I've made it obvious that Drake is by far one of my favorite artists around, especially because of his ability to rap about reality, and one of the most real rappers around. Anyway, Thank Me Later drops tomorrow, and Drake decided to do this article in Paper Magazine.
It may sound cliché, but Drake remembers October 31, 2009, like it was yesterday.
That was the night Drake knew his transformation from Aubrey Drake Graham -- star of teen soap opera Degrassi: The Next Generation -- to famous rapper had begun. That was the night Jay-Z performed in his hometown.
"Jay-Z coming to Toronto meant every single person was going to be there, which meant the majority of the people in my life were there," the 23-year-old rapper recalls. "And there was a big rumor around the city: Is Drake close enough to Jay where he would bring me out? And people were like, 'No, it would never happen.'"
Well, it did happen. Not only did Jay-Z bring Drake out to perform on stage with him, he let a still-fringe artist perform one of his own songs, "Successful," in its entirety. "I'll never forget that. I must have looked in the eyes of 40 people I know in the first 20 rows," Drake says, sounding still somewhat shocked. "There were ex-girlfriends, guys who hated me, people who loved me, my mother -- and it was just like, 'This is it.'" Like most other testaments to Drake's success, there's a video on the Internet to prove the moment actually happened.
February 13, 2009: Also a date Drake remembers vividly, as do his fans. The night of February 12, people (like this writer) logged onto Drake's website, October's Very Own (octobersveryown.blogspot.com), and waited patiently for this unknown rapper, who'd been getting praise from Lil Wayne and rap blogs, to show and prove. A day later, the moment finally came (the blog post reads "fashionably late") in the form of a link to download So Far Gone, a mixtape of songs written by Drake, a rough-around-the-edges-but-still-very-witty rapper and a tolerable-even-somewhat-decent singer, all delivered with the brash confidence of someone who was familiar with the fame game.
Read the Rest Here....
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