Drake reflects on what it was like for his mother to raise a rap star

My dad used to play these little hole-in-the-wall gigs, and to prove himself as a father, he’d take me to his shows. That was the first kick I ever got out of music. Part of his routine became bringing me up onstage and letting me sing Ride, Sally, ride. It was a hard time for my family: What mother would want her child in dive bars performing for money? I was nine or 10 years old and I’d see people letting their emotions out through this outlet. That’s when music became intriguing to me.

My mom signed me up for dance classes, piano lessons. She was trying to do anything to keep me occupied. Her main objective was keeping me from being aimless, just wandering the streets. She signed me up for hockey, basketball, music, dancing. I tried piano, I tried guitar and I couldn’t stick with anything – until acting became my main focus.

When I landed Degrassi, I dropped out of high school. My calling had nothing to do with mathematics or history lessons. I felt like I was already capable of talking my way into or out of anything, and that was good enough. [Read more →]

HOT 102.7‘s Online Editor AC was present at the 1st annual OVO Fest last night and she covered the majority of the show. The Sprite/OurStage backstage correspondent winner, Megan Sumpton, got the chance to interview Drake on his tour bus prior to big show. The special guests that were in attendance… Rick Ross, Kardinal Offishall, Fabolous, Mack Maine, Young Jeezy, Bun B, Eminem and Jay-Z, are all in the video above.

In the video above, Drake talks to Westwood on 1Xtra about Thank Me Later, his shows in London & the video to Find Your Love.
In the video below, Drake talks to Westwood on 1Xtra about the Nicki MInaj & Lil Kim beef, a joint album with Lil Wayne, Jay-Z & his influences.

Via PaperMag.com: Though writer Jozen Cummings covered much about Drake in PAPER’s Summer Music Issue, on stands now, there were a few more extra tidbits from our interview with the red-hot hip-hop superstar that PAPERMAG thought we’d share with you. Read on for news about Drake’s return to acting, his plans to play Obama and keeping a safe distance from the Internet.

Drake on playing Barack Obama in a movie

I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him. That’s the goal [laughs]. I watch all the addresses. Anytime I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel, I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice. If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impressions. Slowly but surely, I’m not in the study mode because nobody’s called me about anything, but I just pay attention so when the day comes I’m not scrambling to learn how to speak like him. I want to be involved in great film projects. I don’t want to do the basketball movie that everyone does. I don’t want to do the typical black film that everyone expects. I think that I have enough experience to actually be involved in a real meaty project full of substance.

Drake on reading negative blog comments

I stopped going on a computer. I have a problem where if I go read a hundred positive things about me and there’s one guy in there who says ‘I hate Drake’ that’s the one I pay attention to. I think that’s a common problem. Negativity hurts us more than positivity helps us. I asked about 10 or 20 people around me, ‘When’s the last time you went on a website and commented on something, like a song dropped and you went on and said, ‘That song is hot’ or ‘That song is terrible?’ And everyone I asked around me, whose opinions I respect, the people I love, were like, ‘I’ve never done that before.’ And these are all level-headed, intelligent people whose opinion I respect, so I just started saying to myself, ‘It takes a certain type of individual to really participate in a group discussion about someone else, especially if they’re going super hard with consistent hate.

[Read more →]

Aubrey Drake Graham aka Drake, took out some time to answer 17 questions for “Seventeen Magazine“. Find out what Drizzy would be doing if he wasn’t rapping. This one is for the ladies.

How old were you when you had your first kiss?
3 1/2

Who’s your celebrity crush?
Lauren London

What’s the girl fashion trend that confuses the heck out of you?
The retro movement — it’s wack!

What’s the girlie movie you secretly love?
Love and Basketball.

What’s your TV guilty pleasure?
Dexter.

Who would play you in the movie version of your life?
Evan Ross. [Read more →]

In the summer of 2008, Lil Wayne, at the height of his dreadlocked, coughsyrup- guzzling Weezy-ness, invited Aubrey Drake Graham—part-time rapper and sweet-faced regular on Canada’s teen soap Degrassi: The Next Generation— to meet him in Houston.

“I waited for about three hours,” says Drake, who trimmed his name (and his ’fro) post-Degrassi. “Finally, someone was like, ‘Okay, Lil Wayne is ready.’ I walked onto his bus and he was getting these massive angel wings tattooed on his sides. It must have been painful, but he wasn’t showing it. We did some talking, but not much. And then, six or seven hours later, the bus just started moving. They were like, ‘Oh, you’re coming on tour with us.’”

Read the rest here.

EXCLUSIVE: Maclean’s talks to hip-hop’s biggest star

The trappings of fame aren’t that hard to get used to. Aubrey Drake Graham was driving a leased Rolls-Royce around Toronto even before he signed one of the richest first-record contracts in music history. For more than two years now, he’s been hanging out with sports icons like LeBron James, partying with Jay-Z, Kanye West and other rap royalty, and making the gossip rags for his “romances” with Hollywood starlets (rumoured) and pop divas like Rihanna (confirmed).

There’s been a No. 1 single, a couple of nominations and an on-stage performance at the 2009 Grammys, and the inevitable deal to shill for a soft drink. It’s a heady life, but to hear the 23-year-old tell it, it’s only now that he’s realizing what it means to be a global celebrity.

Late last week, the rapper and his entourage, which boasts three bodyguards, dropped into a St. Louis shopping centre to buy some tea. The crowd trailing them around got so large and frenzied that mall security asked them to leave. “I feel like maybe two months ago, I still had a bit of anonymity. Now it’s a hassle to do regular things,” Drake says from backstage as he prepares for an evening performance in St. Louis. “I don’t know if it will ever feel normal. But I’ve accepted my responsibility—it’s what I wanted, it’s what I dreamed about. I don’t dispute

Read the rest here

Hip hop sensation Drake joined Microsoft’s SVP for Online Audience Business in studio at “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” to talk about the future of social media in entertainment, mothers playing video games more than ever before, and stories of Drake’s quick rise to fame.

More Videos after the jump. [Read more →]

Update: Here’s part 2. Drake breaks down each track from his debut in detail, talks a slimmer guest list for his sophomore album, Andre 3000 saying “it was too early”, avoiding Ustream/Twitter and more.

SB.TV was the only online media platform in the UK to catch up with Drake exclusively and we found out about his transition from a successful acting career to having the most anticipated hip-hop album of 2010, we also talk about his forthcoming album, the best verse on the ‘Forever’ track and alot more exclusively here at www.SBTV.co.uk interview with Twin B.

A few days ago Drake did an interview with one of the hottest female presenter in the UK, Max. They go on to discuss Drizzy’s music, Nicki Minaj, Rita Ora, and some plans for the future. Drake also tells Max what his 3 favorite qualities are in a woman.

If you missed Drake today on 106 & Park, he co-hosted 106 & Park with Terrence J in order to promote tomorrow’s Thank Me Later release. Oh and he’ll be back to co-host again tomorrow (June 15)

Look for this article in PAPER’s Summer 2010 music issue on newsstands June 21.

It may sound cliché, but Drake remembers October 31, 2009, like it was yesterday.

That was the night Drake knew his transformation from Aubrey Drake Graham — star of teen soap opera Degrassi: The Next Generation — to famous rapper had begun. That was the night Jay-Z performed in his hometown.

“Jay-Z coming to Toronto meant every single person was going to be there, which meant the majority of the people in my life were there,” the 23-year-old rapper recalls. “And there was a big rumor around the city: Is Drake close enough to Jay where he would bring me out? And people were like, ‘No, it would never happen.’”

Well, it did happen. Not only did Jay-Z bring Drake out to perform on stage with him, he let a still-fringe artist perform one of his own songs, “Successful,” in its entirety. “I’ll never forget that. I must have looked in the eyes of 40 people I know in the first 20 rows,” Drake says, sounding still somewhat shocked. “There were ex-girlfriends, guys who hated me, people who loved me, my mother — and it was just like, ‘This is it.’” Like most other testaments to Drake’s success, there’s a video on the Internet to prove the moment actually happened.

Read the Rest here

Drake told LA Times that he looks to seize the moment — then make it last. The subject of a major label bidding war, the Canadian rapper is releasing his first album Tuesday. He feels pressure to deliver.

The crowd at downtown Los Angeles’ Club Nokia arrived primed and pumped up. Not just to be entertained, but, more palpably, to witness a make-or-break moment.

When the Canadian rapper-cum-R&B crooner Drake bounded onstage last month, he was greeted with a hail of applause as well as an eerie cathodic blue glow that quickly settled over the 2,300 capacity auditorium — the side effect of hundreds of camera phones aimed and at the ready for Drake’s high-energy opening number, “Forever.” [Read more →]