Drake graces the cover of GQ Magazine's July 2013 issue with the coverline: "Drake: Started From The Bottom Now He's Here." See above (and click to enlarge).
In the July 2013 cover story, titled "How to Drake It in America"; Drake invites writer Michael Paterniti into his San Fernando Valley home to talk about his forthcoming album, sex not being a priority to him, and how Drake doesn't really "live some crazy rapper life."
Drake's story revolves around his single "Started From The Bottom," where Drake addresses all of the misconceptions around him, mainly these three things: "I'm a cocky asshole because I'm a famous male rapper, that any part of me wants to be gangster or hood, and that I grew up rich."
While no set release date for his forthcoming Nothing Was The Same album has been announced, GQ's story reveals that Drake sampled Whitney Houston on a track called "Tuscan Leather" and Curtis Mayfield at a 1987 concert in Montreux saying "Having the same fears, shedding similar tears, and of course dying in so many years, it don't mean that we can't have a good life."
He also says the "Tuscan Leather" title is named for a "Tom Ford fragrance that some say smells like a brick of cocaine."
Of course, Drizzy had some standout quotes during the interview on Nothing Was The Same, Chris Brown drama (Note: Drake won't mention Rihanna by name), and his personal life. Read some of the best excerpts below:
On other rappers hating on him:
"You notice they don't criticize the music itself, though...I'm okay with that."
On being abstinent, sort of:
"You know the way fighters don't fuck before the fight? Sometimes I feel like I'm so focused on training my body and getting my mind right to create this album that sex isn't one of my main priorities. If someone is around that I know and trust, I'm down. But I'm not going to end up with some stranger at this party."
On Chris Brown drama:
"I hear he has everything he could want now. I don't want my name to be synonymous with that guy's name. I really don't. I wish we could sit down just like you and me are right now, and talk it out man-to-man. But that's not going to happen. I'm not confrontational, but if someone challenges, I'm not going to back down. If I think about it too much, I feel it wrapping around my foot, like I get a feeling it could end really badly...Like, it gets really dark."
On love:
"[Will Smith said] It's not about wanting anymore, you need that person. Hearing that, I don't know if I've ever felt that way...I've made a lot of music about love being the only thing I'm missing. I think this is the first album I've made saying, 'I'm okay, I'm enjoying it right now.' Maybe this is my time to grind it out, make a run for it, and add some memories with my boys."
On "Started From The Bottom:"
"I think a lot of people wish their favorite rapper wrote it—as if a song like that should be gangster—but I was the one who wrote it, and everyone has their bottom."
"As for my whole story, I wouldn't change a thing. I've told bits and pieces of it—and I'll tell more. Maybe because I had friends who grew up in the hood, I could have acted like I had, too, and perpetrated a different lifestyle, and it would be eating away at me because it wouldn't be the truth. i'm actually here in front of you living the truth. I wake up in the morning and my heart is light, man. It's not heavy. I don't have skeletons in the closet on their way out. This is my real age, my real name, my real past, and I'm good with that."
On Nothing Was The Same:
"This is my fucking moment to say if I wanted to rap all the time, really rap, I would, but I also love to make music. I'll do this for you right now. But it's for me, too. It's my story...I'm trying to get back to that kid in the basement. To say what he has to say. And I'm trying to make it last."
And if you're curious to whenNothing Was The Same is dropping, Drake says "I ain't gonna lie: I want to be the one you listen to all summer."
Pick up the new GQ on newsstands now.
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