Drake and Lil Yachty sat down for a 35-minute interview that served as the premiere episode of Yachty’s “A Moody Conversation” from his FUTUREMOOD brand. The conversation dropped on Friday, February 24. Within the first 10 minutes, Drake opened up about an eventual “graceful exit” from the rap game and which aspects of his music haven’t necessarily aged gracefully.
“I feel like I’m kind of introducing the concept in my mind of a graceful exit,” Drake told Yachty. “I feel like a lot of people that I’ve watched as the years have gone on, it’s a really addictive, competitive space, and oftentimes, you’re addicted to the competition itself. And so, sometimes it’ll baffle you. Like, why are these people still making attempts at trying to present in the space? And then you’ll realize, like, their needs and desires and their soul was probably fed for so long off of being a guy or the guy that they can’t let it go.”
He continued, “I guess what’s left for me is just to find a way to gracefully — like, I’m not ready now, but to gracefully continue making projects that are extremely interesting and hopefully cherished by people, and then to find the right time to say, ‘I can’t wait to see what the next generation does.’ I’ll still be around to work with people or do a show here or there, but I’m not going to force myself to compete.”
This reminded Yachty of Drake referencing his plan to retire by 35 years old on the 2016 Views track “Weston Road Flows. (Drake turned 36 last October.) The Toronto icon immediately cringed. “Nah, I hate hearing that sh*t. I heard it the other night when we were at the club,” he said before noting he thought 35 was “really old” back then.
Drake then elaborated on his two music-related regrets in hindsight:
“I think that and sometimes when I’ve said girls names in songs, maybe those are the two things that I look back on and I’m like, ‘Ah, maybe I could’ve done without sh*tting on people for age or disrupting somebody’s life.’ The lyrics are never with ill intent, but I had somebody say one time, ‘You know, it’s not necessarily what you’re saying about me; it’s the fact that you said it. Just in the sense of, ‘You don’t know what it does to me. You don’t know who my boyfriend is at the time. You don’t know what my family or doesn’t know, and if you express any form of [ill will] for me in a song and call me by name, then all of a sudden, I’m left to pick up the pieces of my own life that I’ve tried to build up for myself.’”
Drake added that he’s “tried my best” to stop naming his ex-girlfriends in songs, but his affinity for honest music makes it a “push and pull” balancing act. Yachty admitted that he used to think his friend was making girls’ names up, and Drake confirmed he doesn’t think he’s “ever made a girl’s name up, ever in life.”
Watch the full “Moody Conversation” premiere above.