Although recorded the day after the 2017 Grammy Awards, Drake’s surprise interview with DJ Semtex premiered on Saturday’s OVO Sound Radio episode. The in-depth interview addresses a variety of topics, including his views on the Grammy’s (no pun intended), his relationship with rappers Meek Mill and Kanye West, and his upcoming playlist More Life.
After being asked about his experiences with racism, Drake criticized the Grammy’s for subjugating his songs “Hotline Bling” and “One Dance” to the rap categories (instead of pop) because of his race. Despite winning two Grammy’s for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance for “Hotline Bling,” the rapper admits that he wants more recognition for his pop work. “I write pop songs for a reason. I wanna be like Michael Jackson, I wanna be like artists I look up to. Those are pop songs, but I never get credit for that,” he reveals. He further calls out the politics involved with the award show although he applauds Chance the Rapper for his big Grammy wins.
Moreover, Drake addressed the ghostwriting accusations from Meek Mill in great detail, denying the allegation and proclaiming “I am one of the best writers. Period.” When asked by Semtex if the relationship could ever heal with time by using Jay-Z and Nas as an example, Drake responded “I’m not looking to be friends with someone like that. Jay-Z has respect for Nas. I don’t have that for [Meek Mill].”
Drake also opens up about his relationship with Kanye West which seemingly deteriorated following the album version of “Pop Style” not featuring Kanye and Jay-Z. He admits that miscommunication issues and Jay-Z’s lack of a full verse prompted him to finish the solo. Nonetheless, Kanye’s subliminal shots towards Drake regarding his dominance radio prompted the following response: “I think everybody has their own little things going on, I’m not really sure what he’s referring to half the time, because in the same breath, I went from being … like working on a project with him, to him sorta publicly shitting on me and DJ Khaled for being on the radio too much.”
Although there is no official release date for his More Life project, Drake explains its concept to Semtex, considering it as a “playlist” rather than an album. “The style in which its being put together is based on the concept of OVO Sound Radio. It’s almost like a radio show,” he reveals. “It’s more like an evolution of a mixtape. After Views, I was inspired and I wanted to keep the music going and get people inspired”
Check out the interview below.
