Drake Is Full Of Shit, And These Self-Fellating, Myth-Making ‘Fader’ Quotes Prove It

Carl Williott | September 25, 2015 9:42 am

Kanye West is the hated, egomaniacal asshole superstar and Drake is the relatable sensi-dude and the embodiment of the “Stars, They’re Just Like Us!” page. That’s the accepted social truth, and it makes absolutely no sense. Kanye can be an asshole, no question. He gets in his shots. But it’s usually face-to-face with no “look how clever I am and see if you can decode the subtext” bullshit (see: “You ain’t got the answers, Sway!” or the Taylor Swift interruption or “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” etc.). His vitriol is frequently aimed at mega-corporations or industry gatekeepers, and how can you not get behind that? Kanye’s also a massive hypocrite, sure. Just last night he was at some Samsung/Verizon launch event thing, a few weeks after telling people to ignore brands. But he’s also completely up front about all these things! Drake, on the other hand, is dastardly, salty and shady, but he gets a pass, and in the end it’s all of us who are the real hypocrites.

Drake’s shots come through condescension aimed at vague others, usually in the form of exes and unnamed peers. This is a guy who, at the peak of his fame, just rapped “I need acknowledgement” while introducing that line’s song on his own 19 million dollar Apple radio show. He has constructed a facade of authenticity, working very hard to operate with a chip on his shoulder to drive an underdog narrative that doesn’t exist in reality. He’s a myth-maker of the P.T. Barnum variety.

He’s also a remarkable, and remarkably consistent, artist. There’s no denying that! But can we cut the bullshit about Drake The Common Hero? It’s abundantly clear in his new interview with The Fader that behind the Drake OVOz curtain is a dude constantly pulling levers and manipulating perceptions. That’s fine, but it’s about time we all take him for what he really is: an insecure dick with a god complex and a politician’s mentality. And these eight Fader quotes prove it.

1. On jumping onto remixes: “I’d bring home an essay that I did really well on, and my mom would read it through and give me notes back — on the essay that I just scored like 94 on! So sometimes I just do that. I’ll hear people’s stuff and… I’ll just give my interpretation of how I would have done it…It’s just, literally, I’ve recognized the potential and the greatness in this piece, and I want to take my stab at it too — which is kind of what my mom always did, you know? She was just reliving her school days. Like, she just wanted to really write the essay herself. But I had already done it, so she just kind of gave me new paragraphs and sentences and made it better.” So he’s saying to every artist he has remixed — from Migos to The Weeknd — that he thinks he is better at making their music than they are at making their own music. Makes sense, since his specialty seems to be taking something someone else wrote and making it a Drake song. Speaking of which…

2. On the Quentin Miller reference tracks: “Those recordings—they are what they are. And you can use your own judgment on what they mean to you…There’s not necessarily a context to them. And I don’t know if I’m really here to even clarify it for you.” That’s the type of say-nothing spinspeak you’d expect from a dude expecting to one day run for office in Toronto.

3. On his originality: “I pretty much won’t even rap on a beat unless it’s got some magic element of new tempo or new pocket, where I hear myself and feel like I’ve stumbled upon something new.” Unless he’s, ya know, jacking Migos’ flow on their song, jacking ILoveMakonnen‘s flow on his song, jacking Future‘s flow on his song, jacking Fetty Wap‘s flow on his song or jacking The Weeknd’s flow on his song. But other than that, only new shit.

4. On his generosity: “[If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late] was like an offering—that’s what it was. It was just an offering.” Kanye calls himself a god, but Drake’s out here thinking he’s actually turning water into wine by charging people for a mixtape.

5. On his omniscience: “Even though we’re not carrying on a dialogue, I hear you, you know? And when I make an album, all I want you to know is I hear you…I get everything. I know everything. I know everything that’s being said about you.” That’s some Taylor Swift-level faux accessibility fuckery that is at least as ridiculous as Kanye doing a song called “I Am A God” featuring God.

6. On how other famous musicians are orchestrated and pre-planned but he’s just simple ol’ Drake: “I watch other artists from the past in awe — in awe of the preparation it must have taken to, like, be that individual — the grandiose production of [it]. And I’ve sort of gotten by just being myself.”

7. On how everything he does is orchestrated and pre-planned: Speaking about the lack of a Meek Mill response to “Charged Up” he said, “I didn’t get it. I didn’t get how there was no strategy on the opposite end. I just didn’t understand. I didn’t understand it because that’s just not how we operate.” Everything Drake does is war-roomed. Even the idea of “being Drake.”

8. On no new friends, or any friends at all: “I’m gonna have to be OK with not having that many friends that are peers.” Maybe this quote is just a ploy to bolster his lonely auteur persona in order to illustrate that he’s just as tortured and disconnected from authentic human connection as all of us digital babies, thus giving his music that instant and direct line into the zeitgeist. Or maybe it’s true because he’s a paranoid, arrogant dick.

Read the full Drake interview over at The Fader.