Sorry Summer, Porsche, Bria: Drake Says He Regrets Shouting Out Exes By Name in His Songs

Drake doesn’t have a ton of regrets, but if pressed, he would have to admit that he does wish he could have a lyrics do-over when it comes to two topics in his songs. Chilling in the sand with Lil Yachty for the premiere episode of FUTUREMOOD’s Moody Conversations series, Drizzy, 36, said he feels a bit silly about saying he expected to retire by 35 when he was back in his 20s.

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“I hate hearing that s–t, I heard it the other night when we were at the club,” Drake said of the Views song “Weston Road Flows,” on which he rhymes, “The most successful rapper, 35 and under/ I’m assumin’ everybody’s 35 and under/ That’s when I plan to retire man, it’s already funded.”

“I think that and sometimes when I’ve said girls names in songs those are the two things that I look back on and I’m like, ‘maybe I could have done without sh—ing on people for age or disrupting somebody’s life,” he said of lyrics he’d like to rescind.

Though he didn’t name them, it seems Drake was talking about track such as 2013’s “From Time,” off Nothing Was the Same, on which he rattles off names including Porsche, Summer, Bria and Courtney. “The lyrics are never with ill intent,” he explained, noting that someone came up to him once and said that it’s not necessarily what he says on his records, but the fact that he saying anything at all.

“In the sense that, ‘you don’t know what it does to me,'” he said he’s come to understand about the unintended consequences of his lyrics. “‘You don’t know who my boyfriend is at the time,’ or ‘you don’t know what my family knows and doesn’t know. And for you to express any discontent for me in a song and call me by name then all of a sudden I’m left to pick up the pieces of my own life that I’ve tried to build up for myself.'”

Drake said he’s tried to stop name-calling in his songs, but said it’s hard because he’s determined to be honest in his lyrics. In fact, when Yachty said he thought Drake was “just making girls’ names up” in all those songs, the 6 God confirmed that those are all real names.

The conversation took place on a chill beach, with the waves crashing behind the two rappers as palm trees swayed in the distance and Drizzy also touched on topics ranging from his mom’s pride at his accomplishments to what big goals are left for him given his fame, success and riches.

In fact, Drake said he’s also been thinking a lot about a “graceful exit,” realizing that being a famous rapper is addictive and competitive and that you can’t stay on top forever. “What’s left for me to is to find a way to gracefully continue… I’m not ready now, but to gracefully continue making projects that are extremely interesting and hopefully cherished by people and then to find the right time to say, ‘I can’t wait to see what the next generation does,'” he said.

But not yet. And when Yachty, 25, tried to bait him by saying that by the time he’s Drake’s age his elder will probably be playing ball using a cane, well, that didn’t fly. “I’m in incredible shape,” Drake assured Yachty.

Check out Drake’s chat with Yachty below.

Gil Kaufman

Billboard