Lil Wayne is back in full force, having returned to the recording booth after a months-long prison stint. His first solo offering was “6 Foot 7 Foot,” and his protégé Drake says Weezy’s single — and the Carter IV material he’s heard — has left him in awe.
“Watching this man work again, it’s crazy,” Drake told MTV News when we visited him on the set of Nicki Minaj’s “Moment 4 Life” video. “To hear ’6 Foot 7 Foot’ and not hear him waste one bar; didn’t sacrifice one moment. It’s good, he’s back. It’s an impressive record and I think it’s what he needed to get people talking.”
- MTV
Blogxilla from Global Grind caught a few words with Drake last week at the Fool’s Gold party in New York City. Check out what Drizzy had to say and some sweet photos from the event after the jump.
“Initially, I think I just didn’t know what would happen. I was this rapper with a little bit of buzz, the internet was taking over, and I didn’t know the power of the internet at that point. The true power of social networking and the things we are so emmersed in now. There wasn’t an artist that had been 100% birthed from that outlet and I think to be discovered on MySpace, how I was found, and for it to somehow reach Wayne’s ears and for him to feel so confident about it and call me and to release a mixtape on the internet again and have a record somehow go #1 off a mixtape using the internet as a tool. It was all amazing because it was all a first, I can’t remember that happening in my day. Even if you think of 50, Yay, and Jeezy, I remember having hard copies of all of those tapes. I remember it being more about the radio. 
Drake performs as part of Wild 94.9?s WildJam 2010 at HP Pavilion last night in San Jose, California. Check out the video of drake performance below as well as more pictures of the event after the jump.
Aubrey Drake Graham – better known as just Drake, went from being a locally-known Canadian actor on high school drama Degrassi to teaming up with the biggest names in hip-hop professionally (Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne – just to name a few), not to mention romantically. (Remember those Rihanna and Nicki Minaj headlines?)
But there’s much more to the actor-turned-hip-hop star, 24, than a Platinum-selling album, Thank Me Later, and a Rolodex stocked with A-listers.
Here are five things you should know about Best New Artist Grammy contender Drake:
Seems like Drake delivered on his promise from the year before to earn a second consecutive slot on MTV’s Man of the Year countdown. Why are we not surprised, the man is simply pronominal. Read his 2010 highlights by clicking here.
Nicki Minaj recently experienced something few new artists can claim: seeing your debut earn the #2 spot on the Billboard albums chart. The Queens native’s Pink Friday LP sold a little more than 375,000 copies in its first week of release, falling just behind Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Now the MC is prepping the video for Friday’s “Moment 4 Life,” which features Young Money labelmate Drake.
“She’s shooting hopefully on December 20,” Young Money president Mack Maine told MTV News. “We’re still trying to work out the date for the next video with [Nicki] and Drake for the ‘Moment 4 Life’ video. That’s the next project.”
We also spoke to the Young Money head about Nicki’s success and what it has meant to the Miami-by-way-of-New Orleans clan.
If your making a list of albums for this year, just make sure to include Drake! TIME Magazine and Rolling Stone released their annual Top Albums of The Year. Drake tops both lists at #5 and #7.
Thank Me Later makes it at #5 (out of 10) for Time Magazine
The central theme of Drake’s debut album is his newfound fame — which is an interesting choice, considering it’s his debut album. But instead of extolling the celebrity lifestyle, Drake spends much of Thank Me Later grappling with his unexpected stardom. And for good reason: the rapper (real name “Aubrey Drake Graham”) went from self-releasing his music on the Internet to signing a record deal with Lil Wayne faster than Lady Gaga can change meat costumes. He lives up to the hype; Thank Me Later contains more hit songs than you can shake a bottle of Cristal at. “Find Your Love” made TIME’s list of best songs of the year, and “Fancy” was a close runner-up. Drake’s screed against “superficial gold-digging bitches” and women who take hours to get ready is the catchiest thing this side of Kanye. Not bad for a Canadian former child actor who had never released a full album before.
