I don’t see that happening but…that is the question. Mack Maine caught up with MTV News’ Mixtape Daily to discuss Drake‘s album and mixtape plans. I say the mixtape would be a great way to close the year.

It was spring 1998. DMX was the hottest cat in hip-hop and released his SoundScan-murdering debut LP It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot. That winter, X came right back with another scorcher, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood.

OK, speed up 12 years. We all know about Drake’s popularity. His debut, Thank Me Later, came out this past spring, and believe it or not, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Drizzy could come right back with another album just in time for Christmas.

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At last, watch the official and exclusive footage by Blackberry from the red carpet at their BlackBerry Torch launch party in LA on August 14, 2010! Drake had a few words to say along with others!

“It wasn’t shot the way I would have shot it,” Anthony Mandler says of Lil Wayne footage shot before he came onboard as director. Hey, the video came out great regardless! MTV News says:

Drake’s “Miss Me” video is the third project between the rapper and director Anthony Mandler (Jay-Z, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige), following their work together on the Toronto star’s “Over” and “Find Your Love.”

According to Mandler, he and Drake are establishing an aesthetic via their collaborations. Mandler said that “Over” was about re-establishing Drake visually and “Find Your Love” was intended to make Drake the lead in an anti-love story.

With “Miss Me,” however, the director said the video was a particular challenge because co-star Lil Wayne’s footage was shot prior to Mandler coming onboard.

“It wasn’t shot the way I would have shot it,” Mandler explained to MTV News. “So I had to come up with a world where I had ultimate control. I think with Drake, we’re always looking for overarching themes. We’re always looking for bigger themes to hang our hat on. With ‘Miss Me,’ what was interesting to me was not the idea of ‘miss me because Wayne was gong to jail.’ Because it was deeper than that. It was the attainability verses the unattainability. And how stars and people who are public figures are expected to sit on a platform and be grabbed and watched and photographed and controlled.

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Matthew Glenesk, a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, caught up with Drake while it was he Indianapolis the other day. I’m letting you know already, this interview is slightly long. Thank you for sending this in Jason.

INDIANAPOLIS — Two of his best friends are LeBron James and Chris Paul.

He hangs with the University of Kentucky basketball team, coach John Calipari and the enigma that is William Wesley, better known as World Wide Wes.

He makes music with the biggest names in the industry, while ladies screech at every turn.

Drake may not be the most interesting man in the world, but he’s certainly angling for its most popular.

A partnership with Lil Wayne has launched Drake’s career into rarefied air and tracks “Over,” “Find Your Love” and “Forever” are omnipresent on the radio and at clubs. In June, the hip-hop phenomenon debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his album “Thank Me Later.”

The Toronto native got his start in entertainment on the Canadian teen drama “Degrassi: The Next Generation” (which airs on Teen Nick in the United States) before leaving the small screen in 2009 to chase his music aspirations. Shrewd move.

Before he performed Friday at the Indiana State Fair, the admitted NBA junkie sat down with The Life to talk music, NBA relationships, Joe Carter, and of course, Bieber Fever.

(As I approached Drake, he and a woman were finishing a conversation.)

Drake: What’s the last show you saw?

Woman: Cleveland.

Drake: With LeBron? Oh god … (to The Life) LeBron basically performed at my last show. He took over. He stayed for like half the show.

The Life: How’s LeBron’s voice? Can he pull it off?

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Indianapolis Music Channel’s Reka recently caught up with Drake to talk about the OVO Festival, Thank Me Later, Degrassi, Nicki Minaj, his R&B mixtape and more!

via UHTN x RTNY

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We all love Karaoke over here. MTV News says:

Drake’s Thank Me Later was produced mostly by his trusted collaborator Noah “40″ Shebib, but the Toronto lyricist ventured into the studio with an array of hip-hop beatsmiths for his debut, from Swizz Beatz to Kanye West.

One standout on the project was indie-rock act Francis and the Lights. Frontman Francis Farewell Starlite produced the second song on Thank Me Later, the muted “Karaoke.”

After he signed on to tour with Drake, Starlite was asked by the rapper’s camp if he had any music available. Starlite struggled while trying craft the right number, before ultimately deciding to give up a track he was saving for himself.

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Answer: Lil Wayne

Drake shares with MTV what he is really hoping to see at this year’s VMA’s. Lil Wayne is behind bars but hey, dreams do come true. Don’t forget to watch Drake perform on September on Sept. 12… nice outfit Aubrey :)

via UHTN

via RapUp

Always a gentleman, Drake smiled for the cameras and chatted briefly about his upcoming R&B mixtape and sophomore album at the BlackBerry Torch launch party in Los Angeles on Wednesday night (Aug. 11).

“I’m always accustomed to giving out free music, so I’m working on this new project for free and I’m also working on my second album,” said Drizzy, whose 2009 mixtape So Far Gone helped launch his hip-hop career.

While he didn’t drop any names of potential collaborators on the album, he did say “anything’s possible.”

Oh Aubrey.

‘Make sure you’re on the Net that night downloading, and it’s yours,‘ -Drake | MTV News

Drake has already been thanked by the fans with a platinum plaque. Now, the 23-year-old says he wants to reciprocate the love by gifting them a free mixtape. His all-R&B project is coming sooner than later, he says.

“Me and 40 working on it,” Drake said in Toronto at his OVO Festival. “I got you. I think I got a great body of work with that tape. I’m gonna do it like I do all my other tapes. I’m gonna make a night out of it. Just make sure you’re on the Net that night downloading, and it’s yours. I feel the people deserve it. It’s hard for me to put out free rap albums these days. So the best I can do is switch genres and put something out for free. It’ll be yours very soon.”

Although Drizzy didn’t reveal any of the records we may find on the tape, Mixtape Daily is guessing that the leaked “Fall for Your Type” (the record appeared unfinished on the Net several weeks ago) may appear somewhere on there.

” ”Fall for Your Type’ I wish was on there,” he said Sunday while talking about records such as “Darlin’ ” — another leaker — that didn’t make Thank Me Later. “But I have other plans for that record, so it’s gonna be good.”

As for his next official LP, Drake said he may be simplifying his song structure some.

“What I want is just for the records to be able to be played and enjoyed without it being too complex,” he explained.

MTV Reports:

One of the most ambitious tracks on Drake’s Thank Me Later is The-Dream duet “Shut It Down,” a sweeping number about seduction that clocks in at nearly seven minutes. Unfortunately for Drake, an unfinished version of the song leaked three months before the release of his debut album.

The final product is a slow-grinding effort that comes to a climax with a Drake rap after the pair croon throughout their respective verses. A second leak, “Darlin’ ” featuring Lil Wayne, and the “9 AM in Dallas” freestyle, an urgent battle-style rap — both of which were recorded after Thank Me Later’s deadline — are pretty much the only faults Drake found with his debut.

“The saddest part to me is that I would have made ’9 AM in Dallas’ the intro for the album, but I did it the day of mastering, which is crazy, so it couldn’t make the album,” Drake told MTV News. “That’s probably my greatest upset, was the fact that it couldn’t be on the physical disc and be a part of that album. ‘Darlin’ ‘ was a loss just because it was never mixed, and every time I hear it in the club, you can never really hear the words. I think the words are the best part of that song. I think Wayne painted such a vivid picture. I tried to come in and add my little two cents at the end.

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