Fresh from announcing his new tour, Drake keeps his promo game popping with a brand new GQ cover.
Renown for his diet-bravado approach to being a “rapper”, the multi-Platinum MC tells the publication of his laxed stance when it comes to the critics and why he is (literally) keeping it real.
Now, before you get totally taken with that Colgate smile and pleasantries, the Canadian star also waxes honest about his “beef” with Chris Brown – suggesting that things could get more heated under right (or should we say, wrong) circumstances.
Peep excerpts below…
Via Complex:
On other rappers hating on him:
“You notice they don’t criticize the music itself, though…I’m okay with that.”
On focusing on his album rather than sex:
“You know the way fighters don’t fuck before the fight? Sometimes I feel like I’m so focused on training my body and getting my mind right to create this album that sex isn’t one of my main priorities. If someone is around that I know and trust, I’m down. But I’m not going to end up with some stranger at this party.”
On Chris Brown drama:
“I hear he has everything he could want now. I don’t want my name to be synonymous with that guy’s name. I really don’t. I wish we could sit down just like you and me are right now, and talk it out man-to-man. But that’s not going to happen. I’m not confrontational, but if someone challenges, I’m not going to back down. If I think about it too much, I feel it wrapping around my foot, like I get a feeling it could end really badly…Like, it gets really dark.”
On love:
“[Will Smith said] It’s not about wanting anymore, you need that person. Hearing that, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way…I’ve made a lot of music about love being the only thing I’m missing. I think this is the first album I’ve made saying, ‘I’m okay, I’m enjoying it right now.’ Maybe this is my time to grind it out, make a run for it, and add some memories with my boys.”
On ‘Started From The Bottom’:
“I think a lot of people wish their favorite rapper wrote it—as if a song like that should be gangster—but I was the one who wrote it, and everyone has their bottom.
As for my whole story, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve told bits and pieces of it—and I’ll tell more. Maybe because I had friends who grew up in the hood, I could have acted like I had, too, and perpetrated a different lifestyle, and it would be eating away at me because it wouldn’t be the truth. i’m actually here in front of you living the truth. I wake up int he morning and my heart is light, man. It’s not heavy. I don’t have skeletons in the closet on their way out. This is my real age, my real name, my real past, and I’m good with that.”
On ‘Nothing Was The Same’:
“This is my ****ing moment to say if I wanted to rap all the time, really rap, I would, but I also love to make music. I’ll do this for you right now. But it’s for me, too. It’s my story…I’m trying to get back to that kid in the basement. To say what he has to say. And I’m trying to make it last.”
On his pursuit of love, and the advice he received from Will Smith:
“I had lunch the other day with someone I extremely look up to. Okay—I had lunch with Will Smith, and listening to him talk, it made me think I don’t know what love is. He said something profound. He said love is when you become one and you need that person. It’s not about wanting anymore, you need that person. Hearing that, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way. I’ve held women in very high regard almost to the point where I felt like I needed them for a very long time, but I don’t know if I comprehend it yet, and I’m okay with that.I’ve made a lot of music about love being the only thing I’m missing. I think this is the first album I’ve made saying, I’m okay. I’m enjoying it right now. Maybe this is my time to grind it out, make a run for it and add some memories with my boys.”
On future ambitions, including his goal of making $250 million by the time he’s 29:
“I feel this great responsibility to see how far can we take it, how out of reach can I set that bar for whoever comes after. While I’m here, I’m gonna keep pushing that bar higher and higher up and make you really work for it.”
On becoming #1, and re-creating the excitement of his early career:
“You constantly ask yourself: Will I ever be able to excite people the way I did when the Internet was going crazy, back when you first felt like you had a piece of Drake that no one else had, and you wanted to share it with your friends? Is there an album or song we can make now that’s good enough to get people that excited again? I ain’t gonna lie: I want to be the one you listen to this summer.”
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Insightful.