bap like granola [ __ ] that like you made you like, they're just like some like dry ass, like it was it was it was a it was, they had a wave. It sounded like nighttime and a whip. And yeah, it took the record back with me to the hotel. I think I were to the studio I was at. I did the verse that night. Maybe I might have done the verse at Ross's house, and then we all went to get changed and shoot the video that like an hour after the verse was done, or like that, maybe the next night out of it. Mika tells the story with everything. Yeah, Mikoto story better than me because he told it the other night, and I know I forget it, but yeah, we we uh, that was just one of those times, man. I was like, it was just super organic, and it was just in the age of like, yo, like just just us linking up is enough; forget her video treatment and all this, just us linking in the streets of Miami, just, you know, the bars was was enough, and that's what I loved about that.

Hope you ever get at you for that line it on that record.

Um, we even get at me like, you know, order I'll dress, you know, shooting in the gym. Did he get it? Do it distract me, jelly P?

Yeah, it wasn't about it wasn't about getting at me like that; it was just, you know, he obviously, you know, it sounds like, yeah, I don't think I I think it was more like, I think his lady didn't really, I think it the line became so big that I think it became a little annoying to her. I apologized a couple times; I really didn't I really didn't mean it, like I rise, I didn't mean to I caused her in here like harm in life, but you know, sometimes things take on a life of their own.

Most of your lyrics are like that though, like I catch a lot of flight because I said a lot of your boss become like life mantras. You

Yeah, become captions and Instagram posts of things like that, but it's like when you make those kind of lines, they they stick to people's ribs.

Yeah, yeah. It just became a thing, and you know, it became the line. I mean, you know, if she was in the club and that in that era, you know, she she would everybody yelling at that line out and maybe, you know, taking it personal. But yeah, but yeah. And yeah, I've apologized, okay.

But falling back this year, I wonder, I saw you come out at the baby show, like, just and it's generally like taking more of a backseat in 2019. What stood out to you in terms the artists or things that you paid attention to, it you enjoy?

Well, I mean, I think Doug had the best album of the year, actually. Well, yeah, actually between him and uh, the Baby, King Die For My [ __ ], that those are those are my two picks for album in a year. And yeah, just like that, it seems that, you know, new artists are really becoming like, like superstars in their own right, you know. And I like I like just like the little pockets that you have, you know. I like the fact you have like the Uzi, Cardis, and the cut, you know, and they're just like so influential, and it's like so important to like my cousins like, you know, 18, and he came on the road with me, and it's like I'm always paying attention to what he's on and who he thinks is cool, you know. So yeah, I got a lot of respect for those guys, and then you obviously have the whole Atlanta like family, like, you know, you got Key, you got got it, dude. Of course, Future, who's like forever, you know, her still might be cooking back up again; that's what I heard. I was working wrong, but yeah, what what are what else this year? I mean, like outside of hip hop?

No, I know you gotta be happy of snow, you know, you got her, you sampled her before.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, she's amazing. Yeah. Um, man, where's my phone? Let me see, I'll tell you how to in Halawa, don't be doing these playlists. No, I know, I know. Oh, he just called me. Yeah, let me see like what's on my ear. And man, I whoa, I listen to a lot of like drill music from UK, which is amazing, that like New York drill movement is getting so big because it's like M1 and uh and uh ah, man, I forget Axel, those guys. Just the fact that like everyone's gonna start using their beats is so sick because those guys deserve it. Yeah, not now if you're about Moten's mostly songs aren't even found this year.

Oh really? Like a lot of Toronto music for me is like, you know, I pay close attention. So like obviously like, you know, the guys that you always see me around or post my smiley, of course, like Pressor, who I brought to or with me before, but yeah, I just love the fact that they're just incredible music coming out of our city, and uh, yeah, I don't know. I got I got a lot of songs on here, but none of them I really like stand out like this year for sure. Yeah, my musical taste is kind of all over the place. I just listened to I just listen to whatever, whatever there's another music inspire you? Yeah, how did you shut out?

No, no, no, I don't shut that out. Wayne used to shut that out when you waiting you, that was one thing I always was like, "Man, I wish Wayne, you know, what would listen to some stuff," cuz I feel like it would just add to his fuel, you know. He always used to be, "Oh god, I'm not listening to no artists cuz I'm making an album," but um, yeah, I mean, I'm inspired by music from all over; that's how I end up doing like funk records from Brazil, or you know, I'm obviously always like deeply invested in the dancehall space. Um, Afro beats has become one of the biggest genres in the world, you know, I work say YouTube he was cradling you for kind of popularized or half of beats with one dance and it was.

Yeah, I mean, I think I think yeah, I think like "Come Closer," "One Dance," it's like, first of all, the music goes like the music those artists make in that space, there's nothing better than that. So I'll never sit here and say, "Oh, 'One Dance' is like the best Afro beats record," but I do think that that that genre deserved to get this popular, and I'm very happy that I was able to even be part of that conversation. So, but yeah, I'm I'm just trying to like wrap space though that yeah, it would be keen, it would be it would be it would be it would be thug for me and you know all the Toronto guys, and then like I said, you know, I really like like just in our like rap rap space, like I really like the fact that, you know, just that whole like clicking up Griselda [ __ ] is just ill. Two members of the video to play, I just go get a drink and Betty to butcher, I'm done, I'm done, I'm down. Benny show me love one time on an interview to like, you know, and I know obviously like, you know, I think they were actually talking about like some song that he has over my boy, but now he does show me love. So yeah, I think what they're doing is great; it just reminds me of just a different time, and it's not easy to do, you know, to you know, make that that music and just come off wavy and be interesting, you know, just even that's the label name and the tag, you know, this is this man. I'm happy for those guys; they deserve it.

I look at drinking is like the hopeless romantic, we listen to songs like Marvin's Room and things like that, like you say that's not good, like I'm not a lifestyle you can get into, like were you at right now?

Well, I only say that line cuz I find so many people challenging me like, "Oh man, like, you know, you can't be single forever, like you," but then like, you know, sometimes you like you look again, you look behind the curtain, a lot of people's relationships, and they're just not as like peachy as they seem.

Mm-hmm. So that was just kind of my shot at like anybody who feels like all like you should you should have said, "Oh, by now." I love my space, I love my work, and I love my routine, and for me to break that for somebody, it would just have to be a really special person that fits into that puzzle and that is supportive of the things I'm doing. Have to be somebody that has taste in music, it has to be somebody that, you know, that I that I get along with so much to the point that when we were separate, I'm feeling like I can't function properly without their presence. I have come across it a few times; I've got to be able to hold on to it for whatever reason. But yeah, I just really um, you know, I'm I'm the captain of a ship, and I look behind me, I see a lot of people on board, and you know, full steam ahead; that's just kind of how I have to keep rockin' for right now. And hopefully, hopefully I can find somebody that, you know, can just stand beside me at the wheel and help me steer while we keep the journey going. A Zappos with me having to pull over and stop because that person is getting seasick; that make sense?

That sounds like a dream.

Oh god, David Ricky, good at my statement. Thank you. Was that a situation or a relationship with Jennifer Lopez rail or was it just?

Yeah, I have plenty of love for her. We had a we had we had great times together, and yeah, we were just hanging out at one point. It was it was an honor to be around her; she's a great artist, great mother, and yeah, got nothing nothing but positive things to say about it. We have another drink, you know?

Absolutely amazing. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Appreciate that. Now it's great, and I feel what business-wise, what are some moves you guys are making sure people miss your content to the world?

Yeah, no, it's 2020 is gonna be a great time, and you know, that's you're not boys. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, Dream Crew are our company, you know, we we have a lot of other things in the works. Obviously, Top Boy season two, Euphoria season two; it's a space that we both really love, and there's so many just amazing filmmakers, directors, writers that deserve a shot, you know, in the in the era where people are just remaking old movies and making superhero movies over and over again, we just we stand for something that's like, you know, stories that need to be told. So yeah, definitely excited about that moving forward, and the music, and the music album, and amusing. Okay, look at me, expect the next 10 years from Drake, man. Just continuing if I myself, you know, the same way we can sit here and talk all this talk, all these hours about who I used to be or you know who I once was or what I once thought were my my dreams. I guess it's just like a reset button, right? Look for all of us, it's it's weird cuz it's it's really just the number change, and it's just like 19 to 20, but in your mind, I think it's gonna probably do something to all of us where it's like, you know, you're embarking on a on a on a different on a different journey, so you're just gonna have to, you know, more self-discovery, you know, hopefully, hopefully going up, not down, and building a few more of these different places. And yeah, I said though, yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I never really I'm not one of those people that like has like a list up in my room of like things that need to happen. I just I just kind of take it as it comes. So which what is one of your biggest accomplishments, you know, looking back in the last ten years?

Musically? Musically here? Well, I guess yeah, just like, I don't know, I guess it's kind of a generic answer, but it would just be the fact that like the feeling I get when I'm out in the world is one of one of respect; it's like really, I think that my career has a lot of integrity, and I think I'm very excited about that because I think I could have let that drop a bunch of times, you know. And I also think one of my biggest accomplishments is the fact that I didn't let this massive massive change in my life destroy me, you know. I still don't I still don't do drugs, you know. I drink, but even if I drink every day, I don't drink to blackout, I don't drink to escape my sadness, I don't drink to the point that affects my family here in my career. I think I'm just happy that I'm still intact, you know; that's my biggest accomplishment. I made a lot of money, I mean, you know, I made a lot of did a lot of things, been a lot of places, had a lot of opportunities to [ __ ] this up.

And didn't, and you know, I could be at dinner with my mom and still hear, say like, you know, "I'm proud you're still you; you're in there." You know, I'm looking at you, you're there. It's you; it's not like a shell of who you used to be, or some [ __ ] like that. You know, like I said, you know what, with with with all the things that, you know, I just watched the little Peep documentary on Netflix, which is a really genius documentary. You should watch it. And not, I didn't really know too much about him at the time, but now all of a sudden I'm just like deeply invested in the career that he that he had. But it's just really, it's just really, people don't understand how overwhelming this is for these young kids, man. And I was young, I was just, I was young like that too, once, part of the time. And you know, some people say they don't, I can never understand how you, you know, you can't understand till you get here how how insane this [ __ ] can be when you're carrying a bunch of people on your back and and expected to do so much. And so I I would say that that's my that's my biggest that's my biggest accomplishment. It's just um, it's just it's just still being heard. And and I pray that all these all these guys moving forward just, you know, taking one day at a time, keep the right people around you, and and and just just know, they even when it is, you know, it is overwhelming, just just know that it's not like, you know, the end, that you know, isn't it? I just want I just want people to stay around; that's really my biggest thing, you know. That stuff [ __ ] with me when we lose people and stuff; I don't like that stuff, cuz I I want to hear it, I want to hear what all these kids have to offer, some you.