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.

Part 1 of 2

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.

AllHipHop.com: I noticed the Jay-Z verse on “Light Up,” where he cautions you on people that try to lure you into distracting beefs. The next week or so, there’s this “thing” with Lil Kim. How true did that verse ring for you?

Drake: Yeah I think the main thing for me was – and the reason I lashed out in that situation – was, because it wasn’t about me. And there are a lot of stupid things that other of rappers are going to try and rope me into. But at the end of the day, unfortunately, that’s not what pushes my buttons. You can say anything to me and I will not react to it. And even in that specific situation [with Lil  Kim] when things start getting said about me, it lost its thrill. You know what I mean? My biggest thing was I don’t like when you talk about people I love. People that I know for a fact are working very hard and are very respectful people. I don’t like that. That pushes my buttons more than anything you can say about me. It was wrong for ever saying anything in regards to that situation and, as you can see, I left it alone. Its over at this point. You know, I’m not going to give somebody a “look” off that. The fact is, I see Nicki pay a lot of respect to a lot of emcees in the game and she’s just working hard, doing her thing. Other individuals who aren’t relevant get jealous.  

AllHipHop.com: I feel you. Can we see a collaboration, between you and Rihanna? She put it out there and I know you rapped about it. You think we’ll see that in the future?

Drake: You said she put it out there?

[Rihanna told told E!: “Right now I’m listening to Drake, Jay-Z, Kings Of Leon, Ke$ha. He’s really, really talented, and I think he’s one of the illest lyricists out there right now, so I would love to work with him.”]

AllHipHop.com: Yeah, that she would love to work with you.

Drake: (pausing, seemingly shocked) When was that?

AllHipHop.com:  (laughing) Uh, yesterday?  

Drake: Really?

AllHipHop.com: Yeah!

Drake: That’s exciting news. (laughs) Yeah, yeah…I love her very much. She’s a great person and a great artist. I would be honored.  We actually did a song together and it just never came out. But, uh…it would be great to have something out there. It would be cool.

AllHipHop.com: We’ll…make it happen! We put it on Twitter and a bunch of people replied requesting to see you and Rihanna do a song.

Drake: We’ll make it happen. I’m sure.

AllHipHop.com: I was mystified at some of the comments and I recently put on Twitter the question, because somebody told me, “Drake’s not Hip-Hop” and I was baffled, because I feel like, in your lane, you represent lyricism. Especially with…

Drake: Sorry to chime in so soon, but I think the biggest thing is like it all depends on what is your perception of Hip-Hop. Like, if your perception of Hip-Hop is not being that successful, still being the underdog, being seen as hungry, in turn picking music that’s not commercially appealing… If that’s your definition of Hip-Hop, then you’re right…I’m not Hip-Hop.  I think that is the definition of Hip-Hop to a lot of people.

But I think if your definition of Hip-Hop is utilizing every opportunity to showcase a lyrical talent, making great music and making music that’s not complete sell-out like dance music or going too too pop, I think that I keep it Hip-Hop. I never doubt myself in that regard. I think a lot of people feel Hip-Hop, in their eyes, is not shiny. Its dull and gritty and its not about doing Jay Leno or getting nominated for Grammys or a lot of things that have come my way over the years. Like that stuff its too shiny, that’s when you’re too far gone.

AllHipHop.com: Which is more important to you, So Far Gone or Thank Me Later?

Drake:  They both are important for different reasons.  You know So Far Gone is what got me here.  A lot of people were like if you had added “Best I Ever Had”  to this album then it would have been crazy. But it never could have and it just happened the way it happened it just not possible.  And Thank Me Later I guess we will see how important it is. If I do win some awards and if I do break some records this year, then it will be important in its own right.  It’s also a great thing to get off my back. It was a solid body of work and it had an incredible first week and we did some great things.  It was a pretty epic rollout and I think this is the bar that we keep raising.  Next album who knows, I think maybe next album we can do the release concert in Dubai and I will jump off a building and land into the back of a drophead Phantom.

AllHipHop.com: On Twitter they want to know if you really want to marry Nicki Minaj.

Drake:  (Laughs) She’s an unbelievable woman. I don’t know. It’s too early to tell…. (laughs) I love Nicki, really I just be messing with Nicki.  I like to embarrass Nicki a little bit since we are on a public forum… no really I just like to make her blush.

AllHipHop.com:  When are you going to put out your R&B mixtape?

Drake: Whenever 40 wants to start making some R&B beats.  He’s right next to me so if he has something good, then we are one step closer.

Welcome back to third segment of AllHipHop’s exclusive four-part interview with KRS-One.  In Part One, the Teacha discusses the uniqueness of hip-hop with Clayton Perry, followed by a introspective examination on the philosophical influences of Edgar Cayce, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and Bishop Clarence McClendon in Part Two.  Continue below, in order to find out how KRS feels about Lil’ Wayne and the current music landscape.

 AllHipHop.com:  On page 10 of [the Gospel of Hip Hop], you write: “…many have forgotten the love of GOD.  Desperate and impoverished and suddenly propelled to the top of the World’s social circles, they marvel at the effects of their own artistic skills caring little for the cause of such skills; they just want to eat.” What’s your take on this current state of rap music and rappers that proclaim themselves to be “the best rapper alive”?  Do you think their comments are misguided?

 KRS-One:  You’re so right in this way, but let me just tell you how I deal with it in this sense. There is good in all of this. Let me criticize, first. First, the statement that you read in the Gospel, that was said with the spirit of not so much a judgment, but an observation as to the state of hip hop right now. These dudes don’t know where their food comes from. And it’s really for them to read this themselves. This message will get to them in some way, shape or form, that you don’t know how to do what you are doing, so you’re doing of it is temporary. And this is what the Gospel of Hip Hop lays out — it’s actually saving their lives and their necks as well, because deep down inside, if you really want to get money, and you say, “I really want to get this cash.” If you really want to get this cash, you can’t act like the way a lot of these dudes act. It’s impossible in real life. You can’t do it. So, to be on a TV or radio or Internet, and you say, “I’m the best rapper alive. I’m the greatest alive,” they don’t realize that you’re bringing that onto yourself. We already learned that if you say you’re criminal-minded, that you are going to attract criminal-minded activities to you. We learned the hard way that lesson. Bad Boy learned the lesson.  Look at Ready to Die. If you’re going to put a record out that says you’re ready to die, well come on, man, this is what it is. So at the end of the day, these guys are going to probably have to learn the same lesson again, and the lesson is, “I’m the greatest. I’m the best. I’m the this.” Well the greatest and the best is also socially responsible. I do believe that. It’s just that a lot of these guys are young, and it is right to say you are the best.

 AllHipHop.com:  OK.

 KRS-One:  But here’s my second part to this. It is right to say you are the best. In hip hop, you’ve got to say that. That’s how you’ve got to come off, otherwise you’re a punk, and you have no right to rap at all. You have to step up, “I’m the best.” But then you find yourself in a club with KRS one night. It’s industry night. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s somewhere where real dudes are in getting it in. And you may have the hottest record on radio, or on the Internet, you may be selling millions of CDs, but I tell you the truth. I’ve been around since ’77, but professionally twenty-three years since Criminal Minded [repped] South Bronx. In those twenty years, I’ve seen dudes with platinum s**t, crazy, all over the place. That means nothing when you step before the people.

Now, if you say, “I’m the best,” then be the best. That means you say it, that’s why I’m on my way, that’s why I’m on my way to be the best. But then with hip hop, see, hip hop tests you. Now that don’t mean you in the club and say, “I’m the best,” but then you never in the club. Or you say, “I’m the best,” but you never really where dudes are spittin’. And I be where cats be spittin’ that. I be in the battles. I be at the Lion’s Den up in Harlem. What I’m pointing out is that these guys have the right to say whatever they want in their fantasyland. In a poetic sense, they have the right to say whatever they want. Freedom of speech. We live in a free country. However, at some point you’re going to meet Supernatural in the club. And you’re going to be embarrassed. I’m not fronting. You’re going to be embarrassed, and it happens over and over.

 AllHipHop.com:  I can only imagine! [laughing]

 KRS-One:  I can’t tell you the list that I’ve embarrassed. I wasn’t even trying to, because I’m not that type to try and show somebody up. I come in humble, but I’m going to do me. I come in there, I’m doing me, and these cats can’t even take it. Platinum dudes, they won’t want to go on after KRS. They don’t want me in the building. They don’t call me for tours. None of that. You know, I was the host of Rock the Bells. Cats was getting it in. In, in, in. We was getting it in. I bought some Hulk gloves and went to work. Crazy. But you don’t think they see that? These kids see that, too, these rappers that are claiming to be the best at this and the best of that. They know, really, what it is, and they have to say that really.

Let me say this. I do have an aura of elitism, that I am the best. But I would never irresponsibly run around yelling – “I’m the best!” – the way we’re hearing it come across. “You’ve done nothing. You’ve only been on the scene two years, if that. You have one record, and you’re claiming king,” and all of this. No doubt, that’s poor. But what it also says, though, is it’s ignorant. If you can get past the criticism real quick – because it’s wack – when people do that: you claiming the best but you’re not. You claim mastery, but you’re not a master. You haven’t mastered your craft, yet. Slow down. But that’s the problem with the young’n’. See the young’n’ always has that problem. I had that problem, too. But I had to learn to control my arrogance.

 AllHipHop.com:  As the old saying goes: “Heavy is the head that wears the crown!”

 KRS-One:  Definitely. I feel for Kanye. I feel for Drake. I feel for these guys who do have to wear their career on their shoulder, on their chest, to make everybody know they’re the best, because it’s brutal out there. It really is. When I was coming up, I had Melle Mel on my back. I mean, imagine that s**t. I mean, I would not be who I was if it wasn’t for Melle Mel. Let’s just start right there. That it’s. Melle Mel. That’s me, KRS-One, straight up and down. And here now, I’ve got to actually stomach the fact that this dude wants to battle me, live at the Latin Quarter, because I am saying: “I’m taking all comers. I’m from the Bronx. And I’m starting with Bronx MCs.” So Melle Mel took offense, and was like, “No, you ain’t the best around here. Melle Mel is.” And I said, “Oh, no. You’re finished.” And the battle, it went on. And I came out victorious, and a lot of people saw it. And that’s what it was. But that don’t mean you run around, still saying you’re the best. To this day, I still give Melle Mel reverence, saying to you what Marley Marl, the late Mr. Magic, everybody that I battled in that sense. But you’ve got to have some sportsmanship about yourself. And that’s what a lot of people are not really exercising – is the sportsmanship to the whole thing. If you are the best, then you are just the best. That’s it. You don’t yell it. You don’t say it. You don’t have to say it. Your skill is going to show the world who the best is.

 AllHipHop.com:  Well, humility is a trait that is often hard to come by! [laughing]

KRS-One:  True! [laughing] But it is good to be in a community where all the artists think they’re the best. That’s a good thing. It’s a brutal thing, because there can only really be one. So there is a process of elimination, no doubt. But hip hop is vast enough where if you ain’t talkin’ that s**t, then ain’t nobody coming at you like that. But if you want to step into the arena, and how you step into the arena is by saying “I’m the best over all of you.” “Oh, well now let’s put that to the test. Let’s see if that’s really what it is.” And I’m that dude. I’m that dude right there who walks around with no other purpose than to put that claim to the test. Sometimes it’s not even my words. It’s just my presence.

When I walk in a building, or walk into a party — I be at these industry parties when I get a chance. And I see how people move. I see how the room moves around, like, “Oh, s**t, KRS is here.” And I’m like, “Yeah, KRS is here, what? You thought it was going to be fake all night?” You know how many cats say that and can’t look me in the eye. And on the flip side. I’ll tell you a real story about Wayne. Real Wayne. I like his style. I think Wayne is bussin’ off at you as an MC. I haven’t seen his show, so I’m reluctant to call him an MC.

AllHipHop.com:  Why is that?

KRS-One:  I mean, I’ve seen his show, and he was just getting money. I haven’t really seen him in his element, like going in, hungry and off-stage, to call him an MC-MC. But I like his metaphors. I like how he puts his words together, for the style in which he’s coming with. Now he claims the best, too.

AllHipHop.com:  Oh, yes, Wayne definitely thinks he is the best rapper alive or dead! [laughing]

KRS-One:  I remember the BET Hip Hop Awards, when I was there to get my Lifetime Achievement Award. Right in the wings, Wayne was like, “Yo. The Teacha.” And I’m like, “Yo, don’t even start.” So I give him a pound, and I say, “Let me tell you something. You are the number one MC today.” He said, “Yo, don’t f**k with me, Kris. Don’t say that s**t, man. Don’t f**k with me.” Coming from you? Don’t f### with me.” Everybody was staring around – like a hundred people. And he’s like, “Don’t f**k with me, man.” I told him: “Stay focused. Don’t get distracted. Don’t get with that bulls**t. You are the number one MC. Stay focused. Take hip hop with you.” Everybody clapped. The s**t was ridiculous. He broke down into tears. It was ridiculous.

Somebody got it on film, somewhere. Cameras were all over the place. I was just telling him, “You the number one. You the number one.” But the point is: he took that s**t seriously. And I said it seriously and he took it like, “Wow. KRS-One validated my whole s**t right now. Oh, s**t.” And he was waiting for that. He was looking for that. He could always pop that yang, he could always say, “Yeah, I’m the best, and I’m selling . . .” But there’s a part in his soul that wants Africa Bambaataa to come by and shake his hand. There’s a part of his soul that wants to be accepted by Chuck D or have a KRS come over. All them dudes from 50 on down — everybody — and I’m saying it because I’m living it — this ain’t gossip. I’m living these things. These dudes are coming to me with real questions about their lives: this, that and the other. I probably need a reality show. I need to stop bulls**tting and go get a reality show so that people can really see.

AllHipHop.com:  Why don’t you give Viacom a call?!? [laughing]

KRS-One:  Man, I should! [laughing] I’ll just be walking down the street and run into somebody — an artist, an executive, somebody you knew or something like that, and they be like, “Yo, let me tell you, man. It’s like this. It’s like that.” It’s not always tad and bad news. A lot of times cats be like, “Yo, I just got blessed crazy. I’m on my way here, here and here.” It’s not always death and destruction in hip hop. It’s not always, “Yo, ni**a, what’s up? We beefin’.” Hip hop got a lot of love in it. Cats are exchanging information, resources. People are getting together.

I just got a new album from Masta Ace and Ed O.G, and that s**t is kind of hot. I also say it because I’m on it! [laughing] But Masta Ace slid off. I did some eight bar thing for him some months ago, and he gave it to me. He said, “Look. It’s finished. Here listen to it. Tell me what you think.” So I listen to the whole album. The whole album was good. I was like: “Damn, listen to Ace. Listen to Ed O.G, man.” These cats, they doing it, and you can only do it for love, now. You can get a little money, no doubt. There’s still money out there to get. But not no more selling no CD. You’ll get a little something. But really, if you ain’t doing it really for the love of it right now, you not really doing it. You can’t really do it. And it’s funny how the universe works that out. The cats that did it for the money, now, can’t do hip hop, because there’s no money in rap music.

AllHipHop.com:  Well, I guess you can say that Mother Nature ran her course and let all of the genuine MCs persevere! [laughing]

KRS-One:  True! [laughing] But the money in rap music is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and everybody’s running to movies and fashion lines and restaurants and whatever other entrepreneurial thing they could come up with, but nobody’s really thinking about hip hop. See, the Gospel talks about that, too, about how we drove the car far and now we need to gas up again. And everybody’s just saying, “Up. We’re here. Let’s get out of the car, and leave the car because we’re here now. We drove the car. We have corporations.  We’re in everything, now. Hip hop is everything.” So that’s it, now f### hip hop. It just fades away. No! Not on KRS on watch. So this is where the Gospel comes to us because we’re saying, “No. More than ever now, let’s decide who is hip hop and who really isn’t.”

And not me saying, “This is hip hop and this isn’t.” But you will say to yourself, “I love this culture. I ain’t part of this bulls**t.” And f**k, with your own mouth, you say, “Boom. I’m not down.” But if you are down, with your own mouth, you don’t say, “Yo, I am hip hop. This is me. I’m this. I feel this. This is what I’m about. This is what I’m going to eat off of. This is how I’m going to define myself.” And that’s what we’re really putting forward. I think it’s a brilliant time, really, for it. It’s a brilliant time to do it. It’s the right time to do it. Do you realize that the Gospel of Hip Hop, even though I stay away from the term religion, is really defining culture?  Your culture is your religion, and your religion is your culture, in that sense. What you live daily is your religion, is your culture. I live hip hop daily, and millions of other people do, too. So it can be called our religion.

AllHipHop travels with Nas and Damian Marley for the last installment of “The Next 48 Hours.” The last episode has the Distant Relatives hitting various spots spreading their unique reggae-tinged gospel. Check out the last installment.

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