The one thing Drake wants to be remembered for
Drake, as one of hip-hop’s most popular artists ever, will undoubtedly be remembered far into the future.
More than anyone else, arguably, Drake is responsible for popularising the use of R&B elements within hip-hop, while his talent as a singer has specifically been noted for influencing rappers to have emerged in his wake. His affinity for pop and R&B has changed hip-hop.
Drake was hardly the first person to introduce a poppy, melody-driven quality to hip-hop, with the likes of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Lauryn Hill and Ja Rule all successfully doing so before him. But Drake arguably tapped into the sensibilities of his era better than anyone else before him, and his success in doing so speaks for itself.
Not only is he one of the best-selling rappers ever, but Drake is one of the best-selling pop stars, period, up there with the likes of Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. Whatever rap purists might think of Drake, his style is unquestionably popular.
Drake’s legacy will undeniably endure for a long time, but, in conversation with GQ in 2011, he revealed what exactly he would like to be remembered for—and it wasn’t his pop-laced innovations in hip-hop that he pointed to. His desired legacy, in a way, was far simpler than that.
The subject came up as Drake was speaking about the critiques that were frequently slung at him at that time. “I wish that we lived in a time and a generation where people would stop viewing my honesty as overly emotional,” he said. “People always act like I spend my life crying in a dark room. I don’t, I’m good. I’m a man.”
Drake didn’t view his emotional songwriting as a problem—to the contrary, he thought it was a good thing. He felt it was honest, and it’s this honesty that he claimed he wanted to be remembered for.
“I want to be remembered as an artist that gave you a piece of me, as opposed to some surface bullshit,” he said. “I don’t think people realise that we die, we leave here, and either they forget about you or remember you. And how they remember you is up to you.”
Drake was being proactive about his legacy. “I just want to be remembered as a poet that was open and honest,” he said, “because I wake up every morning and I’m me.”