The first rap album Drake ever listened to: “Mom won’t let me play it in the house”
Drake is one of the most successful rappers of all time. The Toronto rapper was inspired by Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Kanye West and even the Clipse, despite his longtime beef with Pusha T. However, he’s never really mentioned his influence from Snoop Dogg, despite one of his albums being the first rap project he ever listened to.
Drizzy once revealed that Doggystyle was his first taste of a hip-hop album. Released on Death Row, the 1993 classic helped put Snoop on the map. The Dr Dre-produced LP debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 806,858 copies in its first week. It also featured the hit singles ‘Who Am I? (What’s My Name?)’ and ‘Gin and Juice’.
Drake claimed his mother never let him play the album at home. He got the chance to listen to it properly on a drive from Toronto to Memphis, when his father, Dennis Graham, let him blast it through the speakers.
“When my dad drove me to Memphis one time from Toronto, it was a 20-something hour drive,” he said. “I brought my Doggystyle cassette. I asked him, ‘Dad, can I please play this? Mom won’t let me play it in the house.’ He was like, ‘Yeah. You can play it for 20 minutes. And then we listen to an hour of my music.’
“That was Al Green, that was the Spinners, that was Sade. That was Marvin Gaye. At the time, I was like, ‘Aw, man, come on, 20 minutes?’ But it really was pivotal for me because I started listening to the melodies and the emotion in this music that he was playing me. It grabbed me maybe even a little more than that Doggystyle cassette did. I would say that I’m more moved by melody, even though I love to rap.”
Funnily enough, Snoop hasn’t always had the kindest words for Drake. When asked to share his thoughts on Drizzy suing Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ diss track, he replied, “No comment. On the West, we hold court in the streets.” As part of his beef with K. Dot, Drizzy even used AI-generated vocals to sound like Snoop on ‘Taylor Made Freestyle‘.
Drake previously opened up about his influence from Lil Wayne, whose Young Money label he signed to, and Jay-Z, during an interview with CNN in 2010. “One of my biggest influences ended up being a close friend of mine which is Jay-Z,” he said. “Lil Wayne, who is actually responsible for my career has always been a huge influence to me and one of my heroes.”
Aside from musicians, he also explained how vital females are in his life. “I’m inspired by the woman,” he admitted. “I’m inspired by the makeup of a woman. Their mind, their conversation, the emotions that they exude and pour out of them. I love women. I love to study women. I’m not a womaniser, but I love to study just behavioural patterns in women and how to interact with them.”