Drake got a lot off of his chest in a recent interview with DJ Semtex, in which he talked about his beef with Meek Mill, the first time he experienced racism, and shared more details on his upcoming project “More Life.”
Here are some excerpts from pitchfork.com
Drake on Ghostwriting and his battle with Meek Mill.
In a notable segment, Semtex asked Drake about how it felt when Meek Mill initially fired shots at him over accusations of ghostwriting. Drake called Mill’s decision to start beef “terrible” and “impulsive,” saying, “My mind was going a thousand miles a minute, I didn’t know who was going to be on a diss track or what he had ready. I thought this was three months in the making. When I dropped ‘Charged Up,’ just to kinda see what the preparation level was, I realized—oh wow you’re not ready.”
After explaining how his subsequent diss track “Back to Back” was created, Drake continued to reveal more about his feelings on the beef. “I respect revenge when it’s warranted. It’s not something that I’m proud of because it took just as much of an emotional toll on me—maybe not as much as it did on him—but you always gotta hear about it… and just seeing people get so riled up on negativity, it doesn’t feel great… It was just embarrassing to witness, you know? If he had revealed some huge thing, you know, you woulda heard a lot more people, peers of mine chime in.”
Drake on the first time he experienced racism.
When asked about his brushes with racism, Drake talked about the recent Grammy awards (which he did not attend). “Even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song… the only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category,” he said. “Maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m black, I can’t figure out why… I won two awards last night—but I don’t even want them, because it just feels weird for some reason.”
Drake on his next project “More Life.”
While Drake’s next “playlist” project More Life still does not have an official release date, he explain the project’s concept, describing it as an “evolution” of the mixtape format and comparing it to an OVO Sound radio show “but every song is a new Drake song.”
Flip the page to hear the full interview.