Complex: Everyone’s been waiting on this video. Can you take us through the making of it?
Drake: Yeah. The video is directed by Kanye West. Basically we decided, as opposed to taking ourselves super serious, we just wanted to have some fun with it. Myself, being a young man, a young single man at that, I kind of wanted to be real about the way I function with women at this current point in my life. Which is, I don’t have one woman that I call my girl. There’s different girls in my life that play different roles and I see at different times, but collectively they kind of make up the roster of happiness for me [Laughs].
Complex: Understandable. So what’s the concept?
Drake: The concept of the video is, I’m a coach at a high school and the girls of my life are all on my high school basketball team. Throughout the video you see us prepping for this big championship game, and my team ends up losing. You see the looks on their faces at the end of the video, but the moral of the story, I guess, is win or lose, you can still be the best to somebody. When women see the video and see all the breast and ass, hopefully they don’t take offense. Hopefully they see the real meaning.
Drake Talks to The 'Plex about BET Awards, Torn ACL, Signing a Deal and Best I Ever Had Video
BET has expressed remorse over a performance by Lil Wayne, Drake and Young Money Records that involved underage girls during songs "Best I Ever Had" and "Every Girl."
The songs, which have overt sexual references, were performed during the Sunday BET Awards '09 show as a bevy of young girls danced on stage. The group of girls consisted of Lil Wayne’s daughters and her friends.
In an exclusive statement, BET has responded to the criticism and the public outcry over the segment.
“BET Networks deeply regrets the performance by Young Money at the BET AWARDS ’09 (featuring Lil Wayne, Drake, Gudda Gudda and Mack Maine),” a BET representative told AllHipHop.com exclusively. “Elements of the performance were unplanned and should not have happened.”
In the aftermath of the show, many have expressed outrage over the outing by Young Money, which was set amid a show dedicated to the late Michael Jackson.
Activist and filmmaker Byron Hurt lambasted the network earlier in the week in an open letter to Debra Lee, the President and Chief Executive Officer of BET Holdings, Inc.
“In a culture where one out of four girls and women are either raped or sexually assaulted - and where manipulative men routinely traffic vulnerable women into the sex industry - it is not okay that BET allowed this to happen,” Hurt said. “BET owes its entire audience - particularly girls and women around the world - an apology for its failure to intervene.”
A representative said generally the company has found such opinions useful.
“We value and appreciate the feedback from our viewers and have edited Young Money’s performance for all BET Awards ’09 encore presentations.”
Drake has apologized and taken responsibility for the performance, admitting it was in poor taste.
"That...was a terrible idea that I'll never do to myself again. But I was being pressed from different areas to perform, and I think what really happened at the BET Awards is with the passing of Mike, the climate really changed, as far as the award show goes,” he told Complex. “I don't think it called for us to perform "Every Girl" and "Always Strapped," and I think it was an award show filled with tributes and music and these genuine heartfelt speeches. And to sort of climax out of a very tongue-n-cheek point, and then people misconstruing Wayne's daughters and her friends coming out on stage -- it was just timed very poorly and it definitely wasn't planned like that, but with that being said, it is what is. I believe in Wayne and myself and it's nothing we can't bounce back from. To anyone who was offended, my personal apologies, it wasn't intended to offend anybody."
An edited version of the show will re-air on Monday July 6. The BET Awards saw a 61-percent increase in viewers this year fueled by the sudden death of Michael Jackson. Ten percent of all turned on television sets watched the show Sunday, a remarkably high number.
The buzz continues to grow for Toronto rap newcomer Drake. The Young Money signee recently did an interview with UK radio personality DJ Semtex where he spoke on his rumored collaboration with Jay-Z.
Drizzy confirmed with Semtex that he has been in the studio with Jay, as producer Just Blaze posted on his Twitter account. “I’ve been blessed enough to work with Jay in the last couple weeks and I mean people are just gonna have to wait, you’ll have to see what comes of it.
While not offering any more details on the collaboration the former Degrassi actor said working with Jay was one of “the most key moment in my life.”
Drake is expected to fly overseas in late June/early July to play a show with Weezy and other newcomer Kid Cudi – with whom the rapper says, as another up-and-coming new face in the game he is “very proud of.”
reported earlier this week that Drake is in the process of signing with an undisclosed major. He says he wants the album, titled Thank Me Later, to drop before Christmas. As far as other possible features besides Jigga and Wayne, he says, “Just know the best of the best will be involved.” Drake revealed to MTV News that he has also worked with Kanye West and Young Jeezy.
Drake Doing it form wheel chair Jimmy to one of the most known voices of today