Drake: In My Own Words with TheSource.com

The last 365 days for Aubrey “Drake” Graham have been something serious. This time last year, the Canuck was a relative newcomer to the game. Still riding the success of his wildly successful mixtape, So Far Gone, its release as an EP made the then-rookie star a surprise nominee for two highly coveted GRAMMY Awards (Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance). The verdict was still out if Drake was going to be a flash in the pan or if there was substance to his style. One year later, there is no doubt. The superstar lived up to expectations with his debut album, Thank Me Later and is going into Los Angeles this year with Four GRAMMY nominations including “Best New Artist.” Now, Drake sits down with TheSource.com to talk about how he has come full circle since the GRAMMYs. Also, Drizzy speaks on the bond he has forged with J.Cole and the motivation that Kanye West’s five-mic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has given him, in his own words.

Receiving Four Grammy Nominations

“It’s funny, I was talking to Tez yesterday (Cortez Bryant), and he was like “you remember when I couldn’t get you tickets, then I got you tickets and it was on the 300 level, and Wayne was doing Swagger like us?” I was just hyped. I was on my feet the whole time. I was just excited to be there. It was that feeling just being there because that was the room that was in my dreams. I have this reoccurring dream that I am giving this speech and being able to make all these people in my life happy. And I looked around said this is the room, this is it. It’s a GRAMMY award, my dream is a GRAMMY award. So I’m just hyped in there standing up and I hit up Tez that night like, “you ever think we will get a GRAMMY?” Man, I’ll tell you, as much as I’m still as equally as honored to walk away without an award just knowing that the GRAMMY board even recognized my music period…the fact that I still have four opportunities to tell my mother how much of an incredible woman she is…thank not only the managers that have brought me to this point, and just the people in my past who think I have forgotten about them. The fact that I have four opportunities to do that this year is absolutely incredible.

My GRAMMY Deja Vu

“The dream never had any audio, man. Like I could never what kind of award it was, I could never pinpoint where it was. I could only see like, the back of my head, and a bunch of people in the crowd and I can feel people were happy. It was this dream that I always had. I saw how the stage was set up, how the stuff on the side was set up, I said this is it. This is the room I’m always thinking about. I’ve never been in a room that made me feel like that before. I’ve been to the MTV awards before I went to the GRAMMYs and the way the lights were lit up, yeah, you can say it was like a Déjà vu feeling. ”

The One Award That Would Mean The Most To Me

“The one award that means most to me would be Best New Artist, based off the fact that it lets people know how early in our relationship we still are. It lets a fan know, because sometimes, even to me, the last two years feels like ten years, and Thank Me Later is really my first full length album. So Far Gone was really the first time the world got to hear from me, but it’s only really been two years and I’m really just a new artist and God willing if I can still find the creativity to have the inspiration to make music that moves people, I feel like I still have years to go. I think being in that category with such stiff competition is such a great time marker for me. It really even reminded me how young I am in this. With me and (Justin) Bieber, we are two artists that used two new forms of getting discovered. We were found on the internet in a way more independent fashion in a way people used to be discovered. We weren’t found in a showcase and signed to a label, we were discovered on a very grassroots ground level tool which now runs the world. We are internet first artists. To make it from playing an acoustic guitar in your living room, or to make it from 40’s apartment to the GRAMMYs , it’s one of the most inspiring things of our generation. ”

My Dream GRAMMY Performance

I would love to do a medley with me Wayne and Nicki. Only because having Wayne is so amazing, and the year Nicki has had is so great, and to share a stage with my family would be incredible man. That would be the craziest thing, or performing “What’s My Name,” with Rihanna would be crazy. I haven’t performed that yet.

Gearing Up To Tour Europe With J. Cole

“Just being with Cole and going to Europe for the first time, I wanted to do something different set wise and setlist wise. I wanted to bring an adaptive show out there. Cole is in my city tonight, man we are just having fun. Just having fun being young and rapping and living and enjoying it. Being good, responsible people, I mean we meet on a whole bunch of levels. It’s great because before I got to talk to him I didn’t know where our relationship was heading. When I finally got to meet him I realized like ‘oh man, this guy is so easy to like.’ I know what people are trying to do between us, but I’m going to like this guy and we are going to be friends and make great music together, hopefully for years to come. Cole is one of those guys that I can coexist with even though we do two completely different things. I mean, the one area where we meet on is lyricism, but that should be the case with any rapper regardless of genre. I meet on lyricism with a lot of people. There are a lot of lyrical cats out there doing great shit. I mean, it’s really easy for me and Cole to get along, and getting along with someone like that usually leads to great music so being on tour that long and me having a new album on the way and him finishing his project, you never know. It’s something I want to do so I’m all in man, it’s whatever. ”

Working On My Sophomore Album. Take Care

“I’m just back home in Toronto working like we used to do it. Set up shop in 40’s apartment. It’s really early though, I’m excited. A lot of the stuff that is out there, and rumored about the album is just mostly me being out there with people and realizing what great dudes and what talented people they are. But whatever comes from it, I’m not sure. I’m not sure who will definitely be featured on the album or producing on the album. I mean, I met DJ Premier at Yankee Stadium and I never would’ve thought that he would want to work, the way he expressed it to me. Me and 40 were just so honored that we are extremely excited to hear what we can all craft together. My thing is I just wanna spit man. I’ve really been compiling some great raps and I just want to get them out. I feel like I have paint cans stored in the room and I’m just waiting for those producers to bring the blank canvases in so I can just splash paint and make it a beautiful thing, whoever it may be. At the end of the day, I’m sure it will be something enjoyable to listen to.”

“Kanye put together a great album. It’s a really solid project. I think people had so much time to sit with the songs, that it threw them off a little bit when the album came out and so many of those songs were already on it. But at the same time, when you get that project and you can imagine getting all those songs on one day and we didn’t have to deal with the power of leaks and internet stuff. I definitely understand why people hold that album at such high regard. It’s a great project and it’s definitely given me something to strive for because perfect scores are hard to come by nowadays and I’ve seen a lot of them on that album. That definitely lets me know what I’m gunning for on this next project. “

via: TheSource