The rapper fell for Britain after a UK tour that saw him buying Winnie-the-Pooh books. And, by unselfishly giving a global platform to British artists, he has found that respect returned.
‘You know I’ve applied for your passport, right?” the British DJ Charlie Sloth says to Drake after the rapper’s Fire in the Booth freestyle verse on BBC Radio 1Xtra – the joke being that the Canadian is over in the UK so much, and aligns himself with its music culture so strongly, that he might as well move here permanently.
For Fire in the Booth, MCs deliver long-form, often withering verses, free of the demands of song structure. And while Drake’s entry may not have the political ferocity of Akala’s, the determination of Wretch 32’s, or the spectacular endurance of Kano’s, he acquits himself well. His take may seem flat and incantatory to some, it is riveting when he spills over bar divides.
It followed another UK freestyle he delivered this month for the online channel Link Up TV. Over a light and ghostly drill beat, Drake dipped into UK slang such as “paigon” and “road” with a flow that nodded to London rappers such as Headie One and Skengdo, and an accent that veered between Jamaica, Brixton and his native Canada. Some listeners cringed: there’s a slight air of a trendy youth worker or, worse, a racist impersonator.
But like his Fire in the Booth, the freestyle became a sensation and Drake got away with that accent – his mixed-race heritage and background in cosmopolitan, West Indian-influenced Toronto means he can borrow from across cultures more authentically than other artists. “That’s how he talks – when you’re out with him … he’s saying ‘me and the mandem’,” Sloth tells me. “It’s not an act, it’s not Drake trying to fit in.”
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
