How do you spell Toronto?? D, R, A, K, E.
For this weeks artist spotlight I decided to do the one and only Drake! Drake has been in the rap game for a long time, with 5 all time Grammy’s and an astounding 55 Grammy nominations. Drake has 8 studio albums, with the first one being released all the way back in 2008. In the last year or so, Drake has been shown in all lights of the media as him and other famous rap artist, Kendrick Lamar, were in a feud and released songs about each other, calling out each others home and personal lives, and their complicated histories in the industry.
To get some insight from LHS students on Drake, I interviewed students Kameron Gooden, Marcus Windrow, Ethan Bauer, Catherine West, and Camila Fluery. The questions which I asked them were, their “Top 5 favorite songs” and “which lyric of Drake’s you relate to the most or resonate with and why”. I also asked certain students which album of Drake’s was their personal favorite.
Senior, Kameron Gooden, was the first person to get interviewed, and when I asked him what his top 5 all time songs were, he answered with: “TSU”, track #8 off of Certified Lover Boy, “Fair Trade”, track #6 off of Certified Lover Boy, “Way 2 Sexy”, track #7 off of Certified Lover Boy, “Feel No Ways”, track #4 off of Views, and “9”, track #2 off of Views. Kameron started off with 3 songs all from the album Certified Lover Boy and casually switched over to Views. Next I asked Kameron what lyric from Drake’s discography he resonates with the most and why, to which he responded: “ ‘Six upside down, it’s a nine now’, because when 9 does a flip you get 6”. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this lyric from Kameron, but I like the simplicity of it. I even went a step further and asked Kameron what his favorite Drake album was, and he answered with “Oh it has gotta be Certified Lover Boy for sure.” Kameron was on the spot for this interview due to Mr. Belyea listening in to the interview and pressuring him to give good responses(as one would expect from Mr. Belyea); I think that Big Dawg just gave Kameron that little push to give quality answers and think about his choices.
My next interview was senior, Marcus Windrow. Marcus is also a very adamant Drake listener and was up for the interview with no hesitation! When I asked Marcus to give me his top 5 songs, he took some time to think about his answers, and eventually gave me: “TSU”, track #8 off of Certified Lover Boy, “Race My Mind”, track #15 off of Certified Lover Boy, “The Resistance”, track #3 off of Thank Me Later, and “Club Paradise”, track #12 off of Care Package. Marcus answered “TSU” as his number one song along with Kameron. Marcus was also asked which lyric of Drake’s he relates to the most and he answered with “Started not to give a **** and stopped fearin’”, his explanation was, “Because to be honest, I used to care what some people thought of me but now I don’t”. This lyric is from the song “Headlines”. Marcus was a great interviewer and with no doubt a big fan of Drake.
The third interview on Drake was with senior, Ethan Bauer. When I asked Ethan what his top 5 Drake songs were, he had a pretty confident list already set in his mind. His list consisted of: “You & The 6”, track #15 off of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, “Sandra’s Rose”, track #10 off of Scorpion, “Lord Knows”, track #11 off of Take Care(Deluxe), “Gyalchester”, track #9 off of More Life, and “Draft Day”, track #6 off of Care Package. Ethan shows some diversity hopping around to a few different albums, some old, some new. I also asked Ethan what his most relatable lyric was by Drake and he answered with, “Stay at the top like I’m stuck.”, and his explanation was “Because it was an Instagram caption for my birthday and I really like the lyric”. Ethan for sure knows how to spell Toronto and will never forget it.
Fourth was junior, Catherine West. Catherine was very eager to answer any questions about Drake, and she was prepared for these questions. For her top 5 songs, she answered with “Over My Dead Body”, track #1 off of Take Care(Deluxe), “Die Trying”, track #15 off of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, “Virginia Beach”, track #1 off of For All The Dogs, “Feel No Ways”, track #4 off of Views, and “Slime You Out”, track #9 off of For All The Dogs. Catherine gave us the first song from Drakes newest album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. She also answered with one of my personal favorites “Slime You Out”. I also asked Catherine what lyric of Drake’s she most related to and why, to which she responded with, “Better late than never, but never late is better.” and her reason was “Because it shoes it’s nevertoo late to accomplish something you; re passionate about and demonstrates how to set goals for yourself”. I was very happy with Catherine’s answer, it was very thorough and thought out, which is exactly the type of answer i’m looking for from that question. I also asked Catherine what her favorite album was from Drake’s discography, and she chose For All The Dogs. I was happy to interview Catherine and I’m glad she allowed to me to take her time for this interview.
My last interview was with sophomore, Camila Fluery, a very ambitious and prepared interviewee. When I asked her what her top 5 favorite songs were, she pulled out her list that she already had prepared. The list was: “Marvin’s Room”, track #6 off of Take Care(Deluxe), “Look What You’ve Done”, track #15 off of Take Care(Deluxe), “From Time”, track #7 off of Nothing Was The Same, “TSU”, track #8 off of Certified Lover Boy, and “Poetic Justice”, a song made by Kendrick Lamar that Drake is the feature on; This song is track #6 off of Good Kid, m.A.A.d city. Camila was the 3rd person to answer with “TCU”, following Kameron and Marcus. When I asked Camila what lyric she most related to, or her favorite, she answered with “Count your blessings, not your problems.”, and her reasoning was “You’ll never have a positive life if you’re only paying attention to the negative things”. I really appreciate Camila’s answer and I think it is a nice reminder that any person could value hearing from time to time.
Needless to say, Drake has some definite fans in Madison Heights and some loyal ones at that!
