There aren’t a lot of things Drake hasn’t done in his career. He still remains one of the biggest and most successful rappers in the world, even with his beef with Kendrick Lamar and the music industry at large. So what would he ever need to be jealous of? Moreover, who would he be jealous of?
Rewind back to 2015, the Toronto MC spoke with The Fader, where he admitted that once upon a time, he used to be ‘envious’ of Wiz Khalifa. Coming up in the rap game, he watched how the Pittsburgh rapper was able to dominate the airwaves with an ode to Pittsburgh. Admittedly, the feat shocked him for a long time. For so long, Drake wanted to come up with the perfect way to do it for his stomping grounds in Toronto. As a result, he finally made “Know Yourself” from his audacious mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
“I always used to be so envious, man, that Wiz Khalifa had that song ‘Black and Yellow,’ and it was just a song about Pittsburgh,” he told The Fader. “Like, the world was singing a song about Pittsburgh! And I was just so baffled, as a songwriter, at how you stumbled upon a hit record about Pittsburgh. Like, your city must be elated! They must be so proud. And I told myself, over the duration of my career, I would definitely have a song that strictly belonged to Toronto but that the world embraced. So, ‘Know Yourself’ was a big thing off my checklist.”
Drake Admits He Used To Be a Little Jealous of Wiz Khalifa Over ‘Black & Yellow’
But Drake’s devotion extended far beyond him chanting “I was running through the 6 with my woes” on “Know Yourself”. He made it a point to emphasize how Toronto would weave Caribbean slang and Arabic phrases into its everyday language. In doing so, it sculpts out a more lived-in experience whenever he depicts his birthplace.
Admittedly, though, it took Drake a while to find the courage to wield these aspects of his life. Once he nailed it, he felt like he could properly represent his city. “We use [that lingo] every day,” he explained. “But it just took me some time to build up the confidence to figure out how to incorporate it into songs. And I’m really happy that I did. I think it’s important for the city to feel like they have a real presence out there. I’ve just become really adamant about leaving fragments in everything I do that belong strictly to my city. The world will pick up on it.”
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