DRAKE'S COMPLEX INTERVIEW

It may sound heavily clichéd by now, but all Aubrey “Drake” Graham wants to do is keep it real. The Toronto-bred rapper who gained fame by playing basketball star Jimmy Brooks on the teen TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation has no intentions of fabricating his past or lying about the number of women he’s smashed off. He even has no problem talking about how he leased a Rolls Royce Phantom with his TV money just so he could stunt.

On his latest mixtape, So Far Gone, he does just that. The tape has him rapping and singing—along with Bun B, Lloyd, Lil Wayne, Trey Songz and Omarion—about any and everything going on in his life, from drama with ex-girls to family problems most would keep under wraps. Complex caught up with Drake right before he left to celebrate the release of his tape with LeBron James, and we spoke to him him about So Far Gone, ghostwriting for Weezy and his place amongst the new generation of rappers…

Interview By Damien Scott

Complex: Many people don’t know too much about your outside of your role in Degrassi. Were you always into music?

Drake: As far as music goes, it’s always been a major part of my life. My uncle is Larry Graham played bass for Prince, my father, Dennis Graham, wrote for Al Green. [He helped] write “Let’s Stay Together” and “Love & Happiness.” My dad drummed for Jerry Lee Lewis. I’ve always been around great music. My family being from Memphis, Tenn, growing up around all the hip hop—Thee Six Mafia, Kingpin Skimmy Pimp, early Yo Gotti, shit like that was kinda what really influenced me.

How I got into rapping was, my dad was in jail for two years and he shared a cell wit this dude who didn’t really have anyone to speak to. So, he used to share his phone time with this dude and at the time I was probably 16 or 17, this dude was like 20-22, and he would always rap to me over the phone—it was Poverty, that was his rap name. After while I started to get into it and I started to write my own shit down. And after a while, he would call me and we would just rap to each other. And after my dad got out I kept in touch with dude and kept writing my shit down and eventually I learned from meeting people who were into music, too, the art of making a song and I accepted the fact that I wanted to be in music.

Complex: Listening to your earlier mixtapes, as well as So Far Gone, a constant theme seems to be the notion that “All That Glitters Ain’t Gold.” It seems like you try to be honest and downplay the rapper lifestyle, like when you talk about buying a Phantom but regretting it.

Drake: Yeah, well, to be even more honest, I leased a Phantom instead of buying one, ’cause I didn‘t have enough money to buy a Phantom, I leased a Phantom because that’s what I thought I needed to do. And I’ve done a lot of things to just enjoy my nights a little more and to feed my ego. And that’s kinda why I rap about it, because a lot of people are like, “If he ever steps out of line, I’m gonna say Drake’s wack.” So the only choice I have is to be honest with my listeners. And that’s not to say it’s not a glamorous life and it’s not fun, but the reality is it’s great for the average person to hear a musician’s reality because we all seem so unattainable and so out of reach that when you bring yourself back to eye level with a fan and do it in the right way…

Complex: Talk to us about So Far Gone. What was the idea behind it?

Drake: It’s basically a story. It starts in January 2008 when I was kinda confused like, What am I really doing? I gave up acting all together to really do this music thing, and I was really truly confused. It’s way different than acting, there aren’t people to depend on, you really have to build your own thing basically from the ground up, you know, so in January not only was I confused about my career, I was also in a very destructive sort of us exhausting relationship with a female and it was just a bad headspace for me to be in. So that’s where the tape starts.

It starts with this monologue, “Lust For Life”, of me crying out, in my head the things that I never say. The things that I was just thinking, that was my mindset. Then it goes to “Houstatlantavegas” which is about what I felt about the girl I was with. I just felt that nothing was ever good enough, and she was always searching for more excitement and then we move into “Successful.” I say at the end of the song, “There are so many things I want to say but I just don’t know how to say it to you.” I know exactly what I want to say, you know, I just want to be successful, but I don’t know if I can do it with you and then it goes into “Let’s Call It Off,” which is the breakup. And then coincidentally when I broke up with that girl a week later I went to Houston and met Lil Wayne and that’s where “November 18″ comes from.

Complex: How’d exactly did you wind up meeting Weezy?

Drake: My friend Jazz Prince—J Prince of Rap-a-Lot’s son—he played Wayne a couple of my songs and Wayne called me when I was in the barber chair getting a haircut, and he was like, “Dude, I just heard two songs from you and you got a whole CD of shit here, I don’t even need to hear anymore, I just need you here right now, can you get to Houston?” So I came out the next night. That was my first time in Houston and the culture and the city was so overwhelming. I felt like I hit Houston and got my swag back. I was single, I was with Wayne and it was Houston, I was going nuts, sipping drank, smoking, it was fun to me. And then you get “Ignorant Shit,” which is what came out of my meeting with Wayne.

Here are some of the questions complex asked him, to read the rest of this interesting interview, go to complexblog. Shout outs to Drake.