Drake traded his patterned sweaters and OVO gear for a slim-fitting suit on the cover of GQ’s first-ever Style Bible. The men’s magazine visited the dapper rapper at his new bachelor pad in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. As Sixteen Candles played on the projector overlooking the waterfalls in his lush backyard, Drizzy charmed the female journalist while sipping chilled wine spritzer. He opened up about his relationship with his father, how fame has improved his life, and thinking beyond the bedroom.

Read highlights from the interview and see more photos below.

On his relationship with his father: “Me and my dad are friends. We’re cool. I’ll never be disappointed again, because I don’t expect anything anymore from him. I just let him exist, and that’s how we get along. We laugh. We have drinks together. But I spent too many nights looking by the window, seeing if the car was going to pull up. And the car never came.”

On the state of hip-hop: “Rap now is just being young and fly and having your shit together. The mood of rap has changed.”

On pre- and post-Internet fame: “Some of my favorite rappers, some of my heroes—DJ Screw, Aaliyah—there might be like 200 pictures of them because there was no Internet. Whereas with us, it’s like every moment is documented.”

On how his life has changed: “I’m trying to find the same feelings that I had for women when I had very little going on, which is tough. When I was in my mom’s house, I had nowhere to go, no real obligations. My girlfriend at the time, if she was mad at me, my day was all fucked-up. I didn’t have anything else. And that made for some of the best music, I think, to date. Records where I felt small. That feeling is hard to capture when you’re sitting out here in a space like this. It’s really difficult for me to find something that makes me feel small.”

On his sex life: “There’s just a time where it was like, just getting pussy. Where I was in that sort of ‘I’m young, I’m going to disconnect from my emotions and just do what everyone else tells me I should do and just be a rapper and have my fun.’ And for me as a person, it just doesn’t work. I just need something else. The seconds after a man reaches climax, that’s like the realest moment of your life. If I don’t want you next to me in that fifteen, twenty seconds, then there’s something wrong.”

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Drake is featured in Cosmopolitan’s December/January issue, which is in stores now, he gave his thoughts on what men look for in women. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

At this age, what are you looking for in a woman ?

“I like a very specific brand of humor from a woman. I love that sarcastic kind of funny. To be outwitted is very sexy.”

What’s the best compliment a girlfriend could give you in this stage of your life?

“The best thing would be “You’re the type of guy I see myself with. That kind of compliment isn’t just about how she feels right now; it extends beyond today.”

As a 25 year-old, where do you go to meet women?

“I know guys who don’t want to meet someone at a bar. I’m not like that. Alot of great women go to bars.”

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Drake is featured on the latest cover of Jet magazine, December issue. This issue is set to hit stands November 28th. Drizzy chats about a couple of topics including why people respect him as a rapper, Take Care, and much more. We got some quick excerpts below.

On ‘Take Care’ and what it means to him:

“There are moments I have where I’m by myself, and it’s very reflective,” he says. “I have a desire to come back and do some more aggressive music, because I truly enjoy those anthems and those moments as well. But I think this album is a great balance.”

On making his third album:

“I think I’m very hard on myself. I don’t really give myself too much time to be happy or celebrate. Like this album, I’m very proud of it. People are giving me great feedback, but at the same time, I’m sitting on my bus already listening to new beats. I’m trying to figure out what I could do better or what my next move is. I’m obsessed with getting better.”

On being respected:

“I think that it’s evident that I’m myself, and I think people respect me for that across the board, he says. I get respect from the guys who are respected for being real rapper’s rappers. I get respect from women. I get respect from mothers, fathers and kids. It’s very humbling and flattering and incredible, and I’m honored to be in this position because I get to be myself. And I get a lot of love for it.”

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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.

Drake on honoring Andre3000

I have a shrine in my apartment dedicated to Andre. I took a door off a barn and had an artist take the lyrics from his verses [and put them] on this barn door. As soon as you walk into my apartment that’s the first thing you see.

Drake on overexposure

Overexposure would be me in every single video, me on Twitter every single day, me… having my hand in all these pots because I feel I’m hot. That’s overexposure. Overexposure isn’t when people love you too much and are excited. I hate when people confuse the two. I actually say no way more than I say yes to opportunities are presented to me.

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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.

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Special feature on DRAKE – The most anticipated Hip-Hop album in years comes from a 23-year-old singing, acting, half-Jewsih Canadian who some are touting in the same breath as Biggie and Lil Wayne. Purchase Now!

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XL just released some unpublished excerpts from Drake’s interview that didn’t make the cover story. Drake talks the difference between writing rap and writing R&B records, being bored with mixtapes and why he hates the way he looks in pictures, as well as a few other things. Read on below:

How many songs are on Thank Me Later?

Drake: It’ll probably end up being about 15. But it’s just, you know, I love doing R&B music, I really do. And I just always feel like to tie in hip-hop with R&B and to utilize R&B to glue it all together, that’s my trademark. That’s something that only I can do. And that’s why I will continue to do it. There might come a time where I might be like, “Yo, I just want to do an R&B mixtape, or I just want to do a whole [R&B] album,” but I don’t think so, man. I think that that is the makeup of me—melody and just the tone of my voice and all; I don’t think I could ever change that, so…

I’m waiting on the Drake Gangsta Grillz.

Drake: [Laughs] I just find that boring, you know. There’s certain people where it’s impressive, like with Lil Wayne, to hear him freestyling over other people’s beats for an hour is impressive because it’s just like, Yo, this guy never runs out of clever shit to say, but for me, people might want to hear it, but it’s just not something that I really want to give you. I’d rather just give you something that lasts a little longer than that ’cause those mixtapes never really last much longer than six months. When the songs become played out, and…

Well, it’s different now. It’s like Dedication 2 and Dedication 1 and Jeezy obviously, Trap or Die…

Drake: Yeah, but even so, do you listen to those on a constant basis or would you rather put in an album where somebody’s giving you original compositions and moments that maybe apply to your life as opposed to listening to like… I don’t know? I know to listen to freestyles over songs that maybe I’m just sick of, even though somebody kills it, there may be one or two or three that really, really, I love, but other than that, I’d rather just listen to like somebody’s music.

There are some special ones.

Drake: There are for sure.

Do you feel that you can go bar for bar with anybody?

Drake: As far as rappers? Um… I’m really still trying to become a better rapper, you know? And I still have idols. I still have people I look up to. I definitely don’t feel that I’m the best I can be nor am I the best rapper. Like I said, I just love making the music, and I’m less concerned about where I stand in the rankings and more about just where I stand with myself, like am I getting better? You know, am I the best I can be? I really don’t care about like compared to Hov or compared to Wayne. That’s another man. I’ve never been really worried about what anybody else is doing. I just use it as reference points and as influence and inspiration, but I don’t really bother myself with thinking who’s the best. ’Cause that doesn’t really matter. It’s just who’s got the songs that move people at the time. Like if you’ve got the title of being the best rapper but you don’t have the hottest songs out? To me, that’s what’s important is just like putting out consistently good product. I don’t really care how they rank me or anything like that.

How important is it to be involved in the larger rap conversation?

Drake: I definitely want to be great. You know, I’m not saying I don’t care. I obviously care. I love being mentioned in a class of people that are incredible but I mean, you can focus on that shit and drive yourself crazy…. In different genres it’s way different. I think rap is probably the most competitive genre.

Absolutely.

Drake: R&B is becoming competitive, too. Especially with all the younger artists. But in I don’t know if Grizzly Bear is wondering if they’re better than Kings of Leon, you know [Laughs]. I think they all just make the music that they love and that’s kinda what I try to take away from those individuals is I just want to make the music, man, and however it turns out… I can’t sit here and tell you my music is so good ’cause it’s just not for me to decide. It’s for people to decide. The results are always evident. If you choose to ignore them and still say my music’s the best and I’m the best, that’s when you start getting lost.

What’s the difference between writing R&B records and rap records for you?

Drake: R&B records, to be honest with you, is kinda like, I mean, process wise, like the way Jay writes raps I guess or the way Wayne writes raps. Like, they don’t write things down, they just like say it in their head and are able to retain all the information in their head [that’s] how I write R&B. I don’t write down the lyrics, I kind of just stand in the booth and I just keep singing and singing until I just find melodies and words that make sense or come together. Or I just stand in there and find melodies that I love and then really go outside of the booth and think about what’s been going on in my life and try to put words to it. R&B though, I mean it’s really pretty much the same content-wise, you know, it’s all pretty honest stuff. I always try to keep in mind that both male and female will be listening to it so I try to make R&B music that’s not too sappy and not too “girl this” and “girl that” just so that like I sound like a man who’s thinking. I sound like a man who’s confident just so that it’s not awkward for other men to listen to. And then at the same time I try to keep it empowering for women. Really I just like, I like my R&B to feel a certain way and then I that feeling is usually evident so when I get there I’m like okay, yeah, yeah, this is it.

I’ve heard folks say that writing R&B records can be more difficult because there are less words to work with.

Drake: Yeah, I don’t know, to be honest with you, I kinda think that more words can often be more room for error. Like when you have to write a 16 bar verse or a 32 bar verse, which I often do, I feel like that can also be more difficult. I also feel like one of my biggest attributes or talents is finding melody. You know me and [my producer] 40 can sit together and pick melodies that other singers would probably just use as like a harmony but they just become so prominent when you use them as a lead. And yeah, to me, with R&B, I just don’t take it that serious where it’s like I’m an R&B singer and this song has to sound a certain type of way and if not then no one’s going to respect me, you know? I just kinda really allow myself to just have fun. I’m able to let go and just see what comes of it all the time. You know, because it’s the icing on the cake. It’s something that if I’m able to pull it together, I just see it as a plus. When we do get it right, it really adds a dynamic to my career.

How do you make sure you’re saying something new? I can’t imagine you’re studying the entire catalog of every rap record made from all time.

Drake: Um, I mean, I have a pretty good idea. If I come up with something that I think is really, really clever, I’m not afraid to like Google it or really start sitting there and thinking about [it]. Obviously, you’re right – there’s no way for me to figure if it’s been said before in some rap record from some guy that I’ve never [heard of], but as far as prominent things where I’m going to say it and someone right away is going to be like oh that was ’Pac or oh, that was T.I…. I really do try and make sure that a lot of what I rap about has never really been worded in the way that I put it.

Rather than reinterpreting someone else’s structure for instance.

Drake: It’s more in the words. I mean, I admire flows. I really do admire flows and sometimes I’ll flip flows that I love, like the dead prez flow, you know I love that flow. That’s one of the most powerful song’s startings ever in hip-hop in my opinion, you know, and I wanted to pay homage to that, but at the same time, like, unless I directly mean to, usually I’ll stay away from copying or just trying to emulate someone else’s whole style or the type of things they would say.

Earlier you said, you can make just rap records and cater to a small segment, like how important is that to you? Or is it all about just being successful and making records to be successful?

Drake: Like to me, I think about them all the time because you know, I really do care about what they have to say, you know? …I still go on the websites like NahRight, like, I care, I really do care. So like I said, when I do have a chance to get in a rap mode, like for example I did this song off my album last night called “The Resistance.” It’s the song that comes right before “Over” and, man, that was one of those songs where I was like, you know, I really gotta take the time and write this song because it’s an opportunity to really rap and show people that I actually do care about rap and care about what you think about my flows and care about what you think about me as a rapper even if I have a crazy hook on it, which I do… But I still factor them into my thoughts. I haven’t let them go yet, that hip hop population that’s so judgmental and maybe hates everything I’m doing right now ’cause I’m doing it on such a grand scale and they feel like not a part of it all or they feel like I’ve abandoned them and what they stand for. I still think about them all the time.

How do you respond to the hate?

Drake: I don’t respond. I cut myself off from outlets where I would be able to say anything anyway, but it’s really not my style to really say anything to people, you know. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, man, honestly, the music feedback I don’t really trip off of ’cause I know everybody likes their own thing so I don’t really trip when someone doesn’t like my music because what you’ll tend to do is there’ll be 40 people that say, “Oh, dope song,” and then there’ll be one guy that’s like, “Yo, this dude’s overrated, fuck Drake,” and that’s the one you’ll pay attention to. That one guy will make you feel like everybody’s online dissing you so it’s easy to get caught up in the trap of the feedback. But to be honest that’s not even the stuff that bothers me, man. You want to know what really bothers me?

What?

Drake: What really bothers me is that fact that all my life, I always get caught in the worst, most unphotogenic poses ever. Now people follow me with cameras and are just clicking away and I always feel like I just look mad different in pictures. I hate seeing pictures of myself online when I’m leaving a spot or whatever; I just always get caught laughing ’cause I’m always outside making jokes or whatever with the people, but I always end up looking so stupid like that’s the shit that I’m always like, “Man, I wish that didn’t happen,” you know? But as for people’s opinions and shit like that, it’s all good. That’s what’s going to happen. You know people are entitled to their opinion and it takes a certain type of individual to really come online and give their opinion of your music, positive or negative. I don’t know if you do it, but I can’t say I’ve ever gone online and posted underneath someone’s song, and be like, “Dope song, son.” Or, “That shit is wack.” I’ve never done that before. It’s just a certain community of people that really feel like that’s their outlet and I know that me and my friends aren’t any of them so I don’t know who those people are and I can’t really take their opinion too close to heart just because I’m not really sure what those people are made of and if their opinion’s even valid so I just kind of keep it moving.

If it all ended today, if it got taken away, what would you want people to take away?

Drake: It can’t end yet. It can’t end yet because the story’s not done.

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At just twenty-three, Canadian rapper Drake is already leagues ahead of those who’ve come before

Lil Wayne 2.0 seems like he was designed in a laboratory, so perfectly is he suited to be pop culture’s next superstar. He was born into music, writes and raps like his mentor, dresses up instead of down, and vaguely resembles a young Obama.

A word after a word after a word is money. For example: “I’m a Young Money millionaire, tougher than Nigerian hair. / My criteria compared to your career just isn’t fair.” That’s a bit of “A Milli,” one of six platinum- and multi-platinum-certified singles by Lil Wayne, the Louisiana rapper who coined the term “bling.” Last summer, Forbes magazine estimated his annual earnings at $18 million (US) — a recession-beating 38 percent rise over the year before. His 2008 album, Tha Carter III, has sold several million copies worldwide; its support tour, a nine-month bus ride bounded by shows in Miami, Montreal, Vancouver, and San Diego, grossed $42 million (US).

At least twice, Barack Obama has counselled children not to emulate Wayne, because it would be easier for them to slam-dunk an anvil than to walk his life path. Lil Wayne won three Grammy Awards last year, cementing his style — sex-and-drug ditties laced with raspy, digitally altered vocals — as one of the most important sounds in the global music industry.

But Lil Wayne, also known as Weezy, is temporarily leaving the rap game. By the time these sentences reach you, he’ll be a month or so into his year on Riker’s Island, the punishment for illegal gun possession. (During a 2007 search of his tour bus, nypd officers found a loaded semi-automatic in a Louis Vuitton bag.) He already looks the stereotypical part of an inmate: his beltline sags below his ass cheeks; heavy dreadlocks droop past his chest; his scores of tattoos include the words “Fear” and “God” on his eyelids. Nevertheless, it will be his first experience of jail.

Weezy’s brand will endure his sabbatical, in large part because he has groomed a protege to take up his mantle. Lil Wayne 2.0 seems like he was designed in a laboratory, so perfectly is he suited to be pop culture’s next superstar. He was born into music, writes and raps like his mentor, dresses up instead of down, and vaguely resembles a young Obama. He is half-black and half-Jewish, media polished, and Hollywood handsome — a vocal gymnast and jet-setter who’s never known hip hop’s “thug life”; the type of gentleman a groupie would bring home to her mother. He’s also Canadian.

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Don’t say it. We already know what half of you are thinking: Hell naw, that muthafucka? Yep. Aubrey “Drake” Graham, 23. That muthafucka. As in, that new hip-hop artist from Toronto. As in, the one who owned 2009 thanks to a little mixtape known as So Far Gone, hip-hop’s first instant-classic tape from a virtually unknown artist since Young Jeezy’s Trap or Die. As in, the one who landed in the middle of a major-label bidding war so closely watched that his ultimate signing to Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown made news in a way not seen since the day 50 Cent signed to Shady/Aftermath/Interscope. As in, the one who had more than 60,000 downloads of his So Far Gone mixtape in its first day. As in, the one with Lil Wayne’s co-sign and Kanye West behind the lens of his first video, “Best I Ever Had.” As in, the one who had two songs off of So Far Gone land in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and sold 414,000 copies of the official re-release of his monstrous mixtape, yet still hasn’t dropped his debut album, but has already appeared alongside Wayne, Kanye and Eminem (on the same record!), handled a hook for Jay-Z, recorded with Alicia Keys, Timbaland, Jamie Foxx, Young Jeezy and a rack of other top-tier stars, received two Grammy nominations, starred in a Sprite commercial that debuted during this year’s pre-Super Bowl broadcast of all things, and been romantically linked to Rihanna. As in, the pretty boy who played the wheelchair-bound Jimmy in Canadian TV’s teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, who purses his lips in photos and is prone to dressing like a character out of a romance novel. As in, the one the ladies love and the rap blogs love to hate. As in, the one with the R&B steeze who just dropped his lead single “Over,” a street record and instant fan pleaser. As in, the one who was passed over for XXL’s Freshmen Class of 2009 only to turn down being part of 2010’s. As in, that muthafucka—the one with the audacity to name his debut album Thank Me Later, as if his success were already a foregone conclusion.

So which is it? Is he that muthafucka? Or will he forever be that phenomenally successful rapper/singer/actor you love to hate? Only one way to find out.

What are your thoughts on this cover?
It’s great to me. I’ve never done XXL, so it’s exciting. And to be doing it with Nicki, man, that’s my dog. That’s more than my dog. That’s, like, we have the most interesting relationship, ’cause it’s so multilayered. That’s my co-worker, my peer, my family. But, at the same time, on any given day, she’s, like, the love of my life… Nicki’s a very intriguing character. To be doing it with her is great, man.

So since the success of your mixtape So Far Gone you’ve become rap’s golden child. Has it been hard getting your debut together, to live up to that hype?
Not hard. If you’re not struggling, then there’s something wrong. If it was effortless, then I’d be scared. If I was like, “Yeah, this is it, this is the one.” I’m still listening to it, and I’m like, “Man, I don’t know, it could be better.” But that’s just me. That’s just the artist in myself competing with myself. And now it’s so crazy, because, to be in the industry, a lot of people start playing you their music. You start hearing other people’s hits and sound, and you start thinking, Wow, okay, this is all the music that’s coming out this year. And you start thinking about yourself fitting into that, you know? Like, last year, other than Blueprint 3, it was a pretty dry year for hip-hop, as far as, like, the legends. But this year it’s way different. You know, you’ve got OutKast rumored to be coming out.

Do you know something we don’t?
I don’t. I just read what I read. Even from, like, [Santogold] is coming out again, MGMT. You’ve got Jeezy. You’ve got T.I. Carter IV’s gonna drop as soon as Wayne gets out. So it’s a great year for music. But when you’re in it, you also start thinking about, Well, I can’t get lost in that. And I make R&B, and hip-hop, so I’m not only thinking about the rappers—I’m thinking about the Dreams, the MGMTs, just great music on a whole. That’s the best part about it, because that’s what makes my music better and pushes me to keep working on it, as opposed to just being, like, “Okay, it’s done.” I wasn’t confident when I dropped So Far Gone, neither. I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

Really?
Yeah, ’cause I started the mixtape off with an R&B song about women that were lost in the world. It was a risk. I mean, we knew it meant something to us, but we also sat there, like, “Man, are people going to accept this? A rapper that’s singing?” And I’m not just doing melodies, I’m singing. Same with this album—I’m singing. And I even went further. I explored music on So Far Gone. I was taking other people’s music and revamping it. I can’t do that on an album. I love that genre of music. It sparks something in me when
I use soundscapes or write like that. So now I’ve crafted my own interpretations on that that apply to my life, and I’m just wondering, Are those going to work now? ’Cause it’s just me. It’s my shit. So it’s a lot of unknowns on this album.

Sometimes I’ll have been up all night thinking about it, and then I finally get to the studio, listen to it front to back, and I’m like, “Man, this is a good record. It’s a great first record.” And it’s so crazy, too, because people are always telling me—oh, you know, like, the Kanyes, and the Jays, and the Jeezys, they put me, like, for some reason, over there, like my album is gonna be competing with those people. And I don’t know if it’s just what they assume soundwise, like, maybe it’ll sound that big and be in the category, but really, for the new artists that just put out a mixtape and are working on their first album, I mean, just those guys, the new class, that’s really where I’m at. I really only put out a mixtape, and this is my first album. And just, like, [Kid] Cudi or a Wale, J. Cole—time-line-wise, that’s where I am. —Benjamin Meadows-Ingram

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In XXL’s forthcoming May Issue, senior editor Benjamin Meadows-Ingram asked the up-and-coming star if he thinks about the traditional XXL audience in terms of the type of music he creates.

“Yeah,” Drake said, “but I’ve never really voluntarily made myself a member of that lifestyle. I just make good music, and that’s really what it should be all about. Because a lot of the people that the XXL audience believes in aren’t even that official anyway, as far as rugged and rough. A lot of that stuff is perceived, it’s assumed, it’s not proven. And a lot of it gets embellished throughout the course of a career. As you get more famous, you can start saying more reckless shit, and people believe you.”

As far as MC nicknamed Young Angel is concerned, it all boils down to the sounds coming out of the speakers. “It’s never been about being perceived as a rapper [for me],” he explained. “I love making music, man. I love hearing people that love my music, or witnessing my music being played, and people enjoying it. I make the music, and I love the result of what happens after that. That’s pretty much where my involvement in hip-hop stops. I just want to make the music.”

“For anybody that doesn’t believe in me, your favorite rappers do,” he added. “They call me for hooks, features and all that. Ross, Jeezy, the hardest dudes—B.G. C-Murder calls me from jail. Turk calls me from jail to tell me I’m doing great. For the people that don’t believe, the people that you do believe in got love for me. That’s all that matters.”

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