What did you think of Kanye’s Yeezus and Jay Z’s Magna Carta… Holy Grail?
I can sit here and lie to you and be like, “Man, I didn’t listen to that shyt yet.” But I did. I listened to them, and I respect both projects for what they are. I never like giving my opinion on people’s shyt because it’s going to come back to you. At the same time, I’m a very honest person. I’ve listened to them, and I can say that both projects have pushed me to go as hard as I possibly can, whatever that means to you.
You are very competitive.
I had a rapper accuse me of being too competitive and ruining it for other people.
Was he serious?
Dead serious.
How did you hear about it?
Word of mouth. “I studied you.” What do you mean? This is why we’re here. This is what it’s about. If you were me, would you be a pushover, like, “Oh I’m not gonna go that hard because I know we’re all trying to do the same thing and achieve the same goal.” It’s like, “Man, get the fukk out of here.”
Never heard of a rapper being too competitive.
That was the whole gist of the comment. “You don’t have to go that hard. You’re making it really hard for…” It’s like, what? Hey man, that’s almost a compliment in itself, for someone to say it out loud.
Was this a veteran artist?
I don’t even want to tell you. If I answered that, you would know the answer right away.
Is it important to be perceived as the top guy by your peers?
Nah, I don’t need acknowledgement. I just need silent understanding. I don’t want acknowledgement. That’s unfair, I don’t expect someone to come over and be like, “Congrats for being the top guy.”
You know what the rap equivalent of the pat on the back is, right? It’s people talking shyt about you.
[Laughs] Straight up. That is real shyt. If that’s the case, I get patted on the back all the time. Straight up though, you’re right. I was going to come to you today, like, I try to rehearse my interviews. I’ll be in the bathroom brushing my teeth, and I’ll hear you asking a question, and I’ll try to answer it the best that I can. It’s like that whole theory, are they going to ask Phil Collins about competitively releasing an album amongst his peers, or do they ask Toby Keith about what’s the beef right now? This is the genre where there is a lot of peer-to-peer competition, peer-to-peer discrepancy, peer-to-peer confrontation.
People have built the competition up between me and Kanye, per se. I get that a lot. “What’s the deal?”
Personally, I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer. I know I’m here to do one thing, and that’s be the best, which I’m sure he’s here to do too. Maybe that’s where we butt heads.
It’s not just media. It’s you guys too. You take subliminal shots at each other in songs and in interviews. Last month, in The New York Times [Drake smiles and slightly chuckles], Kanye said, “There are people who have figured out the exact Kanye West formula, the mix between Graduation and 808s, and were able to become more successful at it.” People thought he was talking about you.
Yeah.
Who else could he have been talking about?
Or it could be The Black Album/Confessions formula, or you could put any two other albums together and say that I figured something out. It’s tough to get into a war of words with Kanye because he’s a huge reason why I’m here, why I’m confident enough to step to a mic and say, “Okay, I don’t have any murder or bricks or drugs to talk about, but I can tell you about myself, and if you’re willing to listen we can get into it.” Kanye was kind of the first guy to give me that boost of confidence. It’s tough to engage in any sort of confrontation with that guy. At the end of the day, I do look up to him. And if he feels the need to remind people that, so be it.
In a weird way he gave you a compliment, albeit a backhanded compliment.
It’s tough for me. That’s a guy I can’t pretend not to like. He’s the guy to me, in a lot of ways. That’s Kanye West. But I’m also here to be the best. I’m here to surpass. I’m here to outdo. I’m ready for whatever with anybody.
Were you talking about him in your verse on French Montana’s “Pop That?” [Ed. Note: On the dong, Drake rapped “We don’t dress alike, we don’t rap alike/I shine different, I rhyme different/Only thing you got is some years on me/Man fukk you and your time difference”]
I’m not naïve; I know how it’s going to be taken. I guess in a way, for me to sit here and be like, “No.” I’m just talking my shyt. It doesn’t just apply to him or to any one person. But it’s one of those things like, if the shoe fits, tie it right.
Do you listen to records and think people are throwing subliminals at you?
I think we all push each other to write. I know I write my bars about people. They may never catch it. I might use someone as inspiration when I need to get those real aggressive bars across like on “5AM” or [Nothing Was The Same Intro] “Tuscan Leather.” I’m sure everyone does that. At the end of the day, you can’t overreact to every single thing you think is about you or that people tell you is about you.
You did strike back at Common after he dissed you last year.
Obviously, the whole tension with that whole camp has been brewing for a long time, and that was the first time someone had called me out personally. I reacted in a very poised way. First of all, I made sure it would run in the club because that’s more painful than anything. As opposed to just being on a blog, I wanted to be on a record that you would have to stand around and hear every night for a few months. That was my whole strategy going into that. Instead of sounding hurt and malicious, I wanted to sound fun, get my shyt off. Like I said, if it happens again, not that I want it, not that I welcome it, but I’m ready. I really enjoy writing bars, man. I’m not nervous about anybody saying anything to me.
It seemed like you won, but his last line was good.
The Canada Dry line? That was epic. I liked it. It wasn’t a good line necessarily, but it was funny.
Did he step over the line when he scorned you for being biracial?
For you to delve into my mom and my dad’s a bytch and all that, you’re just reaching for impact moments but the bars aren’t really good so it didn’t hit me. I never sat back and analyzed that either. I only heard it once, and thought, “I think I came away with the W on that one.”
Eminem has said he wouldn’t have sold as many records if he wasn’t White. Do you think you’ve benefitted from being biracial?
Do I think that if I didn’t have, for a lack of a better term, a unique look about me, if I was from somewhere in America and I hadn’t been on a kids TV show [Degrassi: The Next Generation], would I be as famous? I don’t know, man.
Honestly, I don’t think so. I was just some young kid on a TV show. And I haven’t become anything else while I’ve been in this position. It’s not like I got here and was like, “Oh, got to switch up my image.” I don’t wake up nervous. I feel like maybe a lot of these guys do. How old are you, really? What is your background, really? What have you really done in the drug game, in the thug game? You can come into the game and create whatever [image] you want, which you’ve always been able to but its tougher with the Internet. A lot of new artists these days that emerge, their labels will do a complete sweep of the Internet so you don’t’ know anything about them from before they came out.
They will delete their Facebook, Twitter, anything they had, any pictures, and they get to start over. Me, I was famous before I was famous. Had I not have been, I don’t know if it would have been as big. I don’t’ know if I would have ever met Wayne or if they’d taken an interest in me.
It’s a great origin story. He can rap, and he’s a former child star?
Yeah!
And he’s Canadian?
Yeah!
And he’s Jewish?
And he’s Jewish! All those things. I get Jewish people coming up to to me proud like, “Mazel tov, bro. Come to my house for Shabbat dinner.” I always say the next big rapper is gonna be like, “Yo, I play for Real Madrid or the Heat, but in the offseason, I make rap albums, and they are nasty.” It’s going to have to be someone with the craziest story.
I can sit here and lie to you and be like, “Man, I didn’t listen to that shyt yet.” But I did. I listened to them, and I respect both projects for what they are. I never like giving my opinion on people’s shyt because it’s going to come back to you. At the same time, I’m a very honest person. I’ve listened to them, and I can say that both projects have pushed me to go as hard as I possibly can, whatever that means to you.
You are very competitive.
I had a rapper accuse me of being too competitive and ruining it for other people.
Was he serious?
Dead serious.
How did you hear about it?
Word of mouth. “I studied you.” What do you mean? This is why we’re here. This is what it’s about. If you were me, would you be a pushover, like, “Oh I’m not gonna go that hard because I know we’re all trying to do the same thing and achieve the same goal.” It’s like, “Man, get the fukk out of here.”
Never heard of a rapper being too competitive.
That was the whole gist of the comment. “You don’t have to go that hard. You’re making it really hard for…” It’s like, what? Hey man, that’s almost a compliment in itself, for someone to say it out loud.
Was this a veteran artist?
I don’t even want to tell you. If I answered that, you would know the answer right away.
Is it important to be perceived as the top guy by your peers?
Nah, I don’t need acknowledgement. I just need silent understanding. I don’t want acknowledgement. That’s unfair, I don’t expect someone to come over and be like, “Congrats for being the top guy.”
You know what the rap equivalent of the pat on the back is, right? It’s people talking shyt about you.
[Laughs] Straight up. That is real shyt. If that’s the case, I get patted on the back all the time. Straight up though, you’re right. I was going to come to you today, like, I try to rehearse my interviews. I’ll be in the bathroom brushing my teeth, and I’ll hear you asking a question, and I’ll try to answer it the best that I can. It’s like that whole theory, are they going to ask Phil Collins about competitively releasing an album amongst his peers, or do they ask Toby Keith about what’s the beef right now? This is the genre where there is a lot of peer-to-peer competition, peer-to-peer discrepancy, peer-to-peer confrontation.
People have built the competition up between me and Kanye, per se. I get that a lot. “What’s the deal?”
Personally, I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer. I know I’m here to do one thing, and that’s be the best, which I’m sure he’s here to do too. Maybe that’s where we butt heads.
It’s not just media. It’s you guys too. You take subliminal shots at each other in songs and in interviews. Last month, in The New York Times [Drake smiles and slightly chuckles], Kanye said, “There are people who have figured out the exact Kanye West formula, the mix between Graduation and 808s, and were able to become more successful at it.” People thought he was talking about you.
Yeah.
Who else could he have been talking about?
Or it could be The Black Album/Confessions formula, or you could put any two other albums together and say that I figured something out. It’s tough to get into a war of words with Kanye because he’s a huge reason why I’m here, why I’m confident enough to step to a mic and say, “Okay, I don’t have any murder or bricks or drugs to talk about, but I can tell you about myself, and if you’re willing to listen we can get into it.” Kanye was kind of the first guy to give me that boost of confidence. It’s tough to engage in any sort of confrontation with that guy. At the end of the day, I do look up to him. And if he feels the need to remind people that, so be it.
In a weird way he gave you a compliment, albeit a backhanded compliment.
It’s tough for me. That’s a guy I can’t pretend not to like. He’s the guy to me, in a lot of ways. That’s Kanye West. But I’m also here to be the best. I’m here to surpass. I’m here to outdo. I’m ready for whatever with anybody.
Were you talking about him in your verse on French Montana’s “Pop That?” [Ed. Note: On the dong, Drake rapped “We don’t dress alike, we don’t rap alike/I shine different, I rhyme different/Only thing you got is some years on me/Man fukk you and your time difference”]
I’m not naïve; I know how it’s going to be taken. I guess in a way, for me to sit here and be like, “No.” I’m just talking my shyt. It doesn’t just apply to him or to any one person. But it’s one of those things like, if the shoe fits, tie it right.
Do you listen to records and think people are throwing subliminals at you?
I think we all push each other to write. I know I write my bars about people. They may never catch it. I might use someone as inspiration when I need to get those real aggressive bars across like on “5AM” or [Nothing Was The Same Intro] “Tuscan Leather.” I’m sure everyone does that. At the end of the day, you can’t overreact to every single thing you think is about you or that people tell you is about you.
You did strike back at Common after he dissed you last year.
Obviously, the whole tension with that whole camp has been brewing for a long time, and that was the first time someone had called me out personally. I reacted in a very poised way. First of all, I made sure it would run in the club because that’s more painful than anything. As opposed to just being on a blog, I wanted to be on a record that you would have to stand around and hear every night for a few months. That was my whole strategy going into that. Instead of sounding hurt and malicious, I wanted to sound fun, get my shyt off. Like I said, if it happens again, not that I want it, not that I welcome it, but I’m ready. I really enjoy writing bars, man. I’m not nervous about anybody saying anything to me.
It seemed like you won, but his last line was good.
The Canada Dry line? That was epic. I liked it. It wasn’t a good line necessarily, but it was funny.
Did he step over the line when he scorned you for being biracial?
For you to delve into my mom and my dad’s a bytch and all that, you’re just reaching for impact moments but the bars aren’t really good so it didn’t hit me. I never sat back and analyzed that either. I only heard it once, and thought, “I think I came away with the W on that one.”
Eminem has said he wouldn’t have sold as many records if he wasn’t White. Do you think you’ve benefitted from being biracial?
Do I think that if I didn’t have, for a lack of a better term, a unique look about me, if I was from somewhere in America and I hadn’t been on a kids TV show [Degrassi: The Next Generation], would I be as famous? I don’t know, man.
Honestly, I don’t think so. I was just some young kid on a TV show. And I haven’t become anything else while I’ve been in this position. It’s not like I got here and was like, “Oh, got to switch up my image.” I don’t wake up nervous. I feel like maybe a lot of these guys do. How old are you, really? What is your background, really? What have you really done in the drug game, in the thug game? You can come into the game and create whatever [image] you want, which you’ve always been able to but its tougher with the Internet. A lot of new artists these days that emerge, their labels will do a complete sweep of the Internet so you don’t’ know anything about them from before they came out.
They will delete their Facebook, Twitter, anything they had, any pictures, and they get to start over. Me, I was famous before I was famous. Had I not have been, I don’t know if it would have been as big. I don’t’ know if I would have ever met Wayne or if they’d taken an interest in me.
It’s a great origin story. He can rap, and he’s a former child star?
Yeah!
And he’s Canadian?
Yeah!
And he’s Jewish?
And he’s Jewish! All those things. I get Jewish people coming up to to me proud like, “Mazel tov, bro. Come to my house for Shabbat dinner.” I always say the next big rapper is gonna be like, “Yo, I play for Real Madrid or the Heat, but in the offseason, I make rap albums, and they are nasty.” It’s going to have to be someone with the craziest story.
this nikka trying to pucker his lips like a fakkit?