Mercury Mixtapes

In the story, Drake doesn’t shy away from the leaked reference tracks featuring Miller’s voice and instead addresses the recordings somewhat directly, saying, “I need, sometimes, individuals to spark an idea so that I can take off running. I don’t mind that. And those recordings—they are what they are. And you can use your own judgment on what they mean to you.” When pressed about the context of the reference tracks, Drake added: “There’s not necessarily a context to them. And I don’t know if I’m really here to even clarify it for you.” He also later alluded to the larger conversation the controversy stirred up. “If I have to be the vessel for this conversation to be brought up—you know, God forbid we start talking about writing and references and who takes what from where—I’m OK with it being me.”

As for his ensuing beef with Meek Mill, Drake also detailed his reasoning for releasing back-to-back diss tracks as a sort of ultimate takedown. “This is a discussion about music, and no one’s putting forth any music?” he said. “Nobody told you that this was a bad idea, to engage in this and not have something?…It was weighing heavy on me. I didn’t get it. I didn’t get how there was no strategy on the opposite end. I just didn’t understand. I didn’t understand it because that’s just not how we operate.” Speaking specifically about the release of “Back to Back,” Drake said, “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.”