ThaBiz.com: Drake Interview (2006)

Source: ThaBiz.com
Author: Dorrie Williams-Wheeler
Published: February 2006
Document Type: Online Interview Article
Source Link: View archived article on ThaBiz.com (Wayback Machine)

You can visit the Internet Movie Database if you want to know more about Aubrey Graham the actor. This is strictly about his alter ego Drake. Well Drake isn’t neccessarily an alter ego, Aubrey and Drake are the same person, Drake is his middle name and the name he uses for his hip-hop career.

It may sound cliche’, but you can say music is in his soul. His father did music as did his uncle from Memphis who wrote music for Al Green. Growing up Drake was able to spend a great amount of time around the soul legend. He soon started writing his own songs and raps and eventually battling. About five years ago he started taking his music career seriously.

Drake’s latest mix CD Room For Improvement was produced by DJ Smallz. Drake has heavy hitters on his mix-tape. Trey Songz, Clipse, and newcomer Lupe Fiasco are among the talent Drake enlisted for his mix CD. You can purchase Room For Improvement at his website ThisIsDrake.com.

For people who aren’t familiar with your music do you sing, rap or both?
Drake: Personally, as an artist I just do hip-hop music, but I write for singers so sometimes I have to demo the records so I sing.

What was the reason for recording under the name Drake verses Aubrey?
Drake: Well Drake is my middle name so it’s still me. Sometimes people even having trouble separating the character from me as a real person so I wanted to go by something completely different that they had never heard of. Myself, when I do music its something different than when I act on the show. I wanted to do something to separate it initially when they hear it. To dismiss any thoughts off the bat.

Will you continue to act and perform music.
Drake: Always. That’s what I am put on this earth to do.

Can you tell readers about your current album or mix CD?
Drake: It’s a mix CD and I did it with DJ Smallz who does the Southern Smoke Series. He’s done mix tapes with everyone Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, a lot of people and he’s hosting it for me. It’s called Room For Improvement. Its seventeen original tracks and a couple of remixes and stuff like that. 22 tracks in total. I have the Clipse on there, I got Trey Songz in there,I got Lupe Fiasco on there, I have Nickelus F who is this amazing artist from Virginia who I’m very very tight with and we work together a lot. I have Voyce on there, he’s a singer from Toronto. Production wise I don’t really have any major producers on there. Amir; Boy Wonder did the majority of the singles, DJ Rac from DC, a lot of people on the CD.

Listen to an exclusive audio clip from this interview:

Listen to Drake discuss his mixtape, “Room For Improvement”.

I read online once that your computer crashed and you lost your album. Can you detail the true circumstances regarding this incident since the story has been re-told so many times?
Drake: Yes. I had finished an album previously and I didn’t really know about equipment too much like external hard drives so I didn’t back anything up. I got a virus and I lost my whole album. So there is a Drake album that nobody will ever hear. It was for the best because it wasn’t what I wouldn’t have wanted to come out with. I needed that to happen in order for me to experience that emotion and to see how truly committed I am to music. I could have just given up right there. Actually during the process of my mixtape someone broke into our studio but luckily they didn’t steal my computer which I had left there so it almost happened again. But its all good I managed to get it out. I have all my records in different places so it will never happen again.

Are you based out of Canada or the U.S.?
Drake: I live in Toronto, Canada, my music…I hope to take internationally. I’m going to start in North American just because of the fan base and because of the show. I’m based out of Canada, I’m proud to be in Toronto.

I once interviewed a Canadian artist and he said that it wasn’t as difficult for Canadian artists to get record deals as it is for U.S. artists. What has been your experience as far as trying to get a record deal?
Drake: Well I will comment on the Canadian artist thing first. I don’t know who you interviewed but that dude must have had a lucky experience. I think just about every artist up here knows that their chances of getting on are very slim due to the fact that we are from Canada there is this block put up to Canadian artists if they wish to take it to a major level… In Toronto especially I find we have a lot of talent production wise, dancers, the dancers are amazing, hip-hop is okay. I listen to a lot of rappers up here. I don’t mind giving credit where credit is due. I haven’t heard that many people up here that impress me like when I go to listen to rappers from Memphis or Virginia there are a lot of great rappers up there.

Up here hip-hop isn’t really that prominent but there is a lot of talent up here and its always very hard for it to get out for some reason. I think because we refuse to support our own. I did a show yesterday and luckily I’m glad I did do the acting thing because I am able to interact with the crowd and make them feel comfortable with the fact that they are watching me perform. I usually get a great reaction. Other than that the crowd was sitting there as if they were in class. It was at a college. They were sitting there as if they were being taught by a professor, like completely dead. Don’t respond to anyone. We had this thing up here called the EchoFest and a lot of the artists like Ciara, the crowd was dead, they did not want to see them perform. We’re a city they call it the screwface capital. It bothers me a lot but my experience getting deals…I had a lot of offers…offers from Indie labels…majors that are very interested. Right now I’m going to finish an album and I am going to look for a distribution deal. I don’t want to sign my life away to some major and not have creative control of my music. I have a couple of classic albums in me that I want to get out of my system before I start doing it for the money so I should say.

I guess I should have mentioned the artist was in a pop group. You don’t really have to add on to it..
Drake: Yes, it’s very different for them. If they were in urban music its different. Black music up here is not respected. Everybody is trying to emulate something up here whether it be emulate the South or New York or imitate New York, everybody is trying to be something else and its hard. Obviously, its not cool to pretend to be from somewhere else but at the same time its not cool to say you are from here. So its like a lose/lose situation.

Is it hard dealing with female fans?
Drake: Not at all. That’s the best part of the job. I feel like I’m doing something right. I don’t ever get too deeply involved with female fans per se. Its always wonderful to meet a fan. Im a really really regular cat you can come and see me at my house I live with my mother and grandmother im not really anybody big time so when I see I am making a difference in someones life and they are smiling on an account of me it’s always a good feeling.

Do you comment and write back fans via your MYSPACE profile?
Drake: As much as I can. Myspace is the best way to get at me if you want to. I cant comment back everything but I do read everything. There are days I get a thousand messages. I cant write them all back especially if they are like “Whats up?” or “How are you doing?” I try my best yeah.

Listen to an exclusive audio clip from this interview:

Drake opens up about responding to fan messages via Myspace.

What music artists are you feeling right now?
Drake: The album I don’t stop playing and haven’t stopped playing for months is that new Lil Wayne album. I get in the car before I listen to the radio or the traffic report or my own stuff I always listen to the Carter 2 front to back. Artists I am feeling right now. I work with this dude called Nickelus F, I always listen to his stuff. I’m really trying to finish this album right now so a lot of the time I’m listening to other artists for inspiration. It might be Donnie Hathaway it might be Billie Holiday; it might be some rock music I listen to Kenna, The Gorillaz, it might just be something completely out of the blue just so I can get some inspiration. Lil Wayne, Raheem Devaughn, and Lupe Fiasco those are three that I am looking forward to.

Visit Drake’s MYSPACE profile to check out his music. Be sure to visit ThisIsDrake.com to purchase his mix CD!

Archival Note: This interview was originally published on ThaBiz.com and has been preserved via the Internet Archive for historical and fan-archival purposes. This post is presented to document early media coverage of Aubrey Graham’s music career during his Degrassi era.