Drake has not always had the best of relationships with his father. Although not reaching near the levels on enmity between some rappers and their parents (see Eminem versus Mother), the Toronto star has been less than admiring in some of his previous comments on his father. They may be patching things up however. His father, Dennis Graham, will appear on at least one track on the forthcoming "Nothing Was The Same" LP.
What role Graham will play during the track "Heat of The Moment" is unknown. The father was a drummer for Jerry Lee Lewis in his heyday, but also provided vocals during the now infamous "Jodeci Freestyle" dropped by Drake and J. Cole over the summer. Drake acknowledged his rocky relationship with his father, but said he wanted to move forward.
"There were records where I didn't paint my dad as the greatest guy," he told XXL. "At the end of the day, my dad knows I love him and that he's a great friend of mine, but as far as being a father goes, I look forward to being a better father for the children that I have. But at the end of the day, he is a great man and I love him very much."
Rappers have often addressed issues with parents, or the absence of parents in their music. Eminem's sometimes violent outbursts against Debbie Nelson-Mathers were a focal point of his early career, and Jay Z sympathetically addressed his dead father during the classic "Moment of Clarity" in 2003. Drake's featuring of his father on "Nothing Was The Same" and "Jodeci Freestyle" seems to follow Jay's idea from "The Black Album," where the rapper featured his mother, Gloria Carter, giving a biographical narrative of himself on several tracks. Jay however has a more than amiable relationship with his mother.
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