Drake started out as an RnB-singer but wasn't that good at it, his family are all from RnB and soul so I don't know why, you after 12 years would say "catering to non-hiphop crowds" as if this is the first time he's singing. Or why you in 2017 would assume that hiphop fans only listen to hiphop.
he always had that background, but im pretty sure he started out rappin. even on still fly he's braggin about singing his hooks n that that's some new shyt he's on.
he was def always meant to be a singer, but like u said, he wasn't built for that atm until kanye dropped 808s and blessed him with a style to run wit after he got chased out the motown buidling
but i could be wrong. mans is signed to motown after all. rap music dismantled the motown strategy of putting out polished and highly collaborative products. certain artists goin all the way back to badboy put that method back together and i think that's where drake is coming from, hence the hate he garners amongst self proclaimed hiphop heads.
and whoever made that trey comparison is being willfully oblivious. trey has no number 1 rap records, and as a matter of face neither does drake. he got one dance.
i def started out as a fan of drake's rappin and used to skip his singing trax. now it's almost the opposite. but to pretend drake and trey share the same balance of rapping and singing is asinine.
