By Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur
All Hip Hop.com

Drake is moving and moving fast. He’s in Los Angeles and tried to squeeze an interview in prior to taping the The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on NBC. Didn’t work. A few hours later, he emerges en route to the Jimmy Kimmel Live show — still moving — but equipped with more time. AllHipHop talked to Drake in a surprisingly revealing interview. Why does he feel as if he could have done better with Thank Me Later, even after nearly going gold in one week? How does he intend to appease his highly critical base and his broader mainstream audience? Does he really want to marry Nicki Minaj? Did he make an error addressing Lil’ Kim? And then there is the Rihanna question, where Drake is completely caught off guard. Through all the questions, Drake has answers, but he really wants to answer the queries about his legitimacy as a contender for greatness. He plans to answer that though his music, which he’ll address in Part 2 of this dialogue.

AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about your rise to success and having the biggest opening week for a hip-hop artist in 2010?

Drake: First of all, I’m humbled by everything. It hasn’t really set in. It hasn’t really registered. You know, we don’t do too much celebrating, but I’m just thinking about the next win..the next win. You know, like Kobe Bryant says. I don’t know what a ring feels like. Until I get the ring, I’m never satisfied. I’m very humbled, very honored by the response of what we’ve done thus far, but – in my mind – we could do a lot better. I’m just working towards that.

AllHipHop.com: Why do you say that? Why do you say you feel you could do a lot better? You’ve done quite a bit…

Drake: I just listen back on my own music. I think I could spit better verses, better hooks, better selections. As far as music goes, all around, you know? Make better videos, although “Find Your Love” is one of my favorite videos. It is a great video, but you know, come up with a better marketing plan. Mostly musically though, I just feel I can do better. I think I can rap a lot better than I’m rapping right now. If I could make better over all music for the world to sing so…you know. That’s just how I feel. You know, the people around me say I’m too hard on myself, but that’s how I’ve always been.

AllHipHop.com: Are you pleased with your album, Thank Me Later?

Drake: I’m pleased with it for certain reasons. I’m pleased with it overall, on a whole as a body of work. I think that there are some great moments in there. I think it’s very reflective of where I’m at in my life. I think it’s the perfect soundtrack for this particular summer. I think it’s an overall good album. I don’t think by any means that it’s the best that I could do though only because I feel like I learned so much about my life in the period while I was making my album. And not only that, because of the schedule, I was just under duress making the album. It was very hectic. It was a lot of time constraints. Or I couldn’t be in the same place as 40 (his friend and producer Noah “40” Shebib) and Boi 1 Da. They had a demand prior to the album coming out, which is a rare thing. I think with a clear head and a little more time, and a different mindset, I can make a good album.

AllHipHop.com: How, if at all does the pressure affect the creative process?

Drake: It’s never the pressure that affected the creative process, more than it was the time. It was the time. Recording on tour busses at 9AM is just not the ideal situation to finish your album, but maybe it is, maybe I wouldn’t have had those great moments on the album like I did if it wasn’t for that situation. At the same time I just feel like everyone works better when they are rested, when their heads are clear. It was more the time constraint that affected me more so than this weight on my shoulders or this pressure that everyone assumed would occur. I didn’t really necessarily feel this first album pressure. I feel like we have longevity in this game, so I wasn’t really too worried about that. I just wanted to make some great music. I love seeing people react to my music. Its like a drug, one of the strongest drugs ever in my opinion. (Whispers “not that I’m doing drugs”) I just love that feeling. Putting out a feeling and having it really be the one is more addicting than anything in my life now.

AllHipHop.com: Let me ask you this. I appreciate your music, but I will admit I am not a die-hard type of fan like some fans that you have. So I am a little mystified at some of the critics that think there is a different Drake from now to So Far Gone to other earlier work. Do you feel like addressing some of the critics or are they just unaware of how you have evolved in the process of your mixtapes, to the EP to now?

Drake: Well I think the thing is that people get confused between the music and moment. I think that’s the biggest thing that causes people to say, “Oh, Drake has changed.” The music that’s on Thank Me Later is very eclectic and is a unique brand of music and it is still our sound. We went with a very unconventional creative method. I think the reason that people hold So Far Gone in such high regard is because it was their first time hearing that sound. First of all the sound the way it came out was very accessible, which to a lot of people that was an innovative approach. And then not only that, a lot of people that had never heard me rap, and a lot of people had never heard 40’s (Noah “40” Shebib) production, or they had never heard the music we chose to flip. It was very much the moment, you know, and it was something new, and I think that is always more exciting. I think that as you gradually become more and more familiar with someone they become less and less exciting, they can still make great music, but the music and the moment is what people get confused. I still believe strongly in Thank Me Later as an album.

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