DJ Semtex has released an extensive new interview with Drake via OVO Sound Radio (and Soundcloud. The pair reflect on their seven year relationship, while touching on a massive range of subjects from Drake’s relationship with, and his thoughts on Kanye West, the Grammy Awards, his thoughts on rapping in general (and interestingly, that he nearly took all actual rapping off Views), his love of grime and the UK hp-hop scene, and more. Drake begins the interview by praising Semtex, noting that he specifically wanted to run a new interview with him, as other interviewers haven’t been able to get as deep.
Whether you like Drake or not, this is by far one of, if not the most honest, open and candid interview he’s ever delivered. It provides a really refreshing insight into so many current topics as well as harking back to much of his history, including the beginnings of his relationship with Lil Wayne and So Far Gone, working with Dr Dre and the now-dead Detox, and so much more. Semtex holds nothing back, talking about how people criticised Pop Style featuring The Throne, and commenting about the criticism Kanye West received during his TLOP tour. “I’m not really sure what he’s referring to half the time, cos in the same breath, I went from being… like working on a project with him, to him sorta publicly shitting on me and DJ Khaled for being on the radio too much.”
The interview took place one day after the Grammys, and he also took the time to slam the Academy for voting for Hotline Bling instead of One Dance. “I’m apparently a ‘rapper’ even though Hotline Bling is not a rap song,” he said. “The only category that they can manage to fit me in is a ‘rap’ category, maybe because I’ve rapped in the past, or because I’m black, I can’t figure out why. Just like I can’t figure out why One Dance wasn’t nominated… I wanna be like Michael Jackson, I wanna be like artists that I looked up to, those are pop songs but I never get any credit to that.”
Listen below, or you can have a read of a transcript here thanks to the good folks at Nation of Billions.