During a recent interview with The Village Voice, rapper Drake revealed his thoughts on racial indentity--particularly his own--here in America....and it's pretty interesting. Find out what 25-year-old Mr. Graham said inside and video from his Penn State performance last night...
With his latest disc, Take Care, making its way onto everyones' iPod or iPad via leak (officially drops 11/15), Drake sat down with the Village Voice to discuss Stevie Wonder and racial politics....from his Canadian perspective. It's interesting to hear what the rapper thinks about race in America coming in as a bi-racial outsider. Here are the highlights....
You and I have similar backgrounds, a black dad and a white, Jewish mom. Do those issues of race and identity play out differently in Canada compared to the US?
Well, Canada's like a cultural melting pot, especially Toronto. America, I come here sometimes and I witness, like, real segregation. Like when you go to LA and it's like, "This area's Mexican, and this area's white." That's crazy to me because in Toronto we have cultural areas—"OK, this is Little India, this is Chinatown, this is where there the Greek people are"—but it's not segregated. It's not like you can't go there and participate in the culture. So it's a bit different. I think Canada's very accepting. But at the same time I get a lot of love everywhere in the world for just being diverse, instead of just being straight out [one thing]. I'm all mixed up and people embrace that.
When you identify yourself this way do you ever get questioned on it, like, "Why do you call yourself 'mixed'?" or, "What's wrong with just being black?"
I mean, I'm so light that people are like "you're white." That's what I get more than anything, people saying "you're white, you're not black." But I mean those are whatever, those are just silly jokes. That's like "the light-skinned complex." That's a very American thing as well, light skin and dark skin, like I don't even notice that. Girls will be like "oh I've seen you talk to dark-skinned girls, that's so good." And I'm like "why? I talk to any girl!" I talk to anybody, you know?
Tell me about working with Stevie Wonder.
We had met and exchanged numbers a while ago so I called him when I was in LA, and he came to the studio I was working at, named Marvin's Room. So he came and I had this song looped up named "Doing It Wrong," and it was just playing and Stevie said "40 [Drake's producing partner], turn the music up," and he was just vibing, being Stevie Wonder, sort of got quiet. And then he just went in the booth and brought life to this record, added all these musical pieces. He's just, likem a dear friend of mine and a great person. I love working with him, and we'll definitely work more in the future.
Has he given you any particular advice?
Well Stevie is less of, like, I always feel like individuals who give advice... Stevie Wonder is such a human. He's such a, like, human being, he's such a great, funny, real person, that he just makes me laugh and make me feel comfortable. Tells me great stories, ones that I really can't tell [laughing], but he tells me good stories and leads me in the right direction. He doesn't preach to me or try to make me feel like I'm some young'un that he needs to advise, he just treats me like an equal, like a human being. And I love people that do that, I respect that.
Listen to Drake and Stevie Wonder on Take Care here:
Also in Drake news.....
While Penn State deals with the fallout from an epic and disgusting sex-abuse scandal involving several football coaches, Drake hit the stage there to kick off the “Club Paradise” tour at Bryce Jordan Center in University Park last night. He even rocked a cutoff Penn State hoodie and leopard-print jeans. He told them,
“I want to truly thank you for being able to come together and have a great evening. Like I said, despite everything that’s going on around you, this is one of the greatest schools in the motherfu**in’ world. I love you.
“I’d love to come back some time, maybe with some of my family like Nicki Minaj. So while I work on making that happen, you work on being the beautiful people that you are. And until next time I see you, take care.”
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