- While you're on the journey,
you have to disconnect from the end goal.
I think every time I say I'm about to do something,
people are waiting for me to fumble.
I never want to be always right
cause then I can't grow, I can't learn.
I always want to outdo everybody else around me.
I'm a very competitive person, I'm just quite about it.
You know I use positive inspiration
as opposed to like, "oh man that guy still owes me."
I keep a constant notepad of just ideas, play by play.
I'm a naturally poised individual.
You have to do something that nobody else has done
or else there's no point, that's how I see it.
If that product that you have
is potent enough,
you will be the next big thing.
Something's going to happen.
- It's on.
- He's a comedian, rapper, singer,
songwriter, record producer, and actor.
- His work has earned him a Grammy award,
three Juno awards and six BET awards.
- He has the most number one singles
on the Billboard Hot Rap Song's chart.
- He's Drake,
and here are his top 10 rules for success.
- I don't care about numbers,
like I don't want number one spots.
It's just like four, five weeks ago
there was another guy that was in a number one spot
according to the entire world,
and then next week, two weeks from now,
when somebody else does it,
all these discussions about like I said
number ones and classics,
I don't care, I just want to make good music
and I just want you to enjoy it,
and as long as we have that relationship
for the duration of this career,
I'm good,
and maybe that's why people say I'm there,
because I disconnect from it.
My uncle always told me something
early in my life which stuck with me
which is that while you're on the journey
you have to disconnect from the end goal,
because if you're just focused on some end goal,
you might get there,
but it will be hard to progress past that,
because you're so focused on that one destination
that it's like, you may forget everything in between,
and maybe you could've done more in between.
He always told me just be here right now.
Live right now and do the best you can right now.
Don't worry about what that end goal is.
It's great to have goals, it's great to have dreams,
but you get too attached to it,
and sometimes it can be a self destructive thing.
I just kind of try and progress as much as I can,
like right now man.
I think every time I say I'm about to do something,
people are waiting for me to fumble.
That's probably the biggest motivations
behind a lot of my raps is the amount of people that
want me to fall or whatever.
I think that should be the motivation
for most rappers.
The further you climb towards the top,
the more hands you have one your pantleg
dragging you to the bottom.
They just start tugging at you but,
I wear really strong pants.
I never want to be always right
cause then I can't grow, I can't learn.
I have no desire to be always right,
I need mistakes, you know?
And luckily enough, and knock on this wooden piano here,
that my mistakes are never crucial enough
for me to be like, "man,"
they're always great learning experiences.
I always want to outdo myself.
I always want to outdo everybody else around me.
I'm a very competitive person,
I'm just quiet about it.
I'm not really out there talking about who I want to outdo.
I'd rather just go and outdo it, you know what I'm saying?
As opposed to just sitting back and being like
oh, I don't need to tell you who I'm better than
or who I'm trying to be better than.
I just want to put my music out
and then you tell me who's better than...
You know what I'm saying?
I leave it up to the people, you know?
As far as how do I get better?
I push myself really hard,
I have great opinions in the studio,
like me, myself, Hush,
we all sit in the studio.
Sorry, me, myself, hush, that makes no sense.
My, Forty, and Hush.
I need that drink whenever you guys are ready.
So we all sit in the studio and
I try not to sacrifice any bar,
I'll sit there on the last two lines of a verse
for three, four days if I need to.
Just to figure out how to end it.
I want it to be cohesive.
I always want the beginning of the verse to be strong,
I always want the end to be strong,
and I really, really spend a lot of time on bars, man.
Luckily for me melodies come extremely easy,
knock on wood,
but they do,
that is something that naturally I just get in there
and it starts flowing and by 40 minutes in,
an hour in I have pretty much the direction I'm going in,
but when it comes to raps,
I spend a lot of time on it, man.
I'm not going to sit here and be like
"oh, you know, that's all of the top, baby."
Like, nah, I spend a lot of time.
- When you're in a lab
going and crafting the music,
is there somebody that you think about form your past
that you like, you know what,
for every time such and such gave me a wedgie,
or for every time that girl fronted on me,
I do this for that.
- Nah, it's more the influential people that I know,
I don't really think about the people
that did negative things to me.
I think about the individuals like
like Wayne, like Ross, like Yay,
like the guys that I know.
If I take tonight off I know
that one of them's probably in the studio
crafting something magical, you know?
So I should probably stay a little longer,
I should probably not go to the club,
I should just work,
because I know that there's somebody else
working if I decide to go play.
I just use individuals,
especially, probably one of the most influential
people in that regard obviously is Wayne,
but, you know, as well Jay is one of those guys too.
That's one guy you can guarantee
if he's going in there rapping
it's going to be something great.
I use positive inspiration
as opposed to like,
"oh, man, that guy still owes me."
It's all good, man.
I'm in a great positive head space right now.
I don't want to give anybody no problems,
I don't want no problems,
I just want people to appreciate this music.
So my thing is usually when I'm in my phone,
it's because you said something
or you said something, someone said something
that's prompted me to be like,
oh, I got to write that down,
it doesn't even have to rhyme,
right away it doesn't have to be
a thought.
It doesn't have to be a bar.
It just can be something you say,
like even the last thing I wrote down was like
someone last night was like,
man I feel like I've become a recluse,
and I was like, man recluse, that's such a great word
I love that word, and I just write down.
I write down use the word recluse.
So if you hear recluse in a rap
it's cause someone said it.
So it's just like those type of things
I keep a constant notepad of just
ideas, play by play, if you read through that notepad
you could really see where my mind is at
where my life is at,
but no one is allowed to read through that notepad.
I made a commitment very early on
to just be myself,
and what really bothers me the most
is the fact that sometimes I feel like
I don't get enough credit or
I'm not making a big enough impact
because I'm not enough of a loose cannon
in situations like this where we're doing
a one on one interview or
people just want me to go off more
and loose my composure
and then that way I guess maybe
I would make more headlines or be more iconic,
but that's not me,
I'm a naturally poised individual
I don't want to just come out
making mistakes and having to be like, ah.
That's the thing right, like you said,
a lot of artists just have Myspace
and just have a couple songs and
don't have a website, don't have marketing,
don't have anything,
and then they get disappointed when they only sell
like 70 records, you know?
It's like you got to understand that
this is about marketing,
like this whole thing is about marketing,
it's about your image it's about your story,
you got to be appealing to people
and if you're going to release a record in Canada,
you have to do something that nobody else has done
or else there's no point, that's how I see it.
- [Audience Member] So all I want to say is
what do I have to do, or any artist in this room
have to do to get noticed by you.
- That's a great question,
and I think that for anybody
what you have to understand is like
there's a way to
exist in this world that's like,
we've never had it before but like,
I strongly believe in the fact that
if you have a good product,
for the first time ever,
there's a way to get the world
to hear your product,
and if it's good, you will see the results from it.
There's people that
artists will drop a mixtape,
and if that mixtape picks up whether
it's House of Balloons or Party Next Door,
I remember seeing when House of Balloons dropped
I remember people being like,
"yo I'm in the Netherlands right now
listening to House of Balloons."
It's like, what?
We have such a platform to access
the entire world
and my biggest thing to you,
your question was how do you
catch the attention,
it's just about finding your own moment
and having the music be great,
as cliche as that sounds,
but it's just like
man, there's not a lot of great music to choose from
so when somebody is great,
the world will let you know, trust me.
It doesn't take me,
it doesn't take this guy,
the world will let you know.
All you have to do is put it out there,
and there are people who scour the internet
everyday looking for the next big thing,
and I promise you if that product you have
is potent enough, you will be the next big thing,
and I feel like that's it.
- [Office Worker] Gentleman,
the movie is testing through the roof.
We're going to have ourselves a hit.
Right?
- [Drake] I just want to say,
it's all thanks to this guy, man.
I've loved working with you man, straight up.
- You know when we started this movie,
you and I were costars,
now you're my brother.
- All we need now is a title.
- [Drake] Okay well, I mean,
best to keep it simple, no?
It's like Drake and Blake.
- [Office Worker] Yeah, the people in it.
- [Blake] Umm, maybe,
but I also like Blake and Drake.
Blake and Drake.
- Do we love Blake and Drake though?
Or do we like genuinely love Drake and Blake
like right when you hear it?
- Why don't we just take the beginning of my name
and the end of your name,
and just Blake bam Blake bam.
Done, bam bam bam bam.
- It just gets like it's hard to say, you know?
It's like bleh, Blehk and Drehk.
Or it's like Drake and Blake.
Drake and Blake.
- Hey guys, guys, guys, hey you know what?
Hey, we have a week to make this decision.
- [Drake] I mean I'm sure something will happen
to make Blake change his mind.
- Oh something's going to happen.
- Something's going to happen.
- It's on.
- Hey cutie.
- Hey.
- Someone sent you a twerk-a-gram.
- Okay, well lets get to twerking now, what's up?
Oh God.
Oh, Blake.
- Wait I thought this was a car commercial.
- Just get in the tub.
- Slate's up please.
And action.
There you go, it's a great day,
everyone's happy,
and look back, look at the horizon,
look at your career, look what you've become.
- Who cut his hair for this, that's what I want to know.
- Alright once the anesthesia kicks in,
we will be removing the patience appendix,
but first, there's doughnuts in the kitchen guys.
- What?
Oh my God, you're the surgeon?
- Oh I'm not the surgeon,
he is.
- YOLO mother(beep)
- Breezy.
Blake and Drake.
- The internet has killed you for doing too much flapping.
How do you respond to your critics?
- I would like to say, as Blake Griffin,
that I love flopping,
there's so much demanded of me
that a lot of the time
it's just better for me to fall down
and take a little rest.
- Hey what's up everybody?
I'm Drake and this message goes out to all my fans.
(beep) you.
- I really don't have
much integrity.
They try to get me to do the NBA Cares commercials
and I always kindly decline.
- You decline the NBA Cares commercials?
- I'm just not into children.
- Alright, alright, alright let me lay it down.
This is the new sound of Drake right here.
(scatting)
I am Drake and I like you girl.
- I think a lot of people are
extremely confused about my face
I kind of look like a black guy
that jumped into a pit of Cheetos,
and just laid there for like 10 days
and then popped up.
- I tell people I'm half black,
but really I don't know.
- Do you know what team has the most white players?
Cause that's probably where I want to go.
- I'm not sure you're going to have a career after this.
- And let's print that.
I like it a lot.
I think that's going to be great.
I think it's really going to up my street cred.
- So what do you think Donald Sterling's message was?
- That not all people are equal.
And I agree with it.
I'm actually glad this is being filmed.
Anyway, I'm Blake Griffin,
part of the dominate white race,
and I would just like to let-
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
- We made this video because Rise Online asked us to,
if you have any famous entrepreneurs that
you want us to profile next,
please leave it below.
- I'd also love to know which of Drake's
rules meant the most to you?
Had the biggest impact?
Leave in the comments below,
and we'll join the discussion.
Thank you so much for watching,
continue to believe,
and we'll see you soon.