Yesterday at the Drake Hotel in Toronto, the winner of the 2012 Polaris Music Prize was announced. Though Drake didn’t take home the award, T-Rexxx was there to give an amazing speech on why Drake should win.

Hip-hop is important again. RAPCITY’s back! I’m on TV mama. But I remember when they forgot about rap. I remember when people thought, unless you’re Nickelback, why invest in something that you probably won’t make a nickel back.

So as I stand here to talk about Take Care, I want you all to know that for me this is more than rap. This is more than mansions and vacations – songwriters’ awards, Juno and Grammy nominations.

This is a REVOLUTION in hip-hop for an entire nation.

To the Grand Jury:

Tonight as you pick the #1 album, please consider Take Care ’cause let’s be fair… all the songs are amazing, and my boy 40 went in on those beats, so you can’t deny the affect it’s had from the corporate offices right down to the streets.

Even my landlord was ready to tell me to Take Care until I told him I could get him some seats.

However, tonight we have 10 great albums making it very hard to choose sides. And yes it’s fucked up, Damian, but can you picture the headlines when Drake’s Take Care becomes the first hip-hop album to take the Polaris Prize?

The impact of Take Care is evident. I say that ’cause T remember when rappers from Toronto had fake accents living in the shadow of the U.S. But now we making Young Money and We Da Best more importantly – for our youth this music has created change they don’t wear Yankees fitteds no more, but New Era is sold outta Blue Jays!

Confidence bestowed upon our youth through this music making way for a kid from Brampton, Winnipeg, Scarborough, Forest Hill… that has a love for this art form to confidently use it.

This is more than an album. So many people attach to this body of work for different reasons – this album is 20 songs of celebration, 20 songs of inspiration, and 20 songs of liberation.

‘Cause ‘lord knows, lord knows’ it wasn’t long ago when they’d say that a Canadian kid cant make it rappin’.

Now look what’s happened. The paparazzi can’t stop, won’t stop snappin “DRAKE DRAKE DRAKE Drake!”
Even got your homeboy T-RexXx asking for an interview.

But that’s alright, because Take Care represents us, to the world, from our inner city view.

That’s my rhyme. That’s my time.

Take Care.

Source: MuchMusic

It is definitely “No Lie” that Drake is killing it with these award nominations. Speaking of “No Lie”, the 2012 Soul Train Award nominations have been announced and that collaboration is up for Best Hip-Hop Song.

The Soul Train Awards will air on November 25th at 9p.m. on both Centric and BET. “2 Chainz and Champagne you want true, thats true enough.” “No Lie” is currently Gold and also the #1 Rap song in the country. Congrats guys! To view a full list of nominees go HERE.

Good Kid In A Mad City, Kendrick Lamar’s debut album, hits stores on October 22nd. This is good news for not only Kendrick Lamar fans, but Drake fans as well. Drake is all set to be featured on the album with the collaboration “Poetic Justice” which samples Janet Jackson’s song “Anytime, Anyplace”.
After hearing Kendrick Lamar on ‘Take Care’ with the Buried Alive Interlude it’s great to see an actual collaboration between the two happen. This song is sure to be a hit and there is more good news as there will be a music video shot for the song!

SOURCE:MTV

The nominations for the 2012 EMA’s are in and Drake is up for one award. The award show airs live on Nov 11th and Drake is nominated for best hip-hop artist.
The good news is that we fans can vote so make sure to vote everyday for Drake and help him take home this win! To vote go HERE and click under Best Hip Hop! Congrats on yet another nomination Drake.

On October 2nd, Dj Drama is all set to release his latest project, the ’Quality Street Music’ album. The album features an all start line-up which includes Drake. Drake is on the album with the already released track “We In This Bitch 1.5” which also features Future.

“Quality Street Music will be my fourth studio album, an amazing achievement for a DJ,” said Drama. “This is my favorite and best body of work thus far. QSMfeatures some of the biggest artists and producers in the game. Get ready!”

’Quality Street Music’ Tracklist
1. “Goin’ Down” feat. Fabolous, T-Pain, and Yo Gotti
2. “Never Die” feat. Jadakiss , Cee Lo Green, Nipsey Hussle, and Young Jeezy
3. “My Moment” feat. 2 Chainz, Meek Mill, and Jeremih
4. “We in This Bitch” feat. Young Jeezy, T.I., Ludacris, and Future
5. “So Many Girls” feat. Wale, Tyga, and Roscoe Dash
6. “Clouds” feat. Rick Ross, Miguel, Pusha T, and Curren$y
7. “Chocolate Droppa Skit” – Kevin Hart
8. “I’ma Hata” feat. Waka Flocka Flame, Tyler, the Creator, and Debo
9. “Real N***a in the Building” feat. Travis Porter, and Kirko Bangz
10. “My Way” feat. Common, Lloyd, and Kendrick Lamar
11. “Pledge of Allegiance” featuring Wiz Khalifa, Planet VI, and B.o.B
12. “Same Ol’ Story” ft. Kid Ink, ScHoolboy Q , Cory Gunz, and Childish Gambino
13. “We in This Bitch 1.5″ feat. Drake and Future
14. “My Audemars” feat. Meek Mill, Birdman, and Gucci Mane
15. “Monique’s Room” feat. Fred the Godson

Drake doesn’t need your approval of a new Aaliyah posthumous album. He has the blessings of the fam, her former management and her label so the rumored project is a GO!

In an interview with Much Music conducted backstage at the OVO Fest this weekend, Drake confirmed that he is working on an Aaliyah album with his producer Noah ’40′ Shebib, the project will be released this year and he’s hoping to get everyone that was essential to her career involved (including Missy and Tim).

People should be excited [about the new single]. It’s all off of an Aaliyah project that me and 40 are commanding and 40 is just doing some incredible incredible music right now. To get 13-14 new Aaliyah songs …. everybody should be excited.

It’s not about me, and it’s not about 40, it’s really about her and her fans…and us just getting an opportunity to give you something that we feel is great. And you know, the people around her, everybody from her family to her old management and label, were just like, ‘If there’s anybody out who can do it right now, it’s you and 40.‘ And it was an honor to pull in some classic people, like anybody who used to work with Aaliyah that was essential in her career, we hope to have them involved. So it’s great to have a new Aaliyah album this year on top of everything.

Just a few days ago, her brother updated Aaliyah’s official facebook (which has 1.6 million fans) with a message that said that there would not be an Aaliyah album released supported by the family. Now that Drake has confirmed his involvement, there’s some huge mystery of whether her brother is running her page or if there is someone else running it and copying and pasting old tweets from his twitter page.

And now his Aaliyah obsession doesn’t seem as creepy. If he is indeed working on her project, he has spent enough time listening to her unreleased music over time to feel as though he has some sort of connection. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Source: Necole Bitchie.com

The nominations for the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards are in! And Drake is nominated for five awards. Congrats Drake!

The award show will air on Thursday, September 6th in Los Angeles at 8pm EST. Make sure you go to vote for Drake everyday.

Drake’s five nominations:
Best Hip-Hop Video (HYFR feat. Lil Wayne) Vote!
Best Male Video (Take Care feat. Rihanna) Vote!
Best Art Direction (Take Care feat. Rihanna)
Best Cinematography (Take Care feat. Rihanna)
Video Of The Year (Take Care feat. Rihanna) Vote!

When you picture how Drake is spending his summer, you’re probably thinking of partying in VIP rooms with famous friends and sipping champagne on a tour bus. Turns out the truth is a lot less glamorous.

“I’m actually spending my summer graduating high school,” admits the rapper on a too-rare visit back home. “That’s my main focus after OVO Fest. I only have one credit left, and I’m really excited about that.”

It’s a particularly Canadian answer from a performer who’s somehow managed to turn all the nice and boring bits of our identity into a wildly successful hip-hop brand. Rival rappers can’t even successfully diss him for being soft, because he’s never bothered pretending to be hard. And as exciting as this city can be, we still tend to fear that we seem provincial compared to places like New York or London.

“As close as we are to New York, it still feels far removed. We feel far removed from that American celebrity lifestyle, and from that kind of success.”

But Drake isn’t so removed from that culture any more, although you get the sense sometimes he wishes he were. His people have made it very clear that we are not to ask any questions about Chris Brown and the club brawl in which he may or may not have been involved. Up until the very last minute it seemed pretty likely that the interview wouldn’t even happen.

On the phone, though, Drake’s high-wattage charm melts away all resentment of the seemingly endless hoops you have to jump through to get access to the superstar. How can you stay mad at someone who was late because of his great-aunt’s funeral?

He exudes the polished professionalism of a major-league superstar, a point in his career he’s arrived at with an image and sound that are irrevocably tied to his hometown. That shouldn’t be so notable, but Toronto has long had an unfortunate tendency to do really good impressions of music from other places.

“When I think of myself, I think of Toronto. My music would never sound the way it does if it weren’t for Toronto,” he says. “You talk about certain artists, and they sound like where they’re from. Myself and the Weeknd, we both just sound like Toronto.”

Our town has never really been known for that particular kind of hip-hop civic pride. Drake started OVO Fest in part to help shift how we see ourselves as a city.

“I just wanted to create a special night for the city. When I grew up, I always used to hear how we never get anything good coming through Toronto.

“We actually do get some great things in Toronto compared to many other places, but it’s true that sometimes you might not see your favourite hip-hop artist for a full year, or even two. Sometimes we do get skipped over here.”

Instead of putting together a huge bill of big names, though, his strategy over the last three years for his hometown mega-concert has been to advertise a relatively small lineup and then blow people away with a stream of superstar surprise guests. Many (including us) were unprepared the first year when people like Jay-Z and Eminem jumped onstage, but by now it’s an established, integral part of the event.

“I don’t want people to just come for the surprise guests, but at the same time I do put in a lot of effort and take a lot of pride in the friends that I can call up to travel to our city. I don’t really call on too many people for favours, but for this one night I do.”

Today, Drake doesn’t need the gimmick of secret guests to fill the Molson Amphitheatre. But after setting the bar even higher last year with a surprise visit by Stevie Wonder (which Drake describes as “one of the most incredible things ever”), he can’t drop that aspect of the experience. Don’t expect many specific hints from him, though – after all, he’s still not even sure who’s going to show up this year.

“I like for it to be a surprise, and a lot of the time we’re working up until the last minute on it. Trying to get Jay-Z up there the first year,? I didn’t even know if he would make it onstage. Trying to get Lil Wayne to land in Canada successfully last year, especially right after he got out of jail?

“A lot of the time it’s very last-minute. Sometimes I’ll only find out 10 minutes before that so-and-so is about to walk onstage. It’s exciting when it works out, but it’s an anxiety attack for the entire time that you’re still unsure about it.”

As much as Drake is all about repping his hometown, early in his career Toronto seemed a bit wary of the former Degrassi star. As has long been the case for Canadian musicians, he had to make it big elsewhere before we embraced him wholeheartedly here.

“Toronto had never really had someone that they thought would take it all the way,” he says. “I can’t fault Toronto for waiting until I broke, through – without getting that approval from America, I wouldn’t have been the guy who took it all the way.”

He almost seems star-struck about himself when speaking of his own success. There’s a palpable sense of disbelief that he turned out to be the guy who finally smashed through that barrier and got Toronto hip-hop on the map globally. Sure, we’ve had local success stories in the past, but nothing on this level in terms of commercial success and influence.

It’s no surprise that he’s booking reclusive local R&B sensation the Weeknd (see sidebar) to play OVO Fest for the second year running. Drake helped initially expose the singer to the world by posting an early recording on his own blog, and has since developed a close relationship with the emerging artist.

Beyond the two artists’ obvious professional ties, many critics have drawn links between Drake’s confessional, introspective rewiring of rap’s traditionally extroverted bravado and the moody, experimental approach to R&B that’s made singers like the Weeknd and Frank Ocean the current critical darlings.

That sound has been sometimes dismissively labelled “PBR&B” for being hipster-friendly, but there’s something happening to urban music that marks a bigger shift than simply the addition of some indie rock influences into the mix.

“Surface R&B doesn’t work any more,” says Drake. “The whole heartthrob thing, songs about unrealistic love and tearing your shirt off every show – that’s not really where it’s at any more. It’s becoming harder for those guys to sell records, and harder for them to succeed.

“The more you can tap into people’s minds – ‘I think that stuff and I’ve just never been able to say it, and this guy just said it for me’ – that’s the brand of music that’s winning right now, and that’s a great thing. It just makes for better music to listen to.”

It seems that both listeners and critics agree with him. Not only does Drake sell shitloads of records, but he also gets favourable reviews from Pitchfork and stands out like a sore thumb on the indie-dominated Polaris Music Prize shortlist. He’s definitely aware of how unusual a position that is for a top 40 artist.

“At the end of the day I’m an extremely mainstream rapper as far as my popularity goes, so if I can still make music with enough integrity to also please some of the toughest critics, it’s flattering. But I also know the flip side, which is that some people will never give me that moment because I’m part of Young Money, and I’m with Lil Wayne, and I’m not the new rapper who just put out a mixtape that no one knows about yet.”

He seems fairly accepting of the hate that comes at those who are in a position to buy mansions. Of course, having a mansion to come home to probably helps.

Source: NOW Magazine

It’s not until I ask him why he doesn’t challenge more often the widely repeated myth about his rich upbringing in Forest Hill that I hear frustration in his voice.

“People like to build their own story about my life. I don’t know if it makes them feel better, or if it makes it okay for them to not like me, but the last thing I grew up as was rich.

“I had rich friends, but they weren’t giving me their money. I’m just not the type of guy to go ‘No, no, no, I’m not rich.’ People can say whatever they want about me, though. If they really want to learn them, the facts are out there. But I guess it’s easier on their hearts if I didn’t have to struggle, and makes it easier to not like me. It is what it is.”

When I remark that I also grew up poor in a rich neighbourhood, he tells me he likes that line and might steal it for a song.

I’m pretty sure he’s just buttering me up, but I’m oddly okay with that.

The numbers are in and Drake’s Club Paradise Tour has grossed $42.6 million worldwide putting him above the likes of The Throne (KanYe West & Jay-Z) and Madonna and right below Lady Gaga. This puts Drake at the number seven spot on the top 50 worldwide tours of 2012 so far! The three legs of the Club Paradise tour featured such artists as A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, 2Chainz, French Montana, Meek Mill, Waka Flocka, Rita Ora, Labrinth, J.Cole, and Chase N. Cashe. Shouts to everyone who bought a ticket to Club Paradise as it was definitely one for the books and Drake has the numbers to prove it.