At 28, Drake is a superstar—the only guy who could dethrone Taylor Swift on the charts with a mixtape. But he doesn’t see top sellers or legends as his rivals. “I’m not worried about these other rappers, I’m not competing with those guys,” he says in the above Obey Your Thirst documentary, created by The FADER and Sprite. “I already know their hand, I know their move. I study everything. I’m worried about the kid that’s sitting in his house that wants to be better than me and all those guys. That’s who I’m competing with.”
In this rare interview, Drake opens up about emerging from an underdog city, internet culture, and rap’s increasingly level playing field. Coming up in Toronto, he explains, people told him to move to New York if he was serious about making it. Instead, he stayed where he was and made history by proving that if you’re a truly “multi-layered” artist, you can make it from anywhere. “Do it the way I did it,” he says. “Do it from where you’re at. If you have the music, that’s all it takes.” – fader.com
