‘Nothing Was The Same” platinum selling rapper Drake is VIBE’s newest winter cover subject. In the magazine’s “Race” themed issue, the biracial rapper sits down with VIBE for his second cover and reveals how he feels about race, Kanye West, his success and the perception of him being soft.
On people saying he’s soft because he sings while spitting bars:
People “love to sing, that’s what I never forget. But you can’t say my bars aren’t up there with the best of them. People keep challenging me about what real rap is. Is it the s*t you know all the words to, or the s*t that sounds fast and complex? I don’t have the answer. At the same time, I know I can do a couple things.”
On race:
“The racism I experienced was being Jewish. Jewish kids didn’t understand how I could be black and Jewish…it was just stupid, annoying rich kids that were close-minded and mean.”
On Kanye West:
“He’s like, the best…My competition is nobody else, by the way. It’s just me and ‘Ye.”
On rap’s double standards: “Man, how come this guy is allowed to do this? How come this guy is allowed to talk about the streets? All he did was be around it, just like me. He didn’t live it, but he’s allowed to talk about it. How come this guy is allowed to make girl records—love records—but they’re not girl records or love records when he does it?” I just have to step back and be like, because it doesn’t matter what those guys do. Whoever that is, it just doesn’t matter. They’re not important enough to be scrutinized like that. So it’s that feeling of accepting that I’m at the top and I don’t give them enough to talk about. No one ever loves that guy that’s on top.”
Drake also went on to talk about his future goals, wanting a to be a good father and how he and his father were denied access to restaurants because of their race. Read the full interview on VIBE.com.
