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Rap’s newly anointed cool kid, who’s already got hip-hop’s most notorious names on speed dial and some Grammy cred, finally debuts his first album
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.’”
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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.
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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. [Read more →]
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.”
Mr. Graham takes off the blazer loosens up the tie in his fashion spread in the March 2010 issue of GQ magazine. We see you Aubrey. More scans after the jump.
Last month, 10 up-and-coming MCs started getting fresh like it was their first day of school. They had to be camera-ready to shoot the annual “Freshmen 10″ issue of XXL magazine. The special edition of the publication has become a hip-hop tradition, as they give the nod to 10 mic masters they feel will be the next big stars.
In 2008, names like Saigon, Lil Boosie and Plies made the cut, while last year, B.o.B, Charles Hamilton, Wale and Asher Roth graced the cover. Other members of the ‘09 class were Kid Cudi, Ace Hood, Curren$y, Blu, Mickey Factz and Cory Gunz. [Read more →]
