It’s a well known fact rappers use their real life experiences to influence their music in a way that pop singers simply don’t (I’m looking at you, Justin Bieber).
Despite this, Drake’s dad is claiming his son admitted making up some of his lyrics about him to sell records, adding that he actually wasn’t a bad father to the rapper.
Dennis Graham recently spoke about his relationship with his son, suggesting none of what Drake has put forward in his songs is actually an accurate representation of the rapper’s upbringing.
Appearing on Nick Cannon’s Close Conversations show on Power 106, as per Complex, Graham suggested his son was using their relationships to sell records, saying many of the tales he tells in his raps are exaggerated.
Drake has never shied away from the topic of the divorce of his parents, and has often rapped about how his father wasn’t always as present in his life as he would have hoped.
Yet Graham had a different memory of things, saying:
I have always been with Drake. I said, ‘Drake why are you saying all of this different stuff about me, man? This is not cool.’ And he goes ‘Dad, it sells records.’
Despite this claim, Graham did admit that he ‘exposed’ Drake to both the good and bad things in life, saying he wanted him to know everything the world had to offer.
He continued: ‘I exposed him to every aspect of life. I never hid anything from him… I showed him this side of life. I showed him that side of life.’
Drake has since responded to his dad’s claims on social media, uploading an Instagram story which refuted everything Graham had said and explaining to his fans that all of his lyrics are truthful.
The rapper wrote:
Woke up today so hurt man. My father will say anything to anyone that’s willing to listen to him. It’s sad when family gets like this but what can we really do that’s the people we are stuck with… every bar I ever spit was the truth and the truth is hard for some people to accept.
This isn’t the first time Graham has spoken out about his relationship with Drake; earlier this year, he appeared on ItsTheReal’s A Waste of Time podcast and again repeated his claims that he had asked his son to stop portraying him in a negative light.
Apparently, the rapper responded at the time by telling his dad to ‘just go with the flow’ because ‘this sh*t sells records’.
You can listen to the full interview here.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).