Drake Rails Against Grammys, Discusses Racism, and Relives Meek Mill Beef in New Interview

With Beyoncé being snubbed, Chance praising God, Adele starting over, and James Corden promoting his TV show, you may not have noticed that Drake won two Grammys this time last week. He won Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Hotline Bling,” if you care. Which is to say that Drake doesn’t care. In fact, last night, he said that he’d rather not have won those awards at all.

In a revealing interview with DJ Semtex on his OVO Sound Radio show, Drake talked about his Grammy wins in the context of American racism and his status as an outsider.

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 color, 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 “you’re 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.

It was a quick jump from that discussion to the Grammys Awards. The interview was recorded on Monday, so the ceremony, which Drake declined to attend, was still fresh in the memory.

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.

He said that he was offered the chance to perform at the grammys but wouldn’t leave England for the chance. Drake loves England.

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.

He also had the time to dive into his protracted beef with Meek Mill, which he did in a pretty level-headed way, all things considered. He was lucid on the ghostwriting accusations.

Meek Mill at the time due to some issue with Nicki whatever, decided to create a narrative that I don’t write my own music because that was what was convenient at the time and he caught wind of it[…] The reason why I never felt like necessarily pressured to sit down and defend myself right away or go do an interview is just because I mean anybody that was in those rooms, that worked on that project, or anybody that’s been in any room with me, period, knows first of all knows that I am one of the best writers period. That is what I do, that is what I’m known for, I go and write for other people, I write my biggest songs, my biggest hits, the massive majority of my catalogue has all been written solely by me, which is a big feat because music is a collaborative process. At that given time with those isolated records, they just wouldn’t be what they were if it wasn’t for me, if it wasn’t for my pen, my contributions to that, and not taking away from him, we did great work together in a very small space. Yeah it really just kind of blossomed into this thing where I became the poster child for ghostwriting. Which is a huge conversation now in music and if I was like a evil spirit, if I had a different agenda, I could sit here and tell you how this shit really works. I could sit here and tell you ten, twenty people who are worse than me, that literally take everything as it’s just a verbatim process.

You can listen to the interview below and check out the full transcript on DJ Semtex’s website.

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