Drake doesn’t like being referred to as a culture vulture.
The Toronto rapper sat down with media personality Bobbi Althoff for her new podcast Not This Again where he addressed things like their falling out after their much-publicized first interview, the fake abs allegations, his beef with Rick Ross, and being called a “culture vulture.”
When the subject of their falling out came up, Drake tried to explain why he decided to cut all ties with Althoff, saying that she made him feel like his interview was the source of all the problems in her life at the time. “What I’m really trying to say is I feel like I’m not necessarily a part of the problem,” Drake told Bobbi as he attempted to articulate why he blocked her on everything and asked for the original video to be taken down. “And I experience a lot of guilt-tripping in my life where people are like, ‘No, this is your fault,’ essentially and my intentions are pure.”
Adding, “It’s the same way even in music,” people will be like, ‘Oh, you’re a culture vulture,’ or people will describe the collaborative efforts that I’ve put forth and the artists that I’ve picked up and lifted up or shined a light on as me taking, you know? They’ll put a negative spin on it and try and tell me that it’s a self-serving thing or whatever, and I think I get really sensitive about that.”
Drake’s collabs with up-and-coming artists have been the subject of much debate in rap social media circles for years and the issue was addressed by Kendrick Lamar multiple times during their back-and-forth last summer on “euphoria” and “Not Like Us.” And the Compton rapper hasn’t been the only one to be critical of his collabs. Back in 2019, Drake addressed Grime rapper Wiley‘s criticism while co-hosting the 1Xtra Rap Show with Tiffany Calver.
“I hate that people think that me being into music from these kids that are trying to make it and trying to build a name for themselves is like, ‘Oh, that’s some culture vulture,” he told Calver. “What does that even mean? I don’t understand what that means. Would you rather me not acknowledge anything or support? That’s some real confused hater s—t. But it is what it is. I see it a lot. I’ll never understand how supporting somebody’s song or even going a step further, giving somebody a song or linking up, I’ll never understand how that is not viewed as something admirable. But I guess some people have their own outlook on it.”
You can watch the full conversation below.