[DJ Semtex]
When we hooked up years ago, you were supposed to come on the show, it didn’t happen but we connected the day after and did a legendary interview in Hyde Park. I said it felt like you’re gonna make history

[Drake]
It’s been a while, that’s kinda how we ended up here. When I got here [London], I was just like in my room, just tryna find my lineage of coming to London and just trying to figure out where it all started. And I just watched that Hyde Park interview and I’m watching this kid, it’s me but to me it’s just a kid that’s just trying to talk, trying to answer questions in the best way possible. Just the fact that we were just walking around, just me, you, a microphone and a camera. I was like “man I should hit Semtex up, man we should talk again”. I feel like that was a good conversation, we covered a wide spectrum of things and I think it’s been a long time since somebody’s been able to sit down and do that with me, and that’s how we’re here

[DJ Semtex]
How’s it feel to go from doing mixtapes, So Far Gone was the mixtape that really broke, before that Lil Wayne mentioned you in an interview with me, and I started following you and it’s just grown. From there you’ve been non-stop, its crazy…

[Drake]
Yeah that was an amazing time for all of us… still doing it with the same people. It was just… our landmark for that project is 15 Fort York, which was “40” and Oliver’s apartment and we really started that project there. Then it moved to the Beverly Hills Hotel in LA, when we were first just getting around Wayne, I know Wayne mentioned me in the interview, but the real turning point for me was when Wayne went on stage at the MTV awards and rapped one of the verses from ‘Money To Blow’. Instead of doing his own verse he just impromptu rapped one of my verses. And at that time, people are like, people from back home who really didn’t….. I mean it was just a tough thing to believe like, “I know he says he’s over there but is he gonna come home with a Lil Wayne record, is this gonna really happen” at that time people were like “ok he just rapped Drakes song, if he gets a Wayne record this is outta here”
That was when I was able to come back off those trips with Ransom. I went back home with Ransom, which was the first time I had ever got a Lil Wayne verse. From there I had a bunch of songs that I had recorded at the studio called Hot Beats and Wayne just got on all of them like ‘Stunt Hard’ and ‘Forever’ was one of them, early early. Then we started crafting that first project and using the input of two people who again I still work with to this day and my music wouldn’t be what it is without them, that’s Oliver and ‘40’ – you know it’s funny cos we’re sitting here talking and they’re back in Toronto executive producing ‘More Life’. Oliver’s executive producing it and ‘40’ is obviously always involved, but kinda just a full circle moment for us, cos Oliver had so much input on ‘So Far Gone’ so I was like “man it would be nice to do something with me and you again”, so I gave him that task and he’s at home piecing it together. So yes it was a great start and from there it just became a wild journey that I guess we’ll talk about

[DJ Semtex]
A lot to talk about – ‘More Talk’…
Since we’re right at the beginning, I was in Amsterdam with Lil Wayne….and he tells me – Yo he’s been writing on ‘Detox’ that was like the mythical album, you gotta be about your business to be involved in that, or to be in the studio. How did you end up from doing a tv show to working with Dr Dre, writing for him on Detox? It’s taking it back…

[Drake]
Its taking it back, I’m not usually that good with the ‘taking it back moments’ but I actually remember this one vividly. But yeah, I was on the show and while I was on the show, I started getting less and less character time, because of the fact that everybody was taking a notice to just the fact that I was more focused on music. And at the time I actually had a studio that was right by the film studio for Degrassi, so I ended up working out a deal with the after hours staff where I would leave work, go home get my stuff – Degrassi was all the way in the east end, which is Scarborough that’s like an area of our city. I’d go home all the way back to the city, get my stuff, come back to the studio, I would record and around 4/5am I would sneak back into Degrassi, they’d let me in and I would go to sleep in my dressing room. Eventually they found out what I was doing and they got really upset. During that time I was crafting all these songs, and I had a song that Omen produced – it was me and Mickey Factz and somebody else was on it I think. So Dre had heard the song and he had hit me like, “man I need proof that you wrote this” (laughs), so I had to fax him the lyrics of the song, I had to send him a fax message, from my moms fax machine in her bedroom I sent him a fax

You know at that time, Detox was going on, it was more like he had just a camp of people, I guess churning out ideas and just trying to spark something. I was flown out to record at Record One, which is a legendary studio. Yeah I was in there for a while, I did a lot of work, me and ‘40’, always brought ‘40’ with me, that was like a stipulation in my career, I wouldn’t move without ‘40’, so brought ’40’. Got to meet a lot of great people, obviously got to work with Dre, and it kinda all came to an end, when I.. Dre brought me into his office and said “Man you’re doing really good work” and he gave me a $10,000 cheque, and it was the most money I’d ever had in my life and at the time I was in a relationship. So I got the money and I called my girl, and I flew my girl down to L.A and was like “we can get a hotel this is crazy”, it was just a joyous moment for me. And I had missed studio or I had done something wrong, I had let my mind deviate from work and I had missed something, and next thing I know I was sent home and that was kind of it. It was a huge life lesson for me and I still have that… Actually when Dre came out at the Forum, I brought him the $10,000 cheque cos I had saved the actual hard copy of it, even though I got the money for it, they let me keep a copy of the cheque
So yeah that was kinda my dealings with that very early on, and I had heard rumblings, like oh all these people are here and I had met Snoop, and I kinda wrote this song, that ‘40’ still has somewhere for Dre and Snoop. We listened to it not to long, couple years ago, its kinda hard. But yeah it was a great experience, a great learning experience for me and ‘40’, it brought us closer and it just taught us about how this shit really works and I think that set us on our own path

[DJ Semtex]
So lets fast forward to 2015/2016, VIEWS one of the most successful albums, the tour you did in America was the most successful tours. How do you feel about what you achieved with VIEWS and the reaction? It’s a very pivotal point for you, going from writing for Dre and being on a TV show all the way up to …
[Drake]
Yeah I mean, it was one of those moments in my career, where the album started to build and build and build and you know when anticipation starts to build, it can either result in massive failure or massive success. Obviously somebody’s watching over us and it resulted in massive success for us and it was also just an opportunity for me to really take a lot of risks that I felt I was ready to take at that moment. And yeah, I mean I was obviously very proud of it from the title to the cover, to just the styles of music that I felt we introduced almost as a package. It kinda started with ‘Work’ because ‘Work’ came out before my album, and then progressed into ‘One Dance’, ‘Controlla’, ‘Too Good’. But just the style of music that was making me happy at the time, because to be completely honest with you I was having trouble figuring myself out in rap at that time I was a very defensive individual just coming off the situations that I’d come off of. I was having trouble trying to make rap music where I was able to peel back the layers and every time I’d make a song – ’40’ is always really bluntly honest with me and was like “Man you really sound like aggressive and defensive” – and I was just trying to figure out why and I realised it was just a reaction to my previous situation that had kinda happened before that

So there was a time where I actually thought about taking the rap off of VIEWS and just making it an album full of music that made me happy with melody. But obviously I know why I’m here, I know who my core fanbase is, and so towards the end of the album, I tried to execute it as best as I could, on the rap end. You know I still listen to the bars and I know exactly where I was at and they are great to me, and they are time markers to me, but yeah, I guess we’ll get into ‘More Life’ after and how that situation progressed. But yeah VIEWS for us was, it was surreal, the numbers and all the things we were able to achieve, it was an incredible time for us. And of course in true OVO fashion we didn’t celebrate it all, we just kinda went on to working on the next thing. That was kinda it, it was just another album to us, it wasn’t my biggest album by any means, it wasn’t the one to me, it was just another chapter in the story but I’m very grateful for the people who enjoyed it and supported it. Whether people want to admit or not, the influence that it’s had on music, I feel is very evident, whether people don’t wanna say it

[DJ Semtex]
Did you know what you were doing when you made ‘One Dance’, Kyla’s on there, Wizkid is on there, it’s a truly global records, because I think very few people have done what you’ve done with mixing everything with the US, the UK and African sounds. Did you know how big it was going to be, it was the song of the year

[Drake]
It really all started with the Kyla record, it was just a song that I had played, we Dj at our own parties just because …

[DJ Semtex]
How did you discover it though, that’s like a UK underground Funky Sound…

[Drake]
I mean I just listen to a lot of music and I have friends with great taste in music, so I’ve been personally putting that song in my own playlist and DJ set for like four/five years now, I know it’s older than that, even just playing it and having people… What really set something off for me was having people in America come up to me and be like “Yo what was that song you just played?” and I would be like “man people really like that song but they don’t know it”. So I just, my brain started working of like how could I utilise a bit of it, there’s so many good pieces. So I introduced the concept to ‘85’ and I said to him like “man if we could make a beat, I don’t wanna do a cover I wanna write a whole new song, I just want Kyla to serve as the bridge or as a bridge to the next verse, or as a bridge to the next hook”, and he was like “alright alright cool”

I had the beat for a while, I was just trying to figure it all out, and at that time I had met Wizkid through Skepta, cos we did a remix of one of Wizkid’s songs together and it just kinda all really fell into place naturally. And when it was all said and done, it was one of those moments much like ‘Hotline Bling’, I just didn’t really know how people were gonna feel about it, and that was part of the reason why I dropped ‘Pop Style’ along with it, cos I was kinda almost nervous like man I don’t know, this is just so different, let me just make sure I drop a rap record, so people just know I’m still on my shit. And I remember Boi1da had walked into the studio one night and he had heard ‘One Dance’ and he just looked at me and he’s like “man that’s gonna be the biggest song of your career to date” and I was like “c’mon man it’s like, that’s a lot to say, we hope it does well”. And yeah he was right, and it was just the perfect marriage of a lot of things, so many thank you’s to Kyla for being so supportive, she came out to South Africa and shot a movie with us for this song, and you know of course Wizkid doing his thing, and yeah just the entire UK for supporting it and the world for being open to listening to it

I love that tempo, I love that cadence, those melodies, that’s the music that makes me happy in life, so it was great to just be able to just make something like that and shine light on a song from the UK that deserves it, because that’s truly a classic song

[DJ Semtex]
With ‘Pop style’ what happened with that, because when I got it originally it was Jay-Z and Kanye on it and they kinda weren’t on it?

[Drake]
Yeah, I was dealing directly with Ye and that’s the version that he sent me and that was what we talked about and he was like “man you know this is like ‘Pop Style’ featuring the throne, this is huge” and I was excited obviously anybody would be excited to see them link back up. And then I didn’t know what I was gonna hear. So when I heard Jay had two bars, I was like alright it is what it is, it’s cool I like that, it’s a little intro and Kanye goes off. And then you know I’m not really sure the details between how that conversation was miscommunicated or what they were going through at that time, or what anybody felt towards me or whatever it was, I’m not really sure but next thing I knew it just became a bit of an issue. And you know from there I don’t waste too much time, so I just was like alright cool I’ll finish it, I can rap as good as anybody else, so I’ll just go finish this song and put forth my own version cos I don’t really like… you know no one can dangle anything over my head in this business, I don’t play that. So it just needed to be done and I did it myself and yeah both versions exist, so when Kanye comes out to do it at the shows it goes crazy. I know he was really upset cos at that time we were working together pretty heavy and he really wanted to be on the record but you know…
[DJ Semtex]
On the Pablo tour, he said a lot of things that are well documented but he said, before the last show, he was talking about how he was sick of not being able to do certain things everyone should come together and just make music. Is it digital politics now that prevents things from happening?

[Drake]
I don’t know, I think everybody has their own little things going on, I’m not really sure what he’s referring to half the time, cos 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. But yeah I’m not really sure, everybody’s got their own thing going on. Again me when I hear that, I just distance myself from it you know, alright if that’s what it is I don’t really even understand the point you’re trying to make but whatever it is that you’re going through, I accept it, I don’t respect it at all. You know cos I feel like me and Khaled are just good people, I’m not sure why we’re the target of your choice that you made that night. And yeah I accept what you’re going through, and I just go and continue working on my own thing. You know the more and more this progresses, the more and more I just feel like keeping to myself, cos its just so unpredictable, you never know which way people are gonna go. I mean streaming is the new record business, so yeah I guess you could call it digital politics, that’s kinda a good name for a song, I might have to do that when I get upstairs

[DJ Semtex]
So with ‘Childs Play’ another banger, there’s a line on there where you say why you acting light? What does that mean?

[Drake]
Oh you mean “I’m acting like I’m light skin”, that line (laughs), that’s just sorta something people… that’s like very an American thing people say like ‘ah man’ you’re being light-skinned”, I guess they say it’s like ‘emotional’ you know. I just think it’s a ridiculous stereotype, but I was just kinda playing on the irony of it, cos I’m actually light skinned so it made me laugh so I said it. But yeah it’s just a silly stereotype in black American culture, that light-skinned guys are this way or that way, so that was just a little joke

[DJ Semtex]
When did you first experience racism, you’re coming from a dual heritage, your fathers black, your mothers white, it puts you in a predicament, when was the first time you really noticed you get it from both sides, or one side or the other?

[Drake]
Man you know, I’ve really been grateful in my life to be born in Canada and just the journey that I had growing up was so… it was just a very accepting journey. I always had friends from all different backgrounds, from different walks of life, we all get along, I never really notice colour, religion, we don’t live like that. There’s really not that much segregation in Canada, and especially in Toronto, it’s like a cultural mosaic. And I know I’ve said that time and time again, but it truly is, it’s made up of so many beautiful people from beautiful places and you get to actually learn and you don’t ever develop hate. You know, the first time I really experienced it, was when I got famous and went to America and people would challenge me, like I don’t understand how it works or like “your Canadian, you’ll never understand, like the Black American struggle, or you’ll never under…..” That was the first time I really got challenged, and it was by people I had met from America that were like even close to me at the time

You know, if I ever feel anything or if I ever feel like an outsider, it’s usually because I’m not American to be honest with you, that’s when I feel like people are against me or they feel like I’m not part of the…. I guess it’s got something to do with the fact that I have quite an eclectic make up, I am mixed, I am Jewish. Yeah but I feel like, at the end of the day when it comes to everything else I’m Black. I am referred to as a Black artist, last night at that Awards show, I’m a Black artist. I’m apparently a ‘rapper’ even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song. The only category that they can manage to fit me in is a ‘rap’ category, maybe because I’ve rapped in the past, or because I’m Black, I can’t figure out why. Just like I can’t figure out why ‘One Dance’ wasn’t nominated, maybe because they can’t… I mean, well it’s just there’s pop obligations that they have and I fluked out, I fluked out and got one of the biggest songs of the year that is a pop song and I’m proud of that, you know. I love the rap world, I love the rap community, but you’re right I write pop songs for a reason, I wanna be like Michael Jackson, I wanna be like artists that I looked up to, those are pop songs but I never get any credit to that

And shout out… and by the way I’m speaking to you as a winner from last night, I won two awards last night, but I don’t even want them, cos it feels weird for some reason, it doesn’t feel right to me. I feel almost like alienated or you’re tryna purposely alienate me by making me win rap awards, or either just pacify me by handing me something, putting me in that category, cos it’s the only place you can figure out where to put me. And remember they don’t decide the winners, but they do decide the nominations so they have to play it politically. And shout out to Chance, for last night, like I said I’m speaking from a winners point of view and I’m so happy for him, I’m not talking about.. I’m not angry about how last night worked out. But when you ask me like where, like do I feel, like racism, or do I feel it the same as everyone else, yeah I feel it, I notice it going on in it’s own places. But thankfully I get to be around the greatest group of people, my friends are from all over the place, they like Lebenese, they’re.. I’m Jewish, most of my friends are from the Islands of Jamaica, English, so I mean, we just don’t really notice it like that until I start talking about the music business

Yeah it’s a really tough time in the world and again that statement has been said over and over again and I think we know it’s a tough time and I’m …

[DJ Semtex]
How did it feel to be on stage in Manchester when the Grammy’s were going on, you stuck to the tour..
[Drake]
Yeah I mean I did it because that at the end of the day is what matters to me that’s real life you know. I was pitched by the Grammy’s to cancel those two shows and fly and go sit in the audience to lose because they don’t air the other rap awards on TV. So I would have left 30,000 people hanging to sit there and just be there for their own ratings you know. The worst part is I expressed myself, like man I’m really thankful I was at those shows in Manchester cos those were two of the strongest shows that we’ve had so far. I texted somebody from the Grammys and was like I’m really glad I stayed behind, I really don’t wanna have this conversation about coming out there again and I got a text back that said ‘Blame It On Donald Trump’ – and I’m not gonna say who it is that I’m texting but this is like the institution, we’ve been conditioned to think that this it the true award for our accomplishments, for our music. By the way if you had a night like Chance last night, he deserves it, for his friends, for his family, for his collaborators, its amazing when they champion you. But all I’m saying is, to kids that will be coming up in the future and might now get championed or might not get that moment, that’s OK too. Because you have to realise what institution you’re dealing with. You’re dealing with a bunch of people that are just people at the end of the day and they’re either good people to the core or bad people to the core and we’ll never know. But I mean yeah, I was really glad that I was in Manchester last night, and like I said I’m speaking from the perspective of a winner, I won two awards, it’s just it really put it all in perspective for that thank God that I stayed here and did what I’m supposed to be doing for the people that actually care about my music, you know. Yeah man, that’s just kinda how I feel about that about this given time