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Drake. Drizzy. Mr OVO. And, obviously, Champagne Papi. (Has any rapper got a better Instagram handle that doesn’t even remotely reference their name?)

There’s loads of names and nicknames associated with Aubrey Graham. Obviously, some less flattering than others. But one moniker that divides the world, from super fans to casual cultural commentators, is that of sex symbol.

Is Certified Lover Boy a sex symbol? Sure, he’s objectively good looking. He was juried by GQ as being one of the most stylish men alive. He is not just one of the most successful and wealthy music artists on the planet, but has established a lane all to himself with his utterly unique crooning meets modern rap style of relaying his relationship woes. He is so ubiquitous within not just the music scene of this century but pop culture at large – has any rapper been meme’d more than Drake? – that it’s difficult to imagine a 21st century cultural landscape without him.

But back to sex symbol. Well, he’s no D’Angelo. But he’s also no DJ Khaled. For what it’s worth, acquiring the label of sex symbol was something the rapper was very much concerned with, all the way back in 2011 when Drake released the critically acclaimed and utterly legendary Take Care album.

In an interview with Complex magazine just before the release of the Grammy Award winning album, Drake candidly discussed his public image just as he was becoming the megastar he is today.

Do you see yourself as a sex symbol, the interviewer asked him. “No,” Drake replied. “But I’m working on it. This album has also come with a life change for me. It really has nothing to do with taking my shirt off and being on magazine covers. I never really enjoyed that brand of entertainment. I just never want that to become a staple of my career where it’s like I have to have my shirt off. But I’ll still wear my sweaters and my sweatpants.”

“But I want to be super in shape,” he continued. “For the last 3 weeks I’ve made some major changes in my life, I’ve been going really hard, getting ready for this tour. One of my close friends is training me. Just, diet.”

And if you’re wondering what diet, Drizzy will tell you. “Cutting out Hennessy, cutting out champagne, cutting out wine, which was devastating. Only drinking vodka soda because it’s like no calories. Just doing like chicken breasts and vegetables three times a day. Amino acids and shakes and shit.”

“It’s actually something, once you get past the first week of pain of working out, and then you get over the hump of seeing people eat fries and spaghetti. You really have to experience waking up with all that clean stuff in your body. There is a certain brand of liquor that your body is used to, as opposed to mixing it up or switching it up, and you really start to realize how much it does for you,” he expanded.

“Like I can go longer in the day, I can stay energetic. After this, I’m going to want to go do something where normally I’d be like ‘I’m gonna go upstairs’ just, sluggish. It was a personal thing, I just really want to get out there and kill these shows.”