“‘Are we crazy?’ And it took a while…it takes a while.”
Throughout the year, The Recording Academy (the folks behind The Grammys) hosts a series of conversations with artists from all over the country. Last week, the Nashville chapter held a Q&A with Drake, whose fascinating background and radio hits (such as this summer’s “Best I Ever Had”) have thrust him into the spotlight as the genre’s up-and-coming artist to watch. We sent guest writer and Recording Academy member Andrew Tritter to the program to take down what he could from the Academy’s conversation with the rapper who is poised to take over 2010.
Versus Magazine: This is not your first trip to Nashville, correct?
Drake: No, it’s not. Nashville is a great city and my father lives in Memphis, so I used to drive down here all the time in this Mercury Cougar [laughs]… and that’s where I got a lot of music knowledge, actually. My dad used to give me 30 minutes to play hip hop on the 24 or 25 hour drive — he’d let me put on rap tapes and then he’d make me listen to Marvin Gaye, The Spinners … that really penetrated my mind as a young kid. So, yeah, the whole state of Tennessee is very valuable to me.VM: Your father’s side of the family was very musical — how did your father and that side of the family influence your music?
Drake: My dad was always a musician. My first time performing I was really young, probably like eight or nine, and he had taken me out when he wasn’t supposed to (because he had a gig and he was looking after me), and he thought it would be interesting to bring me up on stage to sing the one song that I knew, which was “Ride, Sally Ride.” So I ended up on stage performing with my dad, and everyone in the place thought it was the cutest thing in the world. I don’t remember much about my childhood, but I remember that night.Also, the culture of Memphis … see, Toronto is very multi-cultural, it’s a booming city. So to go between Toronto and Memphis and get the different types of music, the different food, the different feeling … coming from Toronto, I always wanted to see more.
VM: Was there any music on your mom’s side of the family?
Drake: Yeah, but it was classical pianists and things of that nature. But my mom… my mom used to force me to say things as colorfully as possible. She would never let me get by with saying, ‘Well, that food was good.’ No, I had to say, ‘That food was delicious,’ or something extravagant. My mom was responsible for a lot of the way I write, the way I choose to say things. That’s where the music comes in on my mom’s side.VM: How did it come about that you ended up on Degrassi?
Drake: I was in eighth grade and there was this kid in my class whose father was an agent. My biggest problem in school was that I was an attention-seeker, so I was always trying to make people laugh in class. And this kid was like, ‘You’re funny, you’ve got timing. You should meet my dad, my dad’s an agent. You’re mixed, and you have a presence about you.’ So eventually in grade nine I took him up on his offer and went to meet his dad, and his dad was completely like the opposite: “I don’t think [this kid] really has anything to offer…’ [laughs]. I thought I was gonna walk in there and be a star, and he was like “Nah, you don’t really have it.”
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