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Drake Opens up to 'Fader' About the Start, Middle and End of the Meek Mill Beef

"Nobody told you that this was a bad idea?"

Drake in all his bearded glory is on the cover of Fader, cleaning his teeth with a golden toothpick as if he needed another reason for why he's winning at life. Drizzy's Fader feature, titled "Peak Drake," marks his first since the 2014 Rolling Stone one that got his Twitter fingers out to say that he wouldn't speak to magazines anymore.

In "Peak Drake," the 6 God speaks openly to Fader about the highly publicized Meek Mill beef that gave way to Billboard-charting tracks "Charged Up" and "Back To Back." FYI, Drake was at a "charity kickball game" when he heard about the ghostwriting claims. Drake at a charity kickball game. Be still our hearts.

Drizzy also talks about the makings of both What a Time to Be Alive, his newly released joint mixtape with Future, and If You're Reading This It's Too Late. Check out some of the choice quotes from Drake's interview below, and head on over to Fader to read the full thing.

On what made him want to make a song ("Know Yourself") specifically for his city:

“I always used to be so envious, man, that Wiz Khalifa had that song ‘Black and Yellow,’ and it was just a song about Pittsburgh,” Drake says. “Like, the world was singing a song about Pittsburgh! And I was just so baffled, as a songwriter, at how you stumbled upon a hit record about Pittsburgh. Like, your city must be elated! They must be so proud. And I told myself, over the duration of my career, I would definitely have a song that strictly belonged to Toronto but that the world embraced. So, ‘Know Yourself’ was a big thing off my checklist.”

On stepping out of his comfort zone to make "warmer" music:

Drake says this new warmth is not an accident—that he’s making a point of rapping over beats that are a little sunnier than he’s accustomed to in order to see if he can match the level of potency he knows he can achieve when working inside his gauzy, minor-key comfort zone.

“There’s times where I’m sitting around looking for like, three, four words,” he says. “I’m not looking for, like, 80 bars on some ‘5AM,’ ‘Paris Morton’-type shit, you know? There are moments like that, too, but the hardest moments, the most difficult ones, in songwriting, are when you’re looking for like, four words with the right melody and the right cadence. I pray for that. I’ll take that over anything—I’ll take that over sex, partying. Give me that feeling.”

On Meek Mill's lack of diss tracks:

“This is a discussion about music, and no one’s putting forth any music?” he says, speaking with a furrowed brow, as if reliving his incredulity. “You guys are gonna leave this for me to do? This is how you want to play it? You guys didn’t think this through at all—nobody? You guys have high-ranking members watching over you. Nobody told you that this was a bad idea, to engage in this and not have something? You’re gonna engage in a conversation about writing music, and delivering music, with me? And not have anything to put forth on the table?”

On putting out "Back To Back," the final blow that ended it all:

“I was like, ‘I’m gonna probably just finish this.’ And I know how I have to finish it. This has to literally become the song that people want to hear every single night, and it’s gonna be tough to exist during this summer when everybody wants to hear [this] song that isn’t necessarily in your favor.”

On not being bothered by those ghostwriting claims:

“It’s just, music at times can be a collaborative process, you know? Who came up with this, who came up with that—for me, it’s like, I know that it takes me to execute every single thing that I’ve done up until this point. And I’m not ashamed.”