July 9, 2009

Drake Explains the Musical Fusion in His Songs

By Shaheem Reid (MTV.com)

Working on his debut LP, Thank Me Later, Toronto MC Drake said there is no method to his creative streak. If he gets inspired to spit rhymes on a track, he'll get to it. If he wants to croon to a beat, he does just that.

"The balance of singing and rapping has been blurred ever since I did So Far Gone," he said of his breakthrough mixtape. "I mean, I don't really have a formula for that. I don't say, like, 'OK, I can only sing this hook or I want to rap this.' I just really hear a beat, and it's like, 'If I can write to it on a hip-hop level, if I can pen some raps to it, then that will work.' And then maybe after I do that, I'll get in the booth and sing a little part of the verse.

"I like to do that," he continued. "I like to incorporate singing into my verses. And then I feel like it allows people a break from just constant rapping, rapping, rapping, you know? I think it's great to incorporate melodies into the songs that I write. And yeah, my goal is just really to make a song that after I listen to it, I'll just be like, 'Man, people are going to know the words to that.' That's the best thing. I think I'm doing it right, 'cause when I go to the shows, people know the words to the songs, and that's good."

Drake's video for "Best I Ever Had" is out right now and he'll probably be doing up more video clips in time to come.

"There's talk to do a "Successful" video," Drake said. "Also, you know, I'm shooting the video to "Digital Girl" with Jamie Foxx and Kanye West and The-Dream. And then there is another song that we have that we might shoot a video for, for the album. So as far as videos go, there are some more potential chances to see [me]."