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Written by Cyrus Langhorne
Friday, July 3, 2009 13:45:00


Rap newcomer Drake has revealed the strategy he plans to implement for his Thank Me Later debut and who he has collaborated with so far.

The newly signed Young Money rapper said he will model the upcoming album based from his popular So Far Gone mixtape.

"I just gotta get this tour knocked out," Drake explained in an interview. "I'm working on it right now though, I was actually just in the studio with Pharrell. It's basically a 'laxed process for us and basically So Far Gone worked so lets just try to do it again, lets act as if we were making a second disc for So Far Gone. Or picking up on the places that I feel So Far Gone missed out on a couple things, taking away things people liked but didn't respond to as much as they did say like a 'Best I Ever Had,' 'Uptown,' the joint with Lloyd. There were certain things on that record I unanimously know people loved, there are things people didn't necessarily understand. So I'm just basically trying to find the strongest point to So Far Gone and make an album based off that." (MTV)

He recently spoke on his record deal with Lil Wayne's company and importance of being an independent artist.

"I definitely want to clear this up, I didn't sign to Universal," he promised in an interview. "I'm actually signed to...a lot of people were telling me, 'Oh, you should do it independent.' I'm actually 100 percent independent. I signed to Cortez Bryant and G. Roberson, my managers, so I signed a joint venture between Aspire Music Group, which is them, and Young Money. So the only part that Universal plays is P&D [pressing and distribution]. I'm not a Universal artist. I'm signed to myself...Somebody told me they saw my deal the other day and they said it was one of the worst record deals in history [for] the label. That's a good thing for me. I own everything, I have 100 percent creative control, I own all my masters, everything. I'm blessed to be in that situation. If we sell some records, I think we'll just add to the historic pace that this has been going at." (Complex)

Drizzy confirmed his Weezy deal earlier this week.

"We signed a joint venture with Young Money which is Lil Wayne's company," he explained in an interview. "The courting was nice, I had some great dinners in hotels, I got some nice things [during the bidding war.] I think the best part about it is that we've done this thing in the industry where it's been so organic to do it with the people that I'm doing it with. It's kinda like we're doing it by ourselves. It's distributed through Universal." (Alexa Chung)

Online reports spread last week which hinted at Drake partnering with Universal.

According to several sources on the left coast, Toronto native, and Hip-Hop's second coming, Drake, who's been used as tug toy between Atlantic Records, Universal Records, Interscope Records and Def Jam Records has allegedly inked a deal with Universal Records. From my understanding, Drake was set to announce his new found Hip-Hop residence some time soon, but I guess word got out a little premature and landed directly in my lap. Now, the lil birdie who threw me this tidbit got the information straight from the label, so you can kill the LowKey's making up ish commentary - ASAP. And if this doesn't serve true, well someone up at Universal Records has a lot of explaining to do. (BET)

Check out Drake's interview below: