We had this running joke we’d listen to the song and be like “Oh, the album is done. When we were in Atlanta I told 40, “Man, just give me some shit that Dipset would rap on.” He gave me the beat for the first part of “Tuscan Leather.” Then Boi-1da sent us some drums and we flipped it, then flipped the end part again. Intros and outros have always been kind of ambient. Yeah, I wanted to bookend it with strong raps. You bookend the album with two bold lyrical records-“Tuscan Leather” and “Pound Cake/ Paris Morton Music 2.” What was the message you wanted to send? It was annoying at first, like who is this guy to tell me I’m not doing it right? But when I listened to the finished product there’d be so much emotion in every line that it was almost like somebody different rapping. What’s different about Detail, I’ll do a verse in one take with 40 Detail would make me go line by line. I’ve never had a vocal producer other than 40, and there were nights where 40 would leave the studio and let Detail vocal produce me. Detail is a huge influence on that as well.
My biggest thing this time was working with my vocal coach, just really finding a different tone. On the last tour, I’d be rapping records like “HYFR” and “The Motto,” then have to go onto “Doing It Wrong,” “The Real Her.” I couldn’t even get onstage and perform them, because they’re such blatant singer moments and the energy would come down. I remember asking people early on what can I do this time to make it a memorable project. This album does a good job of merging rapping and singing in a seamless way. I’ll give you raps on raps, and and “Stay Schemin” But when it comes to making a body of work, that shit becomes boring to me.
I’m never going to make some album full of bars with no melody, don’t ever wait for that. I said to myself, “I’m always going to have records to drive to.” That’s my shit. Take Care got scrutiny for being too slow, too this, too that. He inspired me to stay away from the real R&B ballads. With Party, he never wants to go too slow there’s always some energy. That and Nothing Was The Same is all that our city is listening to. That House of Balloons moment this time was PARTYNEXTDOOR. I go off the city-once the world has it it’s a little too late for me. I saw the impact that House of Balloons had on. When I had met the Weeknd there was no Weeknd, so it was extremely influential on me. Just to vibe and get back to whatever it was we’d started out doing. We actually sat together for a couple nights on some personal shit. At any point during the recording of Nothing Was The Same did you consider tapping him to bring that energy? The Weeknd was obviously a huge influence on Take Care. We never brought it into fruition I think it was some iTunes or something like that. It was a cool, different listening experience.
The deluxe version was going to flip the whole track list, so it would go “Pound Cake” then “Too Much”-it would go in reverse. The initial idea was to release two versions of the album. By the time you get to “305 To My City” you don’t remember how you got there from “Wu Tang Forever.” It’s all connected. It’s such a journey that it’s over quickly, but you forget where you started so you have to listen again. It’s definitely the most cohesive of your albums. ‘Started From the Bottom’ was on this.” I always think about that feeling, flipping over the CD like, What was on this album? But I think when people look back in 10 years they’ll be like, “Damn, ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ was on this. Here, My Dear wasn’t Marvin Gaye’s biggest album. Even though this album wasn’t really about a relationship or that specific, I had vivid details much like that album and wanted to get them across in that concise format. Here, My Dear was an influence to me because he was telling such a vivid story about going through divorce and that particular relationship. VIBE: Like Nothing Was The Same, Nas’ last album, Life Is Good, was greatly influenced by Marvin Gaye’s 1978 LP Here, My Dear.ĭrake: Oh wow, crazy. The magazine also sat down with Drizzy Drake for a one on one interview that will be the cover story for the new issue.ĭuring the interview, Drizzy spoke on his Nothing Was The Same album, The Weeknd not being apart of the project like he was with Take Care, working with Detail, the memes of himself online, shooting the “ Worst Behavior” music video in Memphis, if he sent any shots to Kendrick Lamar on his “ The Language” song, Kanye West being his only competition, wanting one day to be a good father, and more. Drake graces the front cover of VIBE magazine’s latest issue, which you can view above.