5 Takeaways From “Not This Again” Episode 1

In July 2023, Drake linked up with social media character Bobbi Althoff for an interview as a part of her then-nascent sequence, The Actually Good Podcast. The format was a bit unconventional for a podcast. The 2 of them filmed it in a mattress, meant to make it come off as extra laid-back than the same old venue for a present like that. The episode went viral, amassing a whole bunch of tens of millions of views throughout all clips posted and about ten million views on YouTube alone. A couple of month after the episode’s preliminary launch, the 2 unfollowed one another. Althoff then eliminated the episode from her YouTube channel. It appeared as if there was a little bit of a rift. Althoff additionally acquired divorced across the identical time, resulting in the circulation of unsavory and unsubstantiated rumors.

Two years later, Drake and Bobbi Althoff have patched up no matter points they’d on the time. The Toronto rapper/singer joined Althoff for the primary episode of Not This Once more, the relaunch of (and non secular successor to) her podcast. Throughout their 80-minute dialog, which can also be the primary correct interview he’s given because the final time he sat down together with her, the 2 of them get into quite a lot of matters. As normal, Drake offers some fascinating solutions. Listed here are 5 takeaways from their dialogue.

At some extent, Bobbi Althoff will get a bit extra forthright in her questioning. She asks Drake if he was scared away from Los Angeles after his battle with Kendrick Lamar. “Am I scared away?” he requested in response after she doubled down. When she questioned why he didn’t tour America in 2024, he identified that he had lately completed a tour when all the things between him and Lamar began. “I gotta do one other one,” he added. Drake is at the moment on the highway in Europe, which is why this interview was filmed in Switzerland, however he maintained that he’ll be again within the US (and L.A.) sooner or later. He additionally prolonged an invite to Althoff, which she accepted. As followers know, Iceman is on the way in which, and with a brand new Drake album sometimes comes a brand new tour, so his Californian followers will in all probability get to see him once more quickly sufficient.

Drake’s beef with hip-hop journalism goes years. It has additionally in all probability deepened as effectively within the final 12 months and a half as effectively. Particularly with the overall consensus popping out of his battle with Kendrick Lamar being that he was not victorious. Some followers questioned why Bobbi Althoff was the particular person he selected for his first formal interview in two years. Althoff has interviewed different rappers. Nonetheless, she isn’t somebody that followers would think about a part of the hip-hop media panorama. He instantly addressed the backlash from his first interview with Althoff and blasted these in hip-hop media. “What we did, it modified a number of issues for lots of people,” Drake began.

“It was me basically simply recognizing any person that I by no means met in my life, that I absolutely believed in, that I believed was actually fascinating, and that I needed to have an fascinating dialog with,” he continued. “It pissed off, like, so many, all these f**king losers, these, like, storied journalists, like, this man and that man who really feel so entitled to this interview, and, ‘Drake by no means does something for this sort of media.’ And it simply made individuals so offended, that two individuals who perhaps don’t have anything to speak about, or all the things to speak about, however simply primarily based on random power, might come collectively.” Drake didn’t identify any names, however in 2024, he fell out with Elliott Wilson and, only a few days in the past, he dissed Rob Markman. It isn’t unreasonable to imagine that he had a selected particular person in thoughts with these feedback.

Followers and friends alike have hit Drake with “tradition vulture” for a decade, courting again to when Earl Sweatshirt referred to as him a vulture to younger rappers in 2015. Drake infamously first began experimenting with extra dancehall-inspired sounds on Views in 2016, which added extra gasoline to the fireplace. The accusations turned much more pronounced in 2019, when UK rapper Wiley used the time period to explain him after he began collaborating with different British MCs. And naturally, he as soon as once more got here below fireplace for alleged “colonization” because of “Not Like Us.” Drake has lengthy denied the accusations, responding to Wiley’s assertion by calling it “confused hater s**t. He spoke to the criticisms as soon as once more on this new interview.

“I expertise a number of guilt tripping in my life the place persons are like, ‘No that is your fault,’ basically… My intentions are pure. It is the identical manner even in music. Individuals will likely be like, ‘You are a tradition vulture,’” he mentioned. “Individuals will describe the collaborative efforts that I’ve put forth and the artists that I’ve picked up or shined a light-weight on as me taking. They’re going to put a adverse spin on it and try to inform me it is a self-serving factor and I believe I get actual delicate about that.”

In a special section from the podcast, Drake and Bobbi Althoff tried to tug up Tyga’s Instagram account whereas Drake cracked some jokes about his former Younger Cash labelmate. Each of them had web points. They had been filming in Switzerland and in what seemed to be a location far-off from a metropolis. Throughout that interplay, Drake admitted that his “for you” web page is stuffed with posts about WWE star Rhea Ripley. Ripley has gone viral a number of occasions over in recent times for her goth look and imposing physique, to the purpose the place individuals who don’t watch skilled wrestling can acknowledge her, a significant take a look at for the way a lot mainstream enchantment a wrestler could have. When Althoff mentioned she was unfamiliar with Ripley, Drake defined she was a wrestler. “She’s like my muse, however I’m the other of in all probability all the things that she likes,” he informed Althoff.

Drake is a little bit of knowledgeable wrestling fan, going to WWE’s Elimination Chamber occasion, which passed off in Toronto in March. He was not deliberately proven on digital camera, however eagle-eyed viewers seen he and Lil Yachty sitting ringside, behind the commentary staff. Logan Paul additionally acknowledged him through the present’s major occasion, writing “OVO” on his pod. In spite of everything that, it isn’t stunning that, like many WWE followers, Drake has additionally caught the Rhea Ripley bug. Sadly for Drake and 1000’s of different dreamers, Ripley married fellow wrestler Buddy Matthews in 2024. Shortly after, Drake claimed that his dream lady is a “goth baddie with O cups,” including that in addition they must be humorous, jokingly suggesting that his subsequent album might take a sonic left flip earlier than briefly breaking right into a parody of emo music.

Drake combated the hypothesis that he acquired ab surgical procedure and a BBL through the interview, utterly denying the allegations. The theories arose once more this previous June, after a gymnasium selfie of his went viral. The selfie brought on some followers to suppose he was exhibiting off etched-in abs. “I believe it was identical to I got here from the gymnasium. I used to be sweaty in that pic,” he mentioned. “Possibly I like heightened the saturation or one thing on it. I hit it too exhausting. They don’t seem like that. You noticed them.” He additionally joked concerning the BBL rumors a bit. “I do not know if my wagon regarded loopy after I walked in right here, however did it?” he requested Althoff.

Outdoors of Lamar’s insinuation that Drake has faux abs and Metro Boomin creating the viral “BBL Drizzy” beat, one other artist who made some jokes about Drake’s alleged beauty surgical procedure in 2024 was former buddy Rick Ross. Drake took a dig at Ross through the interview as effectively, suggesting that his chains had been faux. “You’ve by no means seen somebody ice Rosé? Nicely, discuss to each jeweler in Miami that has faux diamonds,” he mentioned at one level, a comment that went over Althoff’s head. Drake appears to have taken the chatter in stride, however clearly, there’s no love misplaced between himself and those that’ve spent the final 12 months dissing him.