Like Kanye, Drake is as much a curator as he is a creator, an artist capable of arranging collaborators from a universe of styles and making them all fit into his personal vision-an approach that has made him one of the most definitive rappers and pop figures of his era. Though the feelings remain (always feelings, big feelings), the sound-for the most part, courtesy of longtime affiliate Noah “40” Shebib-is always changing: a little dancehall here (“One Dance”), a little house there (“Passionfruit”), some old New Orleans bounce (“Nice for What”), a bit of Wu-style boom-bap (“Started from the Bottom”), some smooth, to-the-minute trap-soul (“Hotline Bling”). But most of all, he felt like a person-someone who isn’t canceled by his paradoxes, but defined by them. Critics-and he’s had plenty-like to point out that he started as an actor: He played Jimmy Brooks in the Canadian teen show Degrassi: The Next Generation. Was he an R&B singer who rapped or a rapper who sang? Was he really that sad, or just doing a bit? And if it wasn’t a bit, how could this guy-talented, intuitive, hardworking-really be so down?įrom minute one, there was something a little different about him: He could be confessional, vulnerable, but also incredibly coarse he could make an earnest commitment one minute (“Take Care”) and be drunk-dialing the next (“Marvins Room”) he could convince you he was an underdog from his perch on top of the world (“Started from the Bottom”). After all, he figured, you get someone hanging your name next to Tupac’s, even if it’s only to take a shot at it? You must be doing something right.īorn Aubrey Drake Graham in Toronto in 1986, Drake became-like Tupac-something of a generational voice, a prism for his pop-cultural moment. With him, he lets you do whatever you want, and it’s more of a collaboration rather than a statue and a painter.A couple of years after he broke into the mainstream with 2009’s So Far Gone, Drake was browsing art in Los Angeles when a piece caught his eye: a big neon sign that read, “LESS DRAKE, MORE TUPAC.” For a minute, he felt angry, embarrassed-he wanted to walk up and rip the sign off the wall. I’ve worked with a lot of photographers who give very exact directions and take pictures of you as a statue in whatever position they want you to be in. Then you look at the set together, and he just lets you go. He shows you what you’re wearing, then he tells you the emotion, the feeling, and gives you all kinds of direction. I flew home happy to have that in my portfolio. He and his wife flew me out, and we did this amazing, epic photo shoot that was also a video shoot for SHOWstudio. If I was actually going to fly somewhere, I needed to know who this person was, so I did a bunch of research on his work, and my jaw hit the floor. What was your reaction when Nick Knight reached out to you?Īt the time I wasn’t really into modeling, so I had no idea who this photographer was. I don’t see what there is to stare about.
It’s weird to me for people to stare at me, because I feel like I’m normal.
Or it doesn’t faze me as much as it did when I was 15. I know what I look like, so I know what people are looking at, but it just doesn’t faze me. That’s me being comfortable and happy with me. I almost never realize it unless someone’s being super obnoxious and directly staring at me long enough for me to catch their eye. Įven to this day, people will ask me, “Don’t you feel that? Don’t you feel everyone staring at you?” and I really don’t. Not to say that it’s a positive or a negative, but just to say it’s me, and I love me, so everyone else is going to have to deal with it. It wasn’t so much a conscious effort of me trying to see it as something beautiful, but more so accepting myself for the way that I am. My lips are not naturally purple.” They did alter it, but it’s not that big of a deal. If someone freaks out because they covered the color of my eye with makeup, it’s like, “Yeah, they also put red nail polish on me and purple lipstick. But if a job wanted me to, say, try a smoky eye and cover the vitiligo around my eye, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I am happy with my skin, and I’m proud of my skin, which is why I wear it so boldly.
People know you for your work but also for your vitiligo.