Drake Wants To 'Bring People Together' With Third Album

Toronto rapper tells MTV News he wants to have 'a real impact on the world' with his follow-up to Take Care.
By Nadeska Alexis, with reporting by Sway Calloway

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Every once in a while, Drake will remind us that he "got rich off a mixtape," but now that the YMCMB rapper is coming up on his third album, he's focused on sharing his evolution as an artist. Some of that change is a result of his experiences over the past couple of years, and his headline-making club brawl with Chris Brown this week should certainly factor in.

The two entertainers clashed in a messy fight at a New York City nightclub on Wednesday after exchanging heated words. It seems fair to say that Drake, who tends to address the ups-and-downs of fame in his music, will have plenty of new material when he starts recording this third album.

"I feel like with every project we do there's growth and with every project I do, I become more comfortable with the artist I am," Drake told MTV News' Sway Calloway backstage at a recent stop on his Club Paradise tour. "Take Care solidified a lot of things for me. [It's] a list of things that would probably be too immense to go through, but it solidified a lot of things and let me know what I want to do, and who I want to be."

The Toronto rapper, who has clearly reflected on the scope of his music, added that he's pushed boundaries way past the standards. "The music that I make is bigger than the box people try and put rappers [in]," he said. "People always try to draw me back to just rap. And — nah, I'm good. I like what I do. Period. That's how I feel. Nobody can really do what I do or what we do, including 40 and all the producers that I've worked with."

Drake has already revealed that his third album will be very much influenced by recent events in his life, including his move to Los Angeles, but he also hopes it will have a lasting effect on people.

"[It's interesting] to see artists that have a real impact on the world," he said. "We live in a generation where there is nothing necessarily to fight for politically, whereas in the Marley documentary [for example] he was fighting for peace in Jamaica. [There's] nothing necessarily for me to step up and say I want to fight for, but there is a way for me to give moments to the world, and to bear my emotions and hope that I'm remembered as that guy who was able to bring people together. I want to be that guy. I want to bring people together."

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