Drake Gives GQ A Tour Of His Mansion

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By Kevin Lavi

GQ chose Young Money’s own, Aubrey Drake Graham, to cover their April 2012 issue. The Toronto rapper let GQ into his home, where he set the own mood for his interview, sitting by the pool with a cold bottle of white wine, and even inviting the interviewer to go down his water slide. But pool and water sliding aside, Drake did speak on some important aspects of his life, beginning with his relationship with his father who left him at the age of 5.

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"Me and my dad are friends. We're cool. I'll never be disappointed again, because I don't expect anything anymore from him. I just let him exist, and that's how we get along,” Drake says, getting visibly upset, “But I spent too many nights looking by the window, seeing if the car was going to pull up. And the car never came.”

Drake also discussed how he thinks the rap industry has changed. "Rap now is just being young and fly and having your s--- together," he says, while trying to explain the new generation of rappers he believes himself to a part of, “The mood of rap has changed." Drake believes this new generation of rappers is no longer defined by street credibility like they once were.

Sebastian Kim for GQ

They later discuss Drake’s rise to fame, and how he’s dealing with the ladies ever since. Drake launched his music career after borrowing money from his uncle for a mixtape and starting a blog and a Myspace account. He was discovered by Lil Wayne who gave Drake a call to let him know that he was a fan of the music. Drake loves the fame, but he admits it comes with its own challenges. He understands what the internet has meant to his success, and how it will continue effect his life. "Some of my favorite rappers, some of my heroes, there might be like 200 pictures of them because there was no Internet," he says, "whereas with us, it's like every moment is documented."

He believes some of the best music he has made to date was from his hardships growing up, and from his previous relationships. "When I was in my mom's house, I had nowhere to go, no real obligations. My girlfriend at the time, if she was mad at me, my day was all fucked-up. I didn't have anything else. And that made for some of the best music, I think, to date. Records where I felt small. That feeling is hard to capture when you're sitting out here in a space like this" he says.

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He admits to having a period where he slept with a ton of girls, but that period in his life has passed. "I'm trying to find the same feelings that I had for women when I had very little going on,” Drake admits, “which is tough.”

Though the interview ended with an invite to spend the night, Drake is definitely not playing around right now. Only two days after tweeting that he had the stomach flu Drake, returned to the road for his Club Paradise tour.

Drake was also hard at work shooting a video for “Take Care” featuring Rihanna recently. Pictures from the video have been released and they show a very close and intimate Drake and Rihanna holding each other in a black-and-white image before an empty backdrop.

Drizzy recnetly came in at number 2 in our Hottest MC’s In The Game list. In doing so, Drake outdid fellow label mates Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne, and was only defeated by Maybach Music’s Rick Ross.

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/03/14/drake-gq-magazine-cover-april/]View the full article[/url]